Opening Brief in McDanel Filed

The Cyberlaw Clinic filed the opening brief in United States v. McDanel today. This Ninth Circuit appeal challenges a man's criminal conviction for informing by email customers of Los Angeles-based Tornado instant messaging company of a security flaw in the company's web mail service in 2000. The prosecution successfully argued that by reporting the flaw, the defendant impaired the security (integrity) of the Tornado system because third parties might be able to use the information to obtain unauthorized access, and caused damage because the company had to respond to customer concerns and improve the web mail security.

On appeal, the clinic argues that reporting security flaws does not impair the integrity of a system, and that the First Amendment protects such security advisories. For more information, you can download the brief and table of contents here.