We've talked plenty about the CFAA - the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act - which has a variety of significant problems and is in need of significant reform. The biggest issue is that this law, which was written back in the mid-1980s and doesn't match at all with today's internet, really just seems to add an extra layer of punishment on other crimes if they were done "on a computer." In fact, as the folks over at the EFF are noting, among the convictions against Bradley Manning, there was the first ever conviction under a particular section of the CFAA: section (a)(1), which more or less takes the Espionage Act and adds more punishment if the "espionage" you do is via a computer.

The implications of this are somewhat ridiculous. It basically allows the government to charge someone twice for the same thing, if they used a computer as part of the process of accessing those documents. That's what's happened with Manning. In short: accessing the information is a crime under the Espionage Act and using a computer to do it is a second crime under the CFAA. Even if you think that leaking information to the press is a form of espionage (and we think even that's ridiculous), the idea that you get charged with a second felony just because a computer was used is absolutely ridiculous. It's just yet another example of the overcriminalized world we live in today - especially when it comes to technology.