James Grimmelmann (Maryland) has posted Consenting to Computer Use on SSRN. It's a short, terrific essay on how we should think about solving the definition of authorized access and exceeding authorized access under the CFAA, what I've previously called a very scary statute.At the heart of the matter is this: how do we know when use of a publicly accessible computer is authorized or when that authorization has been exceeded? Grimmelmann suggests that we the question is not as new as it seems; rather than focusing on the behavior of the accused, we should be looking at the consent given by the computer owner. And there's plenty of law, analysis, and philosophy relating to consent. The abstract is here:The federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) makes it a crime to “access[] a computer without authorization or exceed[] authorized access.” Courts and commentators have struggled to explain what types of conduct by a computer user are “without…
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