It's called Section 1030, and it's a federal law written to prevent unauthorized access to data on computers. For the most part, it is a workaday statute that does its job without drawing a lot of attention to itself. Like many laws, however, Section 1030 suffers from a stringent set of guidelines as to what constitutes illegal activity. Sometimes, a well-meaning user can find himself or herself on the wrong side of those lines.

At Ars Technica.

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