<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div>There's a new post on the<a href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage"> Web of Language</a>: Criminalizing cyberspace: from
Myanmar to California, going digital can mean going to jail</div><div><br></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Myanmar, the country formerly known as Burma, has <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/22/world/asia/22myanmar.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 65, 113); ">sentenced prominent comedian</a> U Maung Thura to 45 years in jail for violating the country's "Electronic Act," which strictly controls digital communication.<span> </span></span></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">...</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">In addition to punishing individual computer users, Myanmar regularly pulls the plug on its internet as part of the country's self-imposed isolation from the rest of the world.</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">....</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Governments around the world from China to Syria to Cuba strictly control computer use and routinely jail their citizens for violating digital communication laws. Even the United States, which takes a much more liberal approach to computer use, has its own version of Myanmar's "Electronic Act," and it too can land "users" violating its provisions in the clink.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><a href="http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/18/1030.html" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 65, 113); ">The U.S. Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA)</a>, a kind of Digital Patriot Act, gives the federal government broad powers to protect computer data "against unauthorized disclosure for reasons of national defense or foreign relations . . . . [when] information so obtained could be used to the injury of the United States, or to the advantage of any foreign nation." CFAA also criminalizes hacking bank computers or stealing online credit information; and breaching private computers to perpetrate fraud.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "> </p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">The Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority <a href="http://digital-lifestyles.info/2008/08/20/mbta-mit-student-court-gagging-order-lifted/" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 65, 113); ">invoked the CFAA</a> to get a temporary restraining order against three MIT students who wanted to present their computer science term paper on how to hack the transit company's fare ticket at the DEFCON computer security conference in Las Vegas. In their defense, the students insisted that their presentation did not actually show people how to ride for free, plus they offered to tell the MBTA exactly where its system was vulnerable.</div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span> </span></p><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">In refusing to extend the ten-day TRO, U.S. District Judge George A. O'Toole Jr. <a href="http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2008/08/20/mbta_admits_ticket_not_secure/?page=1" style="text-decoration: none; color: rgb(65, 65, 113); ">said</a> "the damaging 'transmission' of information that is regulated by the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act applies to computers, not to speech." In other words, the students could talk about their hack at a conference as long as they didn't email about it.</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">....</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">Across the continent, <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/21/us/21myspace.html" style="text-decoration: underline; color: rgb(255, 163, 79); ">another CFAA trial continues in California</a>. In this case, a Missouri woman is charged with "three counts of accessing a computer without authorization via interstate commerce to obtain information to inflict emotional distress," a violation of the CFAA which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years....</div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; ">find out more, read the rest of this post on the <a href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage">Web of Language --</a></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><br></div><div style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(20, 79, 174); "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="text-decoration: underline; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: underline; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(72, 72, 72); font-size: 11px; "><a target="_new" href="http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage" title="The Web of Language blog" style="margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; padding-top: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; color: rgb(0, 0, 128); text-decoration: none; ">http://illinois.edu/goto/weboflanguage</a></span></span></span></div></font></div><!--StartFragment-->
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<br><div> <span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; 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"><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; 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