Is Lying On The Internet Illegal?

At a House Judiciary Committee hearing titled "Cyber Security: Protecting America's New Frontier,” the focus was on big cyber threats to the country's infrastructure. But there was another juicier question that came out of the hearing: The way the Justice Department wants to interpret a current law, lying on the Internet would amount to a crime.

Richard Downing, deputy chief of the Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section at the Department of Justice, argued that in order to properly protect the country, the part of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) that says a person must exceed their "authorized access" to break the law should include a violation of the terms of service. When you sign up for a Web service, a dating one or even to attain the ability to comment on NPR DOT org, you usually agree to a long terms of service that we bet most people don't even read. The way the DOJ wants the law interpreted means breaking any of those terms would constitute a crime.