Julian Assange in a police vehicle on his arrival at Westminster Magistrates court after his removal from the Ecuadoran Embassy in London. (Jack Taylor/Photographer: Jack Taylor/Getty)U.S. authorities have charged Wikileaks founder Julian Assange with a crime that does not involve publishing classified information, an accusation that some have said would amount to an attack on press freedoms. The law in question — the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, America’s premier anti-hacking statute — makes it illegal to access a computer without authorization. “And it’s been expanded in lots of ways to cover lots of unsavory activity involving computers, even if it’s activity we never would consider traditional computer hacking. The bill, which would have removed exceeding authorized access as an offense, was colloquially known as Aaron’s Law.

Source: Washington Post April 11, 2019 18:33 UTC