EFF and a coalition of academics and public policy groups are urging a federal judge to dismiss a criminal indictment that could give websites extraordinary power to dictate what behavior becomes a computer crime.

The four defendants in this case are the operators of Wiseguys Tickets Inc. a ticket-reselling service. In its indictment the government claims the four purchased tickets from Ticketmaster by automated means violating Ticketmaster's terms of service and therefore the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA). In an amicus brief EFF argues that this prosecution expands the scope of the CFAA beyond what Congress intended grounding criminal liability in whatever arbitrary terms of service that websites decide to impose on users.