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The way I interpreted it, and the argument made in this case, is that if an administrator denies use of a web site to specific person, then any action by that person to circumvent the measures used to deny services is a violation of CFAA. That includes the use of proxies.
There is a link to a PDF file with the actual legal brief.
To be fair, I think the judge is following the letter of the law. This is not the first time legal interpretations of activity on the internet fly in the face of technical common sense.
And that is called "settled law". Which is where Fascist States come from, regardless of any historical good intentions receding into the distance.
The funny part is, the judge is right, that is the law, and the law was written by legislators committed to serving the interests of the corporate empire that feeds them, with precious little advice or consent of the governed. Whether you name that "fascist" or not is your call.
Who do you think sent lobbyists to Washington to press for the CFAA? Who do you think composed the contents of the TOS? We the people?
The funny part is, the judge is right, that is the law, and the law was written by legislators committed to serving the interests of the corporate empire that feeds them,
There is literally millions of site owners that aren't part of any corporate empire that this ruling will benefit. Any idea what a PITA some people can be when banned from a site? Scrapers are a big problem for many sites, I've seen some of them hammer my server severely impacting performance and sucking up huge amounts bandwidth.
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Who do you think composed the contents of the TOS? We the people?
Pay for your own server and you can create your own TOS that allows others to leach off what you created.
So block them and when they come back on and abuse your site, block them again. Like everybody else does. You want to run a website, deal with it. Some other way besides throwing somebody in prison. You think the website that took this prosecution to federal court was just somebody like me or you, using a law that is there to protect US, with our mom and pop website? No, it was Craigslist. You and I don't get to go to court (except to plea bargain), that's not what it's there for.
Every single one of us is probably technically committing "computer fraud", in some obscure way, every day by violating some article of the TOS of this site. Even if it simply posting a comment that a moderator deems argumentative. If this site (or any other) says we are in violation, there is no appeal process, they simply have the power to not just hold us civilly responsible for monetary losses (which would be reasonable if there were any), but to have us sentenced to prison for fraud in federal court.
Let's say I get banned by some site for being a troll or criticizing a moderator, and a couple years later, I move to another city, and subscribe to internet service and get a new IP address. You are saying that I have committed felony fraud if I go to that site and open a new account. by that mere fact alone? And that meets your definition of criminal justice?
To use a different analogy - the internet has been likened to a street (Snowcrash) when it is actually more like a web of interconnected streets. The streets are public. People set up shops on the street in hopes of people coming in and buying.
A webmaster or shop owner has a right to ban an individual from their place of business (which in extremely rare cases I have done in the brick and mortar world). Someone who then trespasses is guilty of same and can be arrested. A proxy server is simply a different street to get to the place of business. The use of a different street to get to a place you harass does not mean that you used that alternate route illegally. If you got there through a proxy and "knocked on the door" no crime has been committed and no civil action is reasonable. "Hey - I told you to beat it, yet I see you are still on a street that passes by my place." doesn't work unless there is a restraining order based on a fear of bodily harm or grievous injury. If it is some kid who steal movies by swapping theatres, or even has stolen candy out of the counter, no cop will arrest for walking by the theatre door and knocking on it.
A crime is only committed once there is entry. At that point, if the crime can be proven (embedded trace or codes) then let loose the hounds. Keep the proxies out of any legal action.
Here is a clue - if you were a government concerned that no email be encrypted and that every movement on the web could be traced and that a CRIMINAL offense could be lodged against someone who dared to get information from a news source outside of that country - just how would you start the campaign against proxy servers and VPNS???
So block them and when they come back on and abuse your site, block them again. Like everybody else does.
If I'm going to deny someone access to a resource and inform them they are denied it's no different than if I owned a store and told them they can no longer come in. That's not even a good analogy becsue it's like I locked the front door and they crawled through a window. A store owner can call the cops, why can't I?
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using a law that is there to protect US, with our mom and pop website? No, it was Craigslist.
If this aggregator can do this what is preventing say Google from simply scraping any site with USG and presenting all the content of pages instead of links to results? You didn't consider that did you?
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Every single one of us is probably technically committing "computer fraud", in some obscure way, every day by violating some article of the TOS of this site.
That may or may not be true but I don't see how this applies here or any other case you are denied access by IP block. Firstly in this specific case we have a robots.txt file the aggregator was ignoring, secondly CL not only blocked their IP's but wrote them a letter informing them not to use their service.I'd imagine there was lot more to it including emails etc. They were well aware that their presence on that server was not wanted and circumvented measures that were used to prevent them from gaining access. Again this is like being banned from a store and sneaking in through a window, you're still trespassing when you come through the window.
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Even if it simply posting a comment that a moderator deems argumentative. If this site (or any other) says we are in violation, there is no appeal process, they simply have the power to not just hold us civilly responsible for monetary losses (which would be reasonable if there were any), but to have us sentenced to prison for fraud in federal court.
That is beyond the scope of this decision, they were denied access to the site. If you are in my store and kick you out for loud and obnoxious you have broken any laws but you still have to leave and can't come back. It's when you come back that you have broken the law and the same thing happened here.
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You are saying that I have committed felony fraud if I go to that site and open a new account. by that mere fact alone? And that meets your definition of criminal justice?
Yes, because you have purposely returned to a site you have been banned from.
To use a different analogy - the internet has been likened to a street (Snowcrash) when it is actually more like a web of interconnected streets. The streets are public. People set up shops on the street in hopes of people coming in and buying.
A webmaster or shop owner has a right to ban an individual from their place of business (which in extremely rare cases I have done in the brick and mortar world). Someone who then trespasses is guilty of same and can be arrested. A proxy server is simply a different street to get to the place of business. The use of a different street to get to a place you harass does not mean that you used that alternate route illegally. If you got there through a proxy and "knocked on the door" no crime has been committed and no civil action is reasonable. "Hey - I told you to beat it, yet I see you are still on a street that passes by my place." doesn't work unless there is a restraining order based on a fear of bodily harm or grievous injury. If it is some kid who steal movies by swapping theatres, or even has stolen candy out of the counter, no cop will arrest for walking by the theatre door and knocking on it.
A crime is only committed once there is entry. At that point, if the crime can be proven (embedded trace or codes) then let loose the hounds. Keep the proxies out of any legal action.
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Interesting analogy.
Is a proxy server just a different public road to the same front door, or a hidden side window into a place of business, one in which you are known to be unwelcome?
LOL! If you want to call it that coalman, go ahead.
Having had to use both proxies and VPNs because of turd-blocks on the satellite DNS servers, I have a different opinion. With Hughesnet, Google regularly was unaccessible. Guess I would now be breaking some law by resorting to a proxy to access Google when they had blocked the ISP I was using. I know where I would tell a prosecutor and judge to stuff it.
"Is a proxy server just a different public road to the same front door, or a hidden side window into a place of business, one in which you have are known to be unwelcome?"
It is just another road to it. Here's the thing - if you needed a password to get into the site, and using a proxy allowed you around that, the proxy would be a window/sleezy alley/pejorative du jour. It doesn't get you in, only to the same door you would get any other way.
Having had to use both proxies and VPNs because of turd-blocks on the satellite DNS servers, I have a different opinion.
Harry there is certainly reasons people have to use a proxy but that is not the issue here.
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It is just another road to it. Here's the thing - if you needed a password to get into the site, and using a proxy allowed you around that, the proxy would be a window/sleezy alley/pejorative du jour. It doesn't get you in, only to the same door you would get any other way.
No matter how you want to describe it there is a sign on the building that says "No Trespassing" naming you individually.
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