Legally speaking: the promise and problems of the No Electronic Theft Act
Andrew Grosso · Communications of the ACM · 2000
The information age has generated its fair share of new statutes, some of which may be considered criminal Biblioteca de Ciencias y Tecnología Normal Biblioteca de Ciencias y Tecnología 1 1 2006-05-24T21:43:00Z 2006-05-24T21:44:00Z 1 169 930 UCLA 7 2 1097 11.6568 Clean Clean 21 false false false MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Tabla normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0cm 5.4pt 0cm 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0cm; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} The information age has generated its fair share of new statutes, some of which may be considered criminal. Their scope and breadth give challenge to notions of fair play and reasonableness, and raise questions of the deliberate advancement of ulterior agendas. One of these new laws give a firm basis for such concern the No Electronic Theft (NET) Act, implemented in the U.S. The article examines how the NET Act goes beyond what is justified, and why a call to the technical community to prevent similar excesses in future laws is needed. The NET Act as enacted chills legitimate conduct and overpunishes questionable conduct. However, what must be asked is not so much what is wrong with this Act, but rather how the political process produced it. The NET Act is but the first of a series of new laws that have been enacted, and will continue to be enacted, in response to legitimate threats to commercial interests arising in the information age. The technological community must recognize it has a responsibility to educate the U.S. Congress on full implications of the new laws it considers.