United States v. Morris (1991)

United States v. Morris
Court	United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit
Full case name	United States v. Robert Tappan Morris
Argued	December 4 1990
Decided	March 7 1991
Citation	928 F.2d 504
Holding
The Government does not need to prove that the defendant intentionally prevented use of federal interest computers, thereby causing loss. Furthermore, Morris acted "without authorization" according to section (a)(5)(A). The decision is therefore affirmed.
Court membership
Judges sitting	Jon Newman, Ralph Winter, T.F. Daly
Case opinions
Majority	Jon O. Newman
Laws applied
18 U.S.C. § 1030(a)(5)(A)

United States v. Morris was an appeal of the conviction of Robert Tappan Morris for creating and releasing the Morris worm, one of the first Internet-based worms. This case resulted in the first conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. In the process, the dispute clarified much of the language used in the law, which had been heavily revised in a number of updates passed in the years after its initial drafting. Also clarified was the concept of "unauthorized access," which is central in the United States' computer security laws.^[1] The decision was the first by a U.S. court to refer to "the Internet",^[2] which it described simply as "a national computer network."^[1]