Aaron's Law

Aaron's Law

Aaron Swartz Unlikely To Face Jail Or Conviction... Until Feds Decided To 'Send A Message'

Things just keep looking worse and worse in the Carmen Ortiz/Stephen Heymann vendetta against Aaron Swartz. Now it's come out that state prosecutors, who were originally looking into the case had no interest in pursuing felony charges or prison time... until Carmen Ortiz and her team showed up. Instead, state prosecutors had focused on the initial charges: "breaking and entering in the daytime" which they expected "would be continued without a finding, with Swartz duly admonished and then returned to civil society to continue his pioneering electronic work in a less legally questionable manner." Instead, the report notes:

Tragedy intervened when Ortiz’s office took over the case to send “a message.”

By Mike Masnick

The government was able to bring such disproportionate charges against Aaron because of the broad scope of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and the wire fraud statute. It looks like the government used the vague wording of those laws to claim that violating an online service’s user agreement or terms of service is a violation of the CFAA and the wire fraud statute.

Using the law in this way could criminalize many everyday activities and allow for outlandishly severe penalties.

When our laws need to be modified, Congress has a responsibility to act. A simple way to correct this dangerous legal interpretation is to change the CFAA and the wire fraud statutes to exclude terms of service violations. I will introduce a bill that does exactly that. Rep. Zoe Lofgren, Jan 15, 2013

Aaron's Law proposal

In the wake of the prosecution and subsequent suicide of Aaron Swartz, lawmakers have proposed to amend the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Representative Zoe Lofgren has drafted a bill that would help "prevent what happened to Aaron from happening to other Internet users". The bill would exclude terms of service violations from the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and from the wire fraud statute.

In addition to Lofgren, Representative Darrell Issa and Representative Jared Polis — all on the House Judiciary Committee, raised questions about the government's handling of the case. Polis called the charges "ridiculous and trumped up," while referring to Swartz as a "martyr." Issa, also chair of the House Oversight Committee, announced that he is investigating the actions of the Justice Department's prosecution.

The Truth about Aaron Swartz’s “Crime”

Remove United States District Attorney Carmen Ortiz from office for overreach in the case of Aaron Swartz.