US court narrows reach of computer fraud law

A US appeals court rejected the government's broad reading of a computer fraud law to prosecute workers who steal from company computers, saying it could expose millions of Americans to prosecution for harmless activities at work.

The 9-2 decision by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco diverges from broader readings of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act by three other federal appeals courts. This raises the chance that the U.S. Supreme Court might decide to try to resolve the issue. The decision, written by Chief Judge Alex Kozinski, upheld a lower court's dismissal of five of 20 counts against David Nosal, a former manager at Korn/Ferry International who left that executive search firm in October 2004.