[Advocacy Advisors] Request for consultation: Possible amendments to the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Hello advocacy advisers, The Wikimedia Foundation was recently approached about joining advocacy campaign opposing an amendment<http://www.scribd.com/doc/132249133/House-Judiciary-Committee-… the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA"). Following our guidelines on policy and political affiliations<http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Legal_and_Community_Advocacy…ne>, I would like to ask your for guidance on how/whether we should participate. CFAA <https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act> is a federal law concerning fraud and related activity, including "exceeding authorized access" to certain computer systems. The law has received much criticism after the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. According to the Center for Democracy and Technology<https://www.cdt.org/blogs/0204cdt-joins-bipartisan-coalition-…aw>, instead of fixing the problems with the current law, the amendment "would push the law in the exact wrong direction, dramatically heightening penalties while giving the government and civil litigants more latitude to prosecute or sue average Internet users who happen to violate a Web site’s terms of service or an employer’s computer use policy." A diverse set of experts signed a letter opposing the bill<https://www.cdt.org/files/pdfs/LetterOpposingCFAADraft_final-1.pdf&… this week. Attached is a packet of information on the CFAA, and additional analysis is available below. While the amendment is examined by the Judiciary Committee, a number of websites are joining in a "week of action" starting April 8 to oppose this amendment: http://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2013/04/01 As valued and interested members of the Wikimedia community, we would like to hear your advice: Do you recommend that we participate in the "week of action" about the proposed amendment to the CFAA? If so, how would you recommend participating? E.g., should we prepare a blog post, our own public statement, or join another organization's statement? Your feedback and guidance is much appreciated. *Additional analysis* * Electronic Frontier Foundation: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/04/diverse-group-organizations-and-exper… * Orin Kerr: http://www.volokh.com/category/computer-fraud-and-abuse-act/ * Tech Dirt: https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130324/14342822435/rather-than-fix-cfaa… * Erik Goldman: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ericgoldman/2013/03/28/the-computer-fraud-and-a… -- Stephen LaPorte Legal Counsel Wikimedia Foundation *For legal reasons, I may only serve as an attorney for the Wikimedia Foundation. This means I may not give legal advice to or serve as a lawyer for community members, volunteers, or staff members in their personal capacity.*