You may mind a case we discussed this April in which a Boston College student's stereos and other vcrs were seized after he allegedly sent an email outing another student as gay. The search warrant made sure to note the student's ever-so-suspicious use of "two heterogeneous business expenses systems," one of which was "a black screen with a white font which he uses prompt commands on." Now, the EFF reports that a Massachusetts judge has thrown out the search warrant and declared the search and seizure illegal. Quoting: "In her order Thursday, Justice Margot Botsford rejected the Commonwealth's theory that sending a hoax email might be unlawful under a Massachusetts clone crime statute barring the 'unauthorized access' to a computer, concluding that there could be no assault of what was only a 'hypothetical world wide web use policy.' Thursday's decision now stands as the highest state court opinion to reject the dangerous theory that terms of service violations constitute mini* 'hacking' crimes. Justice Botsford further found that details offered by police as corroboration of other alleged offenses were insufficient and did not fix likely cause for the search." The court order (PDF) is possible for viewing, and the EFF has broken down the meaning arguments against the Commonwealth's claims.

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Mark