Aarons Law currently sits in the subcommittee on crime in the House of Representatives and has not been enacted since 2015. In order for this law to be enacted members of the subcommittee on crime have to act on it, which they will on do if they are prompted with civil disobedience.
In 2013 Senators Ron Wyden and Zoe Lofgren along with Ron Paul introduced Aarons Law, but the law died in the House of Representatives that year and was only heard once more in 2015 subsequently Aarons Law was never enacted and currently awaits to be enacted by the subcommittee on crime in the House of Representatives.
Senator's Wyden and Lofgren have been great at getting the law to the House, but have done little to move the law forward to be enacted. To us, it seems as if Senator Wyden and others who have previously sponsored this law are "very busy at the moment".
Bob Goodlatte was the Chairmen of the subcommittee on crime who was one of the original sponsors of the Stop Online Piracy Act in which Aaron Swartz riled the internet masses to defeat SOPA. Mr. Goodlatte holds the key to getting Aarons Law passed and he is a staunch enemy of the Internet historically he has supported the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, NET Act and was in support of ravishing Net Neutrality.
2018 is an election year and state leaders tend to start listening to their constituents close to election time. With the current fight for Net Neutrality being waged, now is a prime opportunity to capitalize on the awareness that has been raised about Internet freedoms and what better time to amend a law like CFAA that took one of the greatest minds to grace our presence in Aaron Swartz, than right now.
Speaking as one of the activists behind Aarons Law we cannot do this alone, we don't have the legal know-how or the manpower to enact this law. The only hope that we do have, is the individual hearts of all the members involved in this campaign combined with the hearts of those we have touch during this campaign and our collective will to get this done.
What Aarons Law seeks in this amendment to the CFAA:
(1) Establish that breaches of terms of service, employment agreements, or contracts are not automatic violations of the CFAA.
(2) Bring balance back to the CFAA by eliminating a redundant provision that enables an individual to be punished multiple times through duplicate charges for the same violation.
(3) Eliminate the redundant provision streamlines the law, but would not create a gap in protection against hackers.
(4) Bring greater proportionality to CFAA penalties. Currently, the CFAA’s penalties are tiered, and prosecutors have wide discretion to ratchet up the severity of the penalties in several circumstances, leaving little room for non-felony charges under CFAA. Aaron’s Law ensures prosecutors cannot seek to inflate sentences by stacking multiple charges.
Written by Joziah Thayer - @Twitter @dapeaple