Junk Fax Prevention Act (JFPA) In addition to regulations governing direct mailings, the TCPA, as amended by the Fax Prevention Act, prohibits most unsolicited fax advertisements. The Junk Fax Prevention Act prohibits sending unsolicited advertisements to any fax machine, whether at a residence or business, without the recipient’s prior express permission. Liability for a violation of the law applies to the company whose advertisement is sent, even if the sender is a third-party fax broadcaster. An exception in the Junk Fax Prevention Act allows a person to send a fax to a recipient with whom the sender has an existing business relationship, so long as the recipient volunteered its fax number. Senders must honor requests from recipients to opt-out of receiving unwanted faxes. Placing oneself on a do-not-call list does not prevent fax solicitations. Fax machine numbers may however be separately registered. In June 2017, the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit invalidated a decades-old FCC rule requiring parties sending solicited faxes to include opt-out notices to avoid liability under the JFPA. The court held that the FCC does not have the authority to require an opt-out notice on faxes that were requested by or consented to by the recipient.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) [18 U.S.C. § 1030 (c)]
Purpose. The purpose of the CFAA is to prevent unauthorized access to computers and applies to any “protected computer” used in interstate commerce or communication. This broad definition has allowed the CFAA to be applied to any computer connected to the Internet. The CFAA establishes multiple crimes and imposes criminal penalties when a person or entity “intentionally accesses a computer without authorization or exceeds authorized access, and thereby obtains information from any protected computer.” 18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(2)(c). The CFAA prohibits knowingly transmitting “a program, information, code or command” or 51
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