update on the jailed San Francisco fiber/wan administrator Terry Childs case.
How the Terry Childs case could harm password security, a brand new article today from Infoworld
Judge McCarthy may be redefining the term “user” — and that could make it harder for IT to safeguard passwords
It turns out that Jennifer Granick, who now works at the Electronic Frontier Foundation on Shotwell in San Francisco has gotten involved with the case (sort of)
It’s a crime in California to cause the “denial of computer services” to an authorized user of a computer network.
But California’s law was designed to prosecute people who break into computers, not those engaged in workplace disputes, said Jennifer Granick, civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In Childs’ case, his bosses asked him to hand over a password and he refused to do it, she said. “I don’t think the California legislature contemplated that as a criminal action when they passed [the state’s computer crime law].”
“This interpretation of the statute basically criminalizes certain types of commercial and employment disputes,” she said.
Granick said that it “seems kind of wasteful” to incarcerate Childs for so long on the charges because he probably wouldn’t be sentenced to 14 months if convicted.
Childs’ trial is set to begin Oct. 9
I met Jennifer Granick once when she was in private practice on Hayes street over 10 years ago, because I once registered the domain name ItsabeautifulDay.com and was promptly threatened by the ex manager of the famous San Francisco band who owned the trademark on the name. I got to introduce Jennifer to one of the most notorious rock and roll legal cases in San Francisco history. To make a long story short, nothing became of the threats and I ended up giving the domain name to the guitar player, the only member of the band that never signed a contract with Katz, making it my last personal legal ‘sideswipe’
Jennifer Granick is one smart brain, and I’ll never forget the look on her face when I showed her the letter from Katz. It was like she was smelling doo-doo. She moved down to Stanford for years and now she’s back in San Francisco, and I personally think she can do more good at the EFF than anywhere else, so congratulations to her.
The fact that she’s now interested in the Terry Childs case is significant, because she’s always been at the leading edge of internet and computer law, having once represented hacker Kevin Mitnick in the early days
as the Infoworld article suggests, the Terry Childs case has the possibility of setting precedent in computer and employment law, or, the difference between simply getting fired, and spending over a year in jail and having your bail set higher than murderers. Both the Infoworld article and Jennifers blog are well worth reading for anyone interested in computer and cyber security law
