As a Canadian citizen, open source developer, free minded tinkerer (I don't dare to say hacker in this context) I am fucking scared to enter the USA. The law in question was written largely as an answer to the Wargames movie, it was not a good law then and 30 years later it's downright terrifying.
If they think I broke some USA law they better issue a warrant and ask Canada to extradite me. That's a thing. But this sort of ... ambush ... or what do I call it, that's just scary. Let's say I scrape a website whose ToS said, don't scrape me. Is that a felony? Perhaps. Want to crank it to eleven? Let's say I left accidentally a security hole in Drupal (I have 1299 commit mentions in Drupal) which powers, well, certainly more than ten websites in the United States. Is that a felony? Can it be twisted into a felony? Is it likely? No? Possible? Fuck knows.
You could say, hey the CFAA is older than my boots, nothing has changed, why are you scared only now? My answer is, you know, the leader of the executive branch is an old man without political experience who certainly shows signs of dementia and while I can't professionally evaluate how it changes the situation I have a bad feeling it makes it worse than it was.
Yes. The legal code is so byzantine that most citizens (and most visitors) are permanently in breach somehow, somewhere: an error in some form you filed, a permit you didn't know you needed, a clause that's very rarely enforced, a law worded vaguely that can be made to fit.
This is the origin of the cliche "to throw the book at someone" - to threaten or exact retribution, by hunting for all the ways they are breaking the law, related to the original arrest or not. It is also why the advice is not to speak to police voluntarily.
Fortunately for most folks the US is a mostly benign state (which is why exceptions are somewhat notable). But this is not a unique US issue. It is only a change of intent away from the widespread persecution of political opponents.
As long as most of us believe a 'political enemy' is our enemy too (like those evil hackers), the state is free to throw the book where it pleases with public indifference or even support.
> As a Canadian citizen [...] I am fucking scared to enter the USA
Add Thailand to the list:
> The operation included the arrest on 5 July of of suspected AlphaBay founder Alexandre Cazes, a Canadian citizen detained on behalf of the US in Thailand. Cazes, 25, died a week later while in Thai custody. [1]
I am well aware of Dmitry Skylarov (he was charged under the DMCA, though) and, of course, poor Aaron. Nonetheless, somehow I have evaluated the risk of entering the USA acceptable. I feel the risk grew under Trump.
GP didn't say things weren't already bad, just speculated that if the new president's personality has an effect it would probably be to make things worse.
There are only very few countries which will not extradite you to the US.
Recently they even got a russian hacker from the Maledives, which has no extradition treaty with the US.
Out of my head the list of recent cases was: Cyprus, Maledives, Thailand, UK, Canada, Mexico, Poland, Czech, New Zealand (not clear yet. Police did support the NSA, but law still refuses to extradite Dotcom), and all interpol countries with a few exceptions.
The reverse list is shorter: Germany refuses to extradite the VW managers but who knows what they'll do with hackers. Italy and Spain is risky. Ecuador and Bolivia, who knows? Venezuela probably.
Only Russia and some of its allies should be safe for criminals.
China? Probably also according to Snowden. But they'll probably kill you before sending you over, as they have interesting fraud laws.
If they think I broke some USA law they better issue a warrant and ask Canada to extradite me. That's a thing. But this sort of ... ambush ... or what do I call it, that's just scary. Let's say I scrape a website whose ToS said, don't scrape me. Is that a felony? Perhaps. Want to crank it to eleven? Let's say I left accidentally a security hole in Drupal (I have 1299 commit mentions in Drupal) which powers, well, certainly more than ten websites in the United States. Is that a felony? Can it be twisted into a felony? Is it likely? No? Possible? Fuck knows.
You could say, hey the CFAA is older than my boots, nothing has changed, why are you scared only now? My answer is, you know, the leader of the executive branch is an old man without political experience who certainly shows signs of dementia and while I can't professionally evaluate how it changes the situation I have a bad feeling it makes it worse than it was.