US anti-hacking law questioned
Lie about your identity on Facebook or delete files from your work laptop before you quit and you could run afoul of a 29-year-old US computer security law that some experts say has been changed so often it no longer makes sense.
The US Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has come under renewed criticism after last week's suicide of internet activist Aaron Swartz, who could have faced prison time for alleged hacking to download millions of academic articles from a private database through a network at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The 26-year-old's family blamed the suicide on "intimidation" from what they described as an overzealous US prosecutor, who threatened Swartz with prison and up to US$1 million in fines. Swartz, who helped found popular website Reddit, had "problems with depression for many years," his friend, science fiction author Cory Doctorow, wrote in an online eulogy on Saturday.
