When President Joe Biden said “journalism is not a crime” last April, federal prosecutors in Tampa, Florida, apparently took that as a challenge. Not a crime yet.
The next month, FBI agents raided the home of journalist Tim Burke. He is scheduled to be arraigned in the coming weeks under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) and wiretap laws for finding and disseminating unaired Fox News footage of Kanye West’s antisemitic rant to Tucker Carlson. The indictment doesn’t accuse Burke of hacking or deceit. Instead, its theory is that he didn’t have permission to access the video, even though it was at a public, unencrypted URL that he found using publicly posted demo credentials.
But finding things that the powerful don’t want found is essentially the definition of investigative journalism—which, as Biden said, is not criminal in this country.
A recent court filing heightens concerns about whether prosecutors hid from the judge who authorized the raid that Burke was a journalist. By doing so, they may have avoided scrutiny of whether their investigation—and eventual indictment—of Burke complied with the First Amendment, federal law, and the Department of Justice’s own policies.
This law has been out there for decades now and It’s never mattered HOW you came into possession of credentials, only whether or not you have permission to access the system that they unlock.
If he used those credentials to get into a system he wasn’t authorized to use then its a crime. If the video’s were publicly available, even unintentionally, then he should be clear on those charges but that doesn’t change the first part.
Unauthorized access to computer and information systems is still a crime punishable under the law. Kevin Mitnick was being prosecuted for this clear back in the 1980s.
IF the guy accessed the system, irrespective of the videos, then this is another case of a Journalist either being ignorant of the law or ignoring it because they believe the law doesn’t apply to them.
I think the key here is of they were truly a demo username/password. If they were, there’s an expectation of use there.
Again, it doesn’t matter HOW you came into possession of the credentials. What matters is your authorization to access the system they unlock. It’s really that simple.
You misunderstand- om saying that depending on what kind of demo account is it, he might have been authorized to view the demo.
It depends on who the demo was intended for.
it’s weird how computers have an expectation of privacy