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Until recently, the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act — covering a myriad of activities related to hacking and intellectual property theft — was just one of many questionable federal laws on the books. Then came the case of Lori Drew. Though widely vilified, there was a certain uneasiness in many legal quarters about prosecuting her under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation has challenged the constitutionality of a federal law providing immunity to telecom companies that allegedly shared information about U.S. citizens with security agencies. In a hearing in federal court on Tuesday, the EFF argued that it is unconstitutional to prevent American citizens from suing telecoms that allegedly helped the NSA spy on them.
As technology has advanced, the federal courts have routinely been tasked with interpreting what types of inventions are eligible for patent protection under the Patent Act. As the Information Age blossomed in the 1990s, the federal courts had to determine whether to extend patent protection to computer-implemented processes for manipulating information.
A former TV newsman in Philadelphia who said he felt threatened by his co-anchor’s “rising star” was sentenced Monday to six months of house arrest after hacking into her e-mail and leaking gossip that contributed to her downfall. Larry Mendte, 51, admitted hacking into KYW-TV co-anchor Alycia Lane’s e-mail hundreds of times, both before and after the city’s CBS affiliate fired her in January.
Two engineers from China who pleaded guilty to the rare charge of economic espionage against the U.S. are facing sentencing Friday in a case that highlights national security threats surrounding sensitive technologies. Fei Ye, a U.S. citizen, and Ming Zhong, a permanent resident of the U.S., admitted in 2006 that they stole computer chip designs from their Silicon Valley employers.