Tor Ekeland, Author at Tor Ekeland Law PLLC

Computer Law

In Liminae: The Road to Nowhere

It takes us about six hours to drive to the rural state jail (that’s owned by two judges) the Feds contracted with to hold our client. Accused of computer crimes, he can’t effectively review evidence in jail – there’s no practical access to computers in the gulag. They’ve seized all his assets claiming they’re the ill-gotten gains of crimes the government can’t identify, and their computer forensics – if you can call them that – have no scientific basis and are full of basic errors and typos. In my decade as a federal criminal defense lawyer doing computer cases across the country, I’ve never come across a case where the government was so completely off.

Tor Ekeland October 19, 2022

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

A defendant’s view from the trenches of federal criminal court This post is originally published to Substack. You can read and follow us there. https://torekeland.substack.com/p/guilty-until-proven-innocent “Everywhere you turn there’s some caveat that’s biased against the defendant,” says the Firm’s new Associate Michael Hassard. This isn’t news to criminal defense lawyers, this moment strikes us all. Mike was learning about one

Tor Ekeland October 12, 2022

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act Updates title image

Computer Law

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) Updates – March 23, 2022

Computer Fraud and Abuse (CFAA) updates and Analysis – March 23, 2022. Court denies Motion to Dismiss in United States v. Thompson. Why this matters for Computer Law?

Tor Ekeland March 24, 2022

Computer Law

2021 CFAA Year in Review

In 2021 the United States Supreme Court finally considered what constitutes unauthorized access under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. It put a bullet in the head of the terms of service theory of unauthorized access. United States v. Van Buren involved a similar fact pattern as the Second Circuit’s “cannibal cop” CFAA unauthorized access case United States v. Valle.

Tor Ekeland January 1, 2022

Blackstone 8: Sexism & the Common Law

It’s common to criticize Blackstone for embracing the Common Law’s sexism. But a passage I read the other day made me critical of this attitude towards his work. It made me wonder if it is more a product of confusing what Blackstone wrote with such clarity about – the Common Law – with his personal views. A passage where he

Tor Ekeland February 15, 2021

On Blackstone 7: Camera Stellata

Camera Stellata is the Latin name for the Star Chamber, an English Royal prerogative court that evolved starting in the 14th century from the King’s Council that met at Westminster. The name comes from the azure ceilinged room with gilded stars the Council met in. Over the course of the next two centuries it became infamous for its inquisitorial and

Tor Ekeland January 26, 2021

On Blackstone 7: The Lost Works

For all the Originalists’ trash talk I’m shocked that most of William Blackstone’s writings are out of print. In 2016, Oxford University Press published an edition of The Commentaries; but if you want to read other works by the man who invented modern legal scholarship you have to hunt. The 2006 edition of his Collected Letters is out of print,

Tor Ekeland September 22, 2020

On Blackstone 6: Perjury, the FBI, & Obstruction of Justice

In Volume 4 of his Commentaries on the Laws of England Blackstone offers an instructive definition of perjury. He defines it narrowly as a false statement of material fact, made in court in front of a judge. He doesn’t count lying in a sworn affidavit, outside the presence of a judge and court, to be criminal perjury. For Blackstone, the

Tor Ekeland December 6, 2019

What’s Up with WhatsApp: Thoughts on the NSO CFAA Complaint

I’ve been getting a lot of calls asking me what I think about the civil Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) lawsuit WhatsApp just filed in the Northern District of California against NSO. Below this post are links to my comments in the press. Here’s the complaint: I’m going to elaborate a little more on the complaint because it’s a

Tor Ekeland October 30, 2019

Room 3420 and the Birth of the Internet

The internet turns 50 today. At 10:30pm PT on October 29, 1969 in room 3420 at UCLA the first networked digital data transmission was sent to a computer, 350 miles away, at Stanford University. The computer operator at Stanford replied, and the computer operator in Room 3420 gained access to the computer at Stanford. Prior to this communication between computers

Tor Ekeland October 29, 2019

BLOG

In Liminae: The Road to Nowhere

Guilty Until Proven Innocent

Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) Updates – March 23, 2022

2021 CFAA Year in Review

Blackstone 8: Sexism & the Common Law

On Blackstone 7: Camera Stellata

On Blackstone 7: The Lost Works

On Blackstone 6: Perjury, the FBI, & Obstruction of Justice

What’s Up with WhatsApp: Thoughts on the NSO CFAA Complaint

Room 3420 and the Birth of the Internet

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