| Racketeering charges for violating website's terms of service Paul Joseph Watson www.infowars.com Tuesday, November 15, 2011 The Department of Justice is attempting to criminalize uploading videos that break You Tube's terms of service, along with any other online action that is deemed to contravene a website's usage policy, in a shocking expansion of cybersecurity laws deemed draconian by critics. "In a statement obtained by CNET that's scheduled to be delivered tomorrow, the Justice Department argues that it must be able to prosecute violations of Web sites' often-ignored, always-unintelligible "terms of service" policies," writes Declan McCullagh. Such violations would include creating a fake Facebook profile, lying about your weight on dating websites, or providing any other item of false information that violates a website's TOS agreement. Under the DOJ's new legal framework, an expansion of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA), agreeing to a website's terms of service would be identical to signing a contract with an employer, with similar punishments for breaking that contract. "To the Justice Department, this means that a Web site's terms of service define what's "authorized" or not, and ignoring them can turn you into a felon," writes McCullagh, pointing out that millions of Americans violate 'terms of agreement' policies every single day. Indeed, in the case of You Tube, users are often informed months or even years later that they may have infringed on the ... |
