Well Federal charges indicate not the severity, but the medium of the act in question.
As soon as the information was transferred over interstate communications channels to Boston the jurisdiction would have been properly Federal in nature.
If it is also a state crime than the attorney's offices can negotiate as to which (if any) will prosecute but the Constitution makes it very clear that the Federal government has primary jurisdiction in this situation.
It is true that most Federal crimes are more severe than state (since they necessarily tend to involve more serious offenses by their scope alone). But had a "misdemeanor-level" CFAA-like Federal law been available it is possible that it could have been used instead of the actual felony-level CFAA. I'm not aware of any though, as far as I can tell it's either CFAA, nothing, or the prosecutor can perhaps try to get extra-inventive with other law on the books.
Either way though, changing a MAC address was not the only thing Aaron did. Your point about the server closet not actually being locked is well-taken, but you bring discredit to your own plea for accuracy by implying that the MAC address is the only reason any sort of charges were levied on Aaron.
Sorry, you misunderstood me on the MAC address point. I was saying only that some here have stated that this should be illegal, which I found a surprising attitude for a technical community.
Thank you for the explanation of the difference between Federal and State offences though.
As soon as the information was transferred over interstate communications channels to Boston the jurisdiction would have been properly Federal in nature.
If it is also a state crime than the attorney's offices can negotiate as to which (if any) will prosecute but the Constitution makes it very clear that the Federal government has primary jurisdiction in this situation.
It is true that most Federal crimes are more severe than state (since they necessarily tend to involve more serious offenses by their scope alone). But had a "misdemeanor-level" CFAA-like Federal law been available it is possible that it could have been used instead of the actual felony-level CFAA. I'm not aware of any though, as far as I can tell it's either CFAA, nothing, or the prosecutor can perhaps try to get extra-inventive with other law on the books.
Either way though, changing a MAC address was not the only thing Aaron did. Your point about the server closet not actually being locked is well-taken, but you bring discredit to your own plea for accuracy by implying that the MAC address is the only reason any sort of charges were levied on Aaron.