(I am indebted to Robert X Cringely for pointing out that this penalty is larger than the penalty I would get if I hacked the smartphone and turned it into an illegal explosive device.)

This debacle was nicely covered by Derek Khanna in The Atlantic yesterday. Khanna points out that we never actually passed a law that said it should be illegal to do this. Rather, the DMCA - a law passed before smartphones even existed - criminalizes all kinds of activity like this. It's possible for the Librarian of Congress to create exemptions to the law but it's certainly not required, and it didn't happen in this case because the Librarian decided to let an exemption lapse.

My guess is that it'll be reinstated, because this sort of thing is ludicrous and it's going to generate a lot of negative publicity. However, I think Khanna is also spot-on when he points out that we ought never to be in the position of having to depend on prosecutorial discretion not to come down as hard as the letter of the law allows (resquiat in pacem Mr Swartz).

In the past I've been pretty positive about some provisions of the law, especially Safe Harbor. I still think that's an important and necessary measure. But it's also clear that the law is in severe need of reform and update.

While I'm on the topic of laws that need reform, I highly recommend some of the recent blog posts by Orin Kerr at Volokh Conspiracy on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act and its needed changes. See also some of the responses he's drawn such as this lengthy piece by Jamie Boyle. The CFAA is sort of outside the scope of Copyfight so I'm unlikely to link directly to more of the extensive discussion on this topic except when - as here - the questions raised in the Swartz case are directly relevant to our core topics.