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by Havoc 2528 days ago
>Aaron Swartz was arrested and charged under hacking laws for doing exactly what you're describing.

Don't think connecting a computer to a private network to suck up subscriber data is comparable to scraping publicly accessible internet content.

2 comments

These fear mongering comments always ignore the notice provision in the CFAA. Web scraping publicly accessible information is not "illegal" under the CFAA. That law, at most, only makes someone who continues scraping after being asked to stop potentially culpable.

First, the accuser needs to, at least, send a cease and desist letter to the accused asking them to stop accessing the protected computer. Second, the accused needs to ignore that request and keep accessing the protected computer.

Is it possible to build a solid CFAA case when those two things do not happen? I cannot find any examples.

https://iapp.org/news/a/can-a-cease-and-desist-notice-create...

My understanding of the case is that he was charged with evading JSTOR security, not for accessing the MIT network.