Hiding your IP can be considered a crime, says U.S. court

A legal battle between the Americans and 3taps sites Craiglist can help clarify the limits of the laws that pertain to the global computer network in the United States . According to the judge who reviewed the case , access information publicly available on the network can not be considered a crime , something that happens only when it was necessary to overcome barriers to access them - something that , oddly , includes the use of tools that hide the IP address .

In this case , the accused Craigslist 3taps illegally using information published on your pages to offer a service of real estate sales . From the data disclosed in the ad site, 3taps created maps showing the geographic location of each site .

By the time the battle began , the directors of the owners of Craigslist accused of violating its terms of use , and sent a letter asking them to desist from their service activities . Then opened an investigation that accused them of violating terms present in the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ( CFAA ) , a U.S. law that governs internet fraud .

Regulating the internet permissions

Although the court has agreed that it is no crime to access data from public sites , she said the case was different 3taps . In stipulating that the service could not access their information , the Craiglist made ​​an exception which made access by competing an activity that could be considered criminal .

In practice , what has been established is that for access to a particular website is considered a crime , it is necessary to destroy a barrier to make this possible . In this case , the obstacle that 3taps have to face is the letter that prevented him from accessing the data service that had the official ownership of them.

What worries the decision is that it gives precedent for other companies to take this attitude , which can transform mere civil disputes in crimes . Moreover , the court included the concealment of IP between acts that may be considered illegal during a trial - something that endangers an activity that is used to protect private data , preserving innovations and even avoid having to deal with discriminatory pricing .

The hope is that future trials to review this decision , which seems to have resulted from someone not familiar with the particularities of the internet . It is worth noting that, although not directly affect Brazil, this policy can also serve as a basis for legislation in the country of the network , since the United States is considered a country - example in this sense .

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