Senators Mark Kirk [R-IL] and Kirsten Gillibrand [D-NY] announced a bill that increases the maximum jail time for “obtaining information from a protected computer without authorization” — which covers anything you do that violates the BS Terms of Service we all break all day long.
These Congressholes introduced their bill to coincide with the reintroduction of Aaron’s Law by Senators Ron Wyden [D-OR] and Rand Paul [R-KY] and Rep Zoe Lofgren [D-CA], which reforms the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, the law under which Aaron Swartz was prosecuted.
The bill is pure publicity stunt — the Senators announced their legislation without actually publishing its text, presumably because they wanted to ride on the coat-tails of the publicity for Aaron’s Law.
As an aside, it’s plainly ridiculous for anyone to announce a new bill without releasing the actual text. Even more ridiculous: in searching for the text of the actual bill on both Senators websites, I note that the very first item highlighted on Senator Gillibrand’s website is “Transparency” where it says “Senator Gillibrand believes that more openness and transparency in government leads to more accountability and better results.” Well, you know what might helps with that transparency? If you actually release the text of the bills you’re introducing when you introduce them so that people can take a look at them.
Senators Introduce Anti-Aaron’s Law To Increase Jail Terms For ‘Unauthorized Access’ To Computers [Mike Masnick/Techdirt]