[liberationtech] Aaron Swartz - Aaron's Law

[Aaronslaw]

Hello My name is Kel and I am writing you in hopes that you will support Aaron’s Law a law that is being reintroduced this year in Congress by Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon in memory of Aaron Swartz.

                Aaron’s Law is written to reform the Computer fraud and abuse act (CFAA) by replacing the phrase "exceeds authorized access" with "access without authorization," which is defined as obtaining information on a protected computer that the accesser lacks authorization to obtain by knowingly circumventing one or more technological or physical measures that are designed to exclude or prevent unauthorized individuals from obtaining that information.

(1)    limit the imposition of enhanced penalties to subsequent offenses under such Act (currently, additional penalties are allowed if there is a conviction for another offense) and to criminal acts punishable under federal or state law by a term of imprisonment for more than one year; and

(2)    require the determination of the value of information for enhanced penalty purposes to be made by reference to fair market value.

The main goals of Aaron’s Law are to change the CFAA so minor breaches of Terms of service (TOS) are not felonies, to stop the stacking on of charges by Federal prosecutors that force activists, journalists, researchers and hacktivists to accept a plea regardless of guilt or innocence, to stop the ability of prosecutors to charge defendants on both a federal and state level and to clarify the terms of the CFAA that even judges find difficult to make sense of.

Well meaning, Good people are being charged as Hackers who are not hackers and the law in its current state is being skewed and twisted to fit the narrative of overzealous Prosecutors.

Aaron Swartz made it his life goal to fight for Internet users and their rights, in the end the Government pushed him farther than he was able to handle. While facing 35 years in prison, 1M fines and the cost of a two-year defense against trumped up charges, Aaron Swartz saw no other way out but to take his own life.

Now it is our turn to take up the fight and fight for the things that were important to Aaron. To fight for the internet, and help rid the system of this out dated and draconian law that was acted in the early 80’s because certain politicians were terrified after watching the movie War Games.

Will you consider helping?

Thank you,

Kel

www.aarons-law.org

AaronsLaw at Protonmail.ch

@AaronsLaw2017 on twitter
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