Academic

Causing suicide (again)

Posted on November 17, 2007
A few months ago I did a post about whether someone could be held criminally liable for causing another person to commit suicide.In that post I primarily focused on whether it would be possible to hold a person criminally liable if the prosecution could show that this was their purpose, i...

Privacy and anonymity

Posted on November 17, 2007
As you may have read, Donald Kerr, a deputy director of national intelligence, said last week Americans need to re-think their conception of privacy. He said privacy will no longer mean anonymity but will, instead, mean that government and the private sector will have to take appropriate steps to ?safeguard people?s private communications and financial information...

Virtual child pornography -- the product?

Posted on November 03, 2007
Some may find this posting offensive or even disturbing. I?m going to explore some scenarios that might ensue from the current state of U.S. law on child pornography.I?m not arguing that these or any scenarios will come to pass . . . . I'm just working through the logical possibilities, based on the current state of U...

Bonnie & Clyde and Cybercrime

Posted on November 01, 2007
I spoke at a conference in Italy last week; after I spoke I got a question from a member of the audience. His question, which went to how and why we in the U.S. federalize certain crimes, made me think about a part of our history in a way I had not done before...

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A law of cyberspace

Posted on October 16, 2007
I?ve heard many people complain about the fact that law in cyberspace is a mess: different laws in different countries (and different laws in different parts of countries, as with the U.S. states), laws that conflict, laws that seem to make no sense when they are applied to online activity, etc...

Envelopes and encryption

Posted on October 12, 2007
As I?ve mentioned, last June the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held, in United States v. Warshak, that Americans have a reasonable expectation of privacy in the contents of emails they have stored on an ISP?s servers. (If the Warshak link doesn?t work, you can find it by going to http://www...

Booze and bytes

Posted on September 29, 2007
We were talking in my cyberspace law class about the DMCA and the recording and movie industries? war on file-sharing. Specifically, we were talking about whether our current system for controlling the ownership and use of intellectual property makes sense in a world in which such property generally ceases to be tangible and instead becomes digital...

GPS detectors, jammers & spoofers

Posted on September 23, 2007
On Friday, I spoke to a group of lawyers about various issues in criminal law and technology. One of the issues we talked about is the police's use of Global Positioning System (GPS) devices to track people?s movements. (GPS devices are used by private parties, as well, but my focus here is on criminal matters, so I?m only going to deal with the government?s use of them...

Fourth Amendment privacy: IP addresses & URLs

Posted on September 22, 2007
In United States v. Forrester, 2007 WL 2120271 (9th Circuit 2007), the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether a defendant had a Fourth Amendment expectation of privacy in the ?to and from addresses? of his email messages, the addresses of the websites he visited and the ?total amount of data transmitted to or from? his Internet account...

Fourth amendment privacy and websites

Posted on September 22, 2007
In United States v. D?Andrea, 497 F. Supp. 117 (D. Mass. 2007), a federal district court was asked to decide if the police's accessing a password-protected website was a ?search? under the Fourth Amendment.Under the Fourth Amendment, police must have either a search warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement, such as consent of someone with authority to allow the search, for a search to be ?reasonable? under the Constitution...

Virtual world, virtual cops

Posted on August 28, 2007
I was chatting with a friend the other day ? a former police officer, who now works in the area of computer crime. We were talking specifically about virtual worlds like Second Life and, basically, about whether they may evolve their own law enforcement presence...

Cyberconflict

Posted on August 21, 2007
We have all, I'm sure, seen news stories about an incident of "cyber war," which turns out to have been something else . . . crime or terrorism.I want to talk a bit about why I think those errors occur . . . and what I think we need to do to avoid them...

Anti-GPS technology

Posted on August 05, 2007
You may have heard about these ? devices that block (purport to block?) GPS tracking devices installed on vehicles. Here?s the description of one such product, available on Chinavasion:small sized Anti GPS Tracking Device, powered by and for use with any car that has a standard Cigarette Jack for power and supplys 12V ...

Identity theft case fails due to coerced confession

Posted on July 29, 2007
You may have seen the story that came out a few days ago about how a man who stole the identity of Todd Davis, CEO of the LifeLock company and used the information to get a $500 loan. The man, who has never been identified, had obtained Davis? name and Social Security number ...

How long can the government keep seized computers"

Posted on July 23, 2007
I got a really good question not too long ago (it?s taken me too long to respond, I?m afraid): How long can the government keep the computers it seizes in a criminal investigation? It?s a very good question because, as I thought about it and did a little research, the answer seems to be a variation of ?it depends? and ?beats me...

Forthwith subpoenas

Posted on July 17, 2007
"`Forthwith' subpoenas should be used only when an immediate response is justified and then only with the prior approval of the United States Attorney."U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Attorney?s Manual section 9-11.140.Following up on a my relatively-recent post about grand jury subpoenas for computer hardware and data, I want to talk a bit about a different kind of grand jury subpoena: a forthwith subpoena...

Owning "hacker tools" is now a crime in Germany

Posted on July 09, 2007
As you may have seen, the German Parliament made certain revisions to the German criminal code, one of which added a new section 212c StGB. According to the only (unofficial) translation I can find right now, it provides roughly as follows:Whoever prepares a crime according to §202a or §202b and who creates, obtains or provides access to, sells, yields, distributes or otherwise allows access to * passwords or other access codes, that allow access to data or * computer programs whose aim is to commit a crimewill be punished with up to one year jail or a fine...

Subpoenas for computers and data

Posted on July 04, 2007
I?ve talked a lot about Fourth Amendment constraints on law enforcement officers? ability to search for and seize computer equipment and data. That?s one of the two models of criminal investigation we have in the United States. Today, I want to talk about the other model and how it operates with regard to the government?s obtaining computer equipment and data stored on that equipment...

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