I was reading Natch Greyes paper, 'A New Proposal for the
Department of Justice’s
Interpretation of the Computer
Fraud & Abuse Act' [
Virginia Journal of Law and Technology, 17:04 (Winter 2012); pdf link], which argues persuasively against the world-spanning draconian powers available to, and often exercised by, the US Govt under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). This passage in particular caught my eye:
Originally, passage of the CFAA was motivated by the
1983 movie War Games, in which a young American “hacker”
unwittingly accesses the supercomputer that controls the
nuclear arsenal of the United States. The CFAA was
originally designed to allow the DOJ to prosecute computer “hackers,” like the protagonist in War Games. It also allowed
the prosecution of those individuals who used a computer to
obtain “classified information,” “financial or credit records,” or
to interfere with the government’s use of a computer.
Golly. Is it true? Turns out it is: Greyes quotes the original documentation:
'Id. at para. 4. See also H.R. REP. NO. 98-894, at 10 (1984), reprinted in
1984 U.S.C.C.A.N. 3689, 3696 (“The motion picture ‘War Games’ showed
a realistic representation of the automatic dialing and access capabilities of
the personal computer.”).
SF ought to be more careful in its representations of the colossal power of Geeks. Our texts appear directly to be influencing US policy.
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