The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act has generated a lot of controversy since it became law in 1986, and this week the ACLU filed a lawsuit that challenges what it sees as the law's overbroad prohibitions.

The act forbids people from "exceed[ing] authorized access" to a computer, which technically means that any violation of a tech company's terms of service is illegal. If you've ever created multiple accounts for a website, for instance, or perhaps used a different name to register for an online service, you might be in violation.

The problem, according to ACLU, is that the CFAA also restricts their research. "The plaintiffs are academic researchers, computer scientists, and journalists who wish to investigate companies' online practices through standard academic and journalistic techniques, but are limited by the terms of service of target websites," the organization said.

The ACLU's online techniques are analogous to tests it uses to uncover discrimination against individuals of different races attempting to secure housing and jobs, for instance, a practice that it says the courts and Congress have encouraged.

"The CFAA violates the First Amendment because it limits everyone, including academics and journalists, from gathering the publicly available information necessary to understand and speak about online discrimination," ACLU staff attorneys Esha Bhandari and Rachel Goodman wrote in a blog post.

The plaintiffs in ACLU's case are researchers from the University of Michigan, the University of Illinois, and Northeastern University, as well as First Look Media, which publishes the Intercept. The lawsuit claims that they want to investigate companies' online practices through "standard academic and journalistic techniques," but are limited by the terms of service of the websites they are targeting.

Although cases invoking the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act against academics and journalists are relatively rare, officials have used it in the past to bring charges against hackers. One hacker with ties to the Anonymous group was arrested and charged with violating the act in 2012 following his breach of intelligence company Stratfor.

In 2013, Internet activist Aaron Swartz committed suicide after his arrest and charge for allegedly downloading 4.8 million articles from the academic publisher JSTOR. His death prompted proposed legislation that would reduce the recommended sentences for violators of the act.