Computer Crime - 2009 - Review Q and A

ANNOUNCEMENT: Because of the website outage Saturday night, I am extending my Q&A policy. I will respond to questions I receive until NOON on Sunday, December 13, 2009.

NOTE: I am not posting every single student question. Instead, I am only posting student questions that I believe the class, as a whole, will benefit from hearing. Some questions are too basic to deserve attention. Other questions are too advanced and nuanced. So don't take it personally if your question doesn't appear here. (Do take it personally if I don't respond to one of your questions. I might have forgotten to get to it, so if you don't hear from me in a day or two, please ask again.)

Wed, 09 Dec 2009

RCS: Processing Services
Q: What does "like a 1986 processing services" mean?

A: Just to remind you of the context: The Stored Communications Act applies to remote computing services. This is defined in 18 U.S.C. 2711 as "the provision to the public of computer storage or processing services by means of an electronic communications system." Computer storage is (mostly) self-explanatory, but "processing services" is harder to define.

In class, I suggested that Courts don't interpret "processing services" to any service that involves a computer engaged in processing, because this would encompass every single service on the Internet. For example, any time any website responds to a web request, computer processing is involved. Another way I could have put it is that the SCA regulates "processing services"--services that provide processing--but not all "processing" done on the Internet.

Instead, Courts tend to think about the kind of "processing services" that existed in 1986, when ECPA was enacted. In 1986, processing services meant number crunching services. Computer users--often scientists at Universities--would use "remote computers" on networks to analyze their data. For this reason, the Jetblue court held that an airline providing reservation service over the web isn't providing processing service. It is providing a reservation service that relies on a little processing.

So, are there processing services in 1986 sense today? Sure. For example, Amazon offers a service called "EC2" which acts like a remote computer "in the cloud" (to use the buzz phrase.) What else counts? There are other, even more esoteric examples. The bottom line is that it is likely courts won't find many services "processing services" under the RCS definition on today's Internet. We don't often rent out computer processing in today's computing world like we used to do in 1986.

That said, don't worry about researching computing in 1986. The bottom line is you need to understand Jetblue and be able to explain why the airplane reservation service wasn't a processing service. You need to understand why providing a website is not enough to be providing a processing service. Begin able to explain why these aren't processing services is much more likely to be important than understanding what are processing services.

Two final caveats: First, don't forget that RCS also encompasses "storage" and there are many examples of that on today's internet. Second, I modified this answer Wednesday, 12/9/09.

posted at: 04:44 | path: | permanent link to this entry