VICTORY: Appeals Court Overturns Andrew weev Auernheimer ConvictionImportant Decision Impacts Constitutional Rights in the Internet Age Auernheimer was represented on appeal by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Professor Orin Kerr of George Washington University, and attorneys Marcia Hofmann, and Tor Ekeland. In an opinion issued this morning by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, Judge Michael Chagares wrote that the government should not have charged Auernheimer in New Jersey, which had no direct connection to ATT or Auernheimer. Were thrilled that the Third Circuit reversed Mr. Auernheimers conviction, EFF Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury said. This prosecution presented real threats to security research. Hopefully this decision will reassure that community. In 2010, Auernheimers co-defendant, Daniel Spitler, discovered that ATT had configured its servers to make the email addresses of iPad owners publicly available on the Internet. Spitler wrote a script and collected roughly 114,000 email addresses as a result of the security flaw. Auernheimer then distributed the list of email addresses to media organizations as proof of the vulnerability, ultimately forcing ATT to acknowledge and fix the security problem. On appeal, Auernheimers defense team argued that accessing a publicly available website does not constitute unauthorized access to a computer under the CFAA. They also argued that Auernheimer should not have been charged in New Jersey. At the time they were obtaining email addresses, Auernheimer was in Arkansas, Spitler was in California and ATTs servers were in Georgia and Texas. The court agreed with Auernheimer that charging the case in New Jersey was improper and reversed his conviction and ordered him released from prison. Although it did not directly address whether accessing information on a publicly available website violates the CFAA, the court suggested that there may have been no CFAA violation, since no code-based restrictions to access had been circumvented. Todays decision is important beyond weevs specific case, added Fakhoury. The court made clear that the location of a criminal defendant remains an important constitutional limitation, even in todays Internet age. For the opinion: https://www.eff.org/document/appellate-court-opinion Contact: Hanni Fakhoury Please support the excellent work of the Electronic Frontier Foundation and learn more about digital privacy rights here: http://www.eff.org 