What does it mean to access a computer without authorization? It's an important question. North Carolina's computer crime statutes appear at G.S. 14-453 et seq. Among other things, the statutes make it illegal "willfully and without authorization . . . [to] access[] . . . any computer." The crime of unauthorized access is more serious if the computer in question is a government computer, or if the person accessing the computer is doing so for fraudulent purposes. The principal federal computer crime statute, 18 U.S.C. § 1030, contains somewhat similar provisions. At first, the issue of authorization seems straightforward. The North Carolina statutes define "authorization" as "having the consent or permission of the owner . . . to access a computer . . . in a manner not exceeding the consent or permission." But consider a couple of scenarios. 1. A law clerk is instructed by the judge for whom she works that she should not use her work computer to access the internet, except for legal research. The clerk generally abides by the judge's policy, but the morning after the Duke-UNC basketball game, she can't resist going to the Duke Basketball Report to read about the Devils' big win. Has she "exceed[ed] the . . . permission" of the judge and thereby committed a crime? (I know that some of you would say that rooting for Duke is a crime, but that's not what I mean!) 2. A high school student joins MySpace under a false name, creating a bogus profile [...]
Faculty Coordinators
