Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!world!eff!mnemonic
From: mnemonic@eff.org (Mike Godwin)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Computer break-in and privacy
Message-ID: <1990Dec17.225439.1508@eff.org>
Date: 17 Dec 90 22:54:39 GMT
References: <1990Dec10.211625.9536@eff.org> <1990Dec17.193830.6156@looking.on.ca>
Organization: The Electronic Frontier Foundation
Lines: 28

In article <1990Dec17.193830.6156@looking.on.ca> brad@looking.on.ca (Brad Templeton) writes:
>
>But at the same time, those of us interested in privacy rights must
>consider that many harmless break-ins are a fairly serious invasion of
>privacy.   Unless you're breaking into the public areas of a public
>system (for example, merely to steal some online time on a system like
>CompuServe) then your actions clearly have a strong intent to invade
>privacy.
>[text deleted]
>We all react strongly to the break-ins that involve file alterations, copying
>and erasure.   How should we react to those who enter our system to
>look around?  How should the law react?

It's worth remembering how the law has dealt with non-computer-based
invasions of privacy. It has prescribed a scheme under which such 
invasions are remediable through (and deterred by) civil law rather
than criminal law.


--Mike



-- 
Mike Godwin, (617) 864-0665 |"If the doors of perception were cleansed
mnemonic@eff.org            | every thing would appear to man as it is,
Electronic Frontier         | infinite."
Foundation                  |                 --Blake