Legal Question in Technology Law in California

Re: using the traceroute command

This is a really good question. I am not aware of any laws or court decisions that specifically address the issue of whether, and when, the use of Internet utility programs such a�

Re: using the traceroute command

Just like a knife, the traceroute command is a tool. How it is used and for what purpose it is used for determines whether it is lawful or unlawful. A knife by itself is not unlawful so long as it is used to say, butter toast, but use it to rob a liquor store - that is unlawful.

Regards,

Don Cox

Re: using the traceroute command

This is a good question. I am not aware of any laws, or court decisions, interpreting the use of common networking utilities such as ping or traceroute as constituting (or not constituting) crimes or other actionable misconduct subject to civil damages awards or criminal penalties. My best guess is that a court that had to decide the issue would find that there is some level of implied consent among networked computer systems for the use of these utilities. The best answer to your question is, it depends on the presence or absence of criminal intent. If there is no criminal intent, there can be no crime. Perhaps even without criminal intent, flooding a system or network with traceroute requests might degrade the receiving system(s) to an extent that would trigger a civil lawsuit -- the legal theory of which might be called, as just one example, "trespass to chattels."