Americans Beware; Your Password Isn't Safe, Even From The Government

[KinKrow]

Oooooooh yes fellow QQ dwellers, this is an actual thing now.
The government has banned ALL sharing of passwords, with no differentiation or protection of civilians, and the cherry on the shitshow sundae is that it's a federal crime.

So, y'know, feel free to discuss. If anyone's already posted this tell me, but I didn't see a thread about it.

 

[Grey]

Another fuckin' law no one is going to follow.

 

[wayne82444]

My opinion on this is that the people in that video are full of shit. It is outright stated in quotes they made in said video that the ruling made wasn't about passwords at all, but about the fact that the person the case was against was basically committing corporate espionage and stealing info from his former employer for his new business. After that they go on and start talking about how this makes logging into your friends email to print something for them illegal. There is such a huge difference in stealing research from a giant corporation and printing something for your friend at his or her request that I can't help but think this video was made this stupid on purpose, just for the ratings.

I think the worst part though is how they start in on how this ruling endangers people's "civil liberties" to pirate TV shows. After all, that is what downloading and/or streaming movies and such you don't own is, which is what you are doing when you login to another person's netflix account. It doesn't matter if they say it is ok, because they aren't the ones who own that content, so they don't have the right to ok it. Otherwise piracy as a whole would be legal, since pretty much all pirated material comes from someone buying it then uploading it to the internet for other people to download for free.

 

[KinKrow]

lol snip

Click to shrink...

Did you actually read it?
Or are ignoring the part where there are no clauses protecting individuals.
It was a case about corporate espionage, but the law itself is to broad to give the average person protection.

http://fortune.com/2016/07/10/sharing-netflix-password-crime/
http://nymag.com/selectall/2016/07/...ring-is-illegal-under-insane-ancient-law.html

See, rather than just accept or dismiss the video I went off and did research, and I still am doing it.
So far the results aren't pretty.

 

[wayne82444]

I watched the video. The thing I got from it is while the law itself is broad, it still only matters if you are doing something illegal in the first place. If that is wrong then it is a case of the video did such a bad job of explaining the problem that it makes it sound like thy are just complaining that the government has another law to use against piracy. I didn't research the law itself because of that, since why should I go research something I'm not interested in based off someone complaining that the government was using it to limit their ability to commit crimes? That is kind of the point of laws as a whole after all.

 

[KinKrow]

it still only matters if you are doing something illegal in the first place

Click to shrink...

The point is, there isn't any particular definition of what's illegal in this case, only the sharing of passwords. Hence why people in the know about it are scared/pissed, anybody can be punished for sharing your password in the name of the law.

This could have been fixed by something as simple as a clause stating that any password belonging to any organization/group couldn't be shared, but personal accounts could be shared as long as it is only belongs to you.
-stares at that sentence-
-rubs temples-
Okay, rather than say it like that.
Illegal to share passwords to other people's property.
Legal to share your own, as long as you're accountable.

But that wasn't the way it was done.
Anyone can be punished for sharing a password.
Anyone.

 

[wayne82444]

Did you even pay attention to the case in question, either in the video or the articles you linked? It is pretty clear that what was happening was illegal, based on the fact that Nosal was stealing information from his former employers. One of the articles you linked specifically said he was charged with "conspiracy, theft of trade secrets and three counts under CFAA". I'd say that is particularly clear about what is illegal in this case, with the CFAA only coming up because of how he stole the company secrets.

Maybe the law is badly worded because of how open it is, but that really doesn't change the fact that it is only a problem if you are doing something illegal in the first place. Unless of course you think anyone would waste their time prosecuting you for logging into a friends email with their permission while doing nothing wrong. But if that does come up then I think our justice system will be proven to have a lot more problems than just one open ended law. Even after reading both the articles you linked I still only see the law as basically the digital version of saying shoplifting is illegal. Yeah, the linked articles show a couple of cases where the law was misused obviously, but I'd be kind of amazed if you couldn't find similar misuses of most laws if you tried.

 

[KinKrow]

but that really doesn't change the fact that it is only a problem if you are doing something illegal in the first place

Click to shrink...

NOOOOOOOOO MAN
Did you read it?
It is illegal to share.
At all.
That is illegal now.

Not talking about the case, but about how the resulting law is bullshit that can put anybody at risk for password sharing, even their personal accounts.

You could give out your email account.
And your email provider could now sue you.

Because password sharing, all password sharing, is illegal.

 

[wayne82444]

Ah, I see, you are just getting in on the hype the media is spreading. While it may be technically illegal, it is no more than it was before (since this law has been around 30 years), and who is actually going to prosecute you for logging into a free system like email? Honestly unless you are doing something that counts as theft or piracy I still don't think you have to worry about this, just because why would the government actually bother bringing charges against you with this? Yeah, I think this is being blown way out of proportion, even if the law could do with updating.

 

[KinKrow]

snip

Click to shrink...

Yeah okay.
There isn't a precedent for politicians or corporations being corrupt.

 

[wayne82444]

And if you want to get into corruption then again, there are much bigger issues than one badly written law. You really think a corrupt politician or corporation needs this law specifically to get you if they wanted to? Honestly if you get into corruption then it really is just a question of how much are they willing to spend to find a way to get you. Again, while the law cold use rewriting (it is a 40 year old law about computers, I expect they would need to review it even if it was well written from the start) I really think the password sharing is illegal stuff is just people panicking over nothing.

 

[Malbutorius]

Ah, another poorly written unenforceable law.