United States v. Drew
259 F.R.D. 449
In the United States District Court for the Central District of California
Case CR 08-0582-GW
Before District Judge George H. Wu
Decided on August 28, 2009

Relevancy of the Case: Whether violations of a website’s terms of service constitute a crime under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act?

Statutes and Provisions Involved

• The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, 18 U.S.C. § 1030
• The Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure

Relevant Facts of the Case

• The defendant had set up a fake profile on the MySpace platform. Using this profile, he cyber bullied a girl who eventually committed suicide due to continuous harassment.
• In the indictment, the court charged the defendant with one count of conspiracy and three counts of violations under CFAA. These CFAA violations were about accessing a computer without authorisation or accessing in excess of authorisation.
• However, the jury did not find him guilty of charges under CFAA. In the present case, the defendant has moved under Section 29 of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure, seeking a motion for a judgment of acquittal.

Prominent Arguments by the Advocates

• The defendant’s counsel submitted that if violations of a website’s terms and conditions amount to unauthorised access, the courts would be flooded with this overbroad interpretation of the statute. This would attract the vagueness doctrine.

Opinion of the Bench

• Breaching a website’s terms and conditions does not qualify for criminal prosecution.
• Continuous violations of MySpace’s terms were not sufficient to satisfy the first element of misdemeanour violation, as per section 1030(a)(2)(C) and 1030(b)(2)(A) of CFAA.

Final Decision

• The court granted the defendant’s motion to dismiss the misdemeanour conviction under CFAA and acquitted him.

Ojasvi Gupta, an undergraduate student at the Faculty of Law, Banaras Hindu University, prepared this case summary during her internship with The Cyber Blog India in May/June 2022.