US Department of Justice will no longer prosecute 'good faith' hackers

[Karl Semich]

official announcement:
https://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/department-justice-announces-new-policy-charging-cases-under-computer-fraud-and-abuse-act
which i skimmed

it leaves a lot unspoken in between "extortion via access to others
accounts" (prosecutable) and "lying on online forms with throwaway
accounts" (not prosecutable).

the verbiage in support of good faith security research is really
great. it says the last update was in 2014. it reads a little like
somebody involved was really on the fence about something, as if
they'd really strongly appreciate it if security researchers would not
break stuff.

the formal pdf is at
https://www.justice.gov/opa/press-release/file/1507126/download . i
did not read it.