Lawyers Say Hackers Are Sentenced Too Harshly

Bendebecker writes "Cnet is reporting: 'The nation's largest group of defense lawyers on Wednesday published a position paper arguing that people convicted of computer-related crimes tend to get stiffer sentences than comparable non-computer-related offenses.' Finally, someone is listening..." The document makes the points that most computer crime cases involve disputes between an employer and employee, and that the seriousness of the offense is generally comparable to white-collar fraud cases.

This one's easy to explain...

[Fnkmaster]

There's strength in numbers - and the lawyers finally realized that geeks are the only people as universally unpopular as they are.

Punishment? What punishment?

[Anonymous Coward]

I used to (note: past tense) belong to a small group of website defacers during my script-kiddie period. Three people and about 160 websites in a month. During about 4 months, one of us got 2 phone calls telling him to stop and two cases of soft drinks for pointing out a flaw in some company's online security. I got one warning on IRC. The third guy got away clean.

What punishments are you talking about??

Re:Well

[DonkeyJimmy]

I don't want them making any public statements on my behalf...

Your behalf, eh? That's admission of guilt, get him boys.

Note To Self:

[OwlofCreamCheese]

Note To Self: change plans from hacking to fraud.

Re:It all depends

[TheRaven64]

And defacing the RIAA website probably counts as 'pbulic service'...

A Long Time Ago ...

[Anonymous Coward]

I remember when there weren`t any specific computer crime laws on the books in the U.K. and prosecutors tried to charge the accused with theft of electricity.

Re:Perhaps the hacking penalties are fine...

[nomadic]

You can't send all the president's friends to jail, who will he invite to his barbecues?

Really?

[neocon]

<sarcasm> Wait, a large group of defense lawyers said that penalties are too tough for the types of cases they sometimes work on? Really?! Now why would they do that? </sarcasm>

We need strict sentances for hackers/crackers

[Billly Gates]

For example Mitnick had to be in solitary confinement because he could of launched a nuclear war from a pay phone! Just ask the FBI or the judge taking his case!

Its not like it takes an order from the president with full access codes to launch a strike or anything. Just a dialtone and a modem from the computer that lauches the strikes.

Also he could of obstructed justice by using a walkman or radio because he could of turned it into a hacking device. The fbi needed to take these priveldges away as well so he can stare at the walls and do nothing in his solitary confiment for 7 months while still technically inocent I may add. I mean screw John Gotti. This man is clearly more dangerous to our whole American way of life.

Also look at economic sabatoge and espianage caused by Jon Johnson from reading his own personal dvd's? The RIAA and the BSA claimed they lost over 9 billion a year because of piracy. Its a shame and we all know that these kids and college students can easily afford adobe photoshop, 3dStudioMax and all of Nsync's and britney spears artistic masterpieces of great music which is worth every penny of the price so it must be piracy! We need to stop these so called terrorists before they kill every man woman and child on earth. Hopefully some hardware based solution will be the salvation towards the problem.

Do we want the whole ecomomy to fall apart and lose millions of jobs because of lenient sentancing? Somebody please think about our children.

Too Harshly?

[handy_vandal]

Too harshly? Why, in my day, after Prometheus stole fire and gave it to mankind, we chained the guy to a rock and had a giant bird eat out his liver every day. Now that's punishment!

Different Approach to Punishment

[Stinson]

I think we should try a different approach to punishing crackers. I propose that we put them infront of their own personal computer which was confiscated by the feds with a non-working keyboard and mouse, and run tail -f on a few of their personal, or valued files while they are slowly being deleted. I can just imagine them crying as they watch their recently stolen visa credit card list disappear line-by-line, and then their pics of sarah michell gellar disappear scan-by-scan. Muahahahahaha As for real hackers, i'd say nothing would be worse then putting them in a closed room except for a oneway mirror, and a few monitors displaying just screen captures from around the IT dept they are in, specfically one that gets hacked alot. I can also imagine them crying watching all the terrible wiring and horrible system administration. Muhahahha (again)

Re:It all depends

[TheRaven64]

You'd be in good company. There are currently two people there. One person who is actually a friend of mine in the big blue room (the reason he's there is a long and quite dull story). The second person posts stories about abusing small children [slashdot.org]. Remember Paedophiles use the Internet! [sucs.org]

Umm... is this really so bad?

[cardshark2001]

From the article: However, the paper argues that the increase in prosecutable "crimes" could have a chilling effect on security researchers and industry. Security researchers who uncover and disseminate information on vulnerabilities could be charged for their activities. Companies that send unsolicited bulk e-mail could be convicted of unauthorized access. And, makers of faulty software could be liable for the transmission of harmful code.

A chilling effect on companies that send unsolicited bulk e-mail, huh? This has got to be the coolest chilling effect I've ever heard of!

And as far as the last sentence goes, don't we all know that Microsoft has been guilty of terrorism for a long time now?

Re:But does it still warrant...

[Fulcrum of Evil]

more year in prison than the average raper ?

I first read that as rapper and, you know what? It still made sense.

breakdown by OS

[Erris]

Re:The Witches of Yesterday are the hackers of today.

Hmmm, breakdown by OS:

• Win9x admin: ostracized dude at the hell desk. Mantra: "have you tried to reboot?" Spells are secondhand and generally ineffective. Worships the devil and is usually cranky due to above mentioned lack of effeciency and understanding. Sometimes seems possesed. Practicioner of Voodoo.
• Win Server Admin: Sometimes casts his own spells. Still worships the devil but may see the error of his ways. Less cranky because one or two spells actually work. Knows Voodoo, and some other Black arts
• BSD/Unix Admin: A wide specturm of talents and dispositions. Worships nature, makes little noise and is very effective. Effectivly correlates cause and effect but will still make deals tith the devil. Druid/Alchemist
• Linux/Unix Admin: Also a wide variety of talents and dispositions. Makes more noise than the BSD/Unix admin. Worships Nature but believes in higher powers and the law. Can be just as effective as BSD/Unix, very powerful but often thwarted by the Devil. Often persecuted by the Devil and his dupes. Martyr/Scientist

Put it itno perspective...

[gnovos]

So, hey, anally raping your boss after he/she fires you will give you 5 years, maybe as much as 7.. Wiping out thier servers (which can be replaced with backups in an hour) will give you 10 or more.

Think about it for a second, which one of those would really be more fulfilling to you, the disgruntled employee? Yeah, that's what I thought... See the system works!

Re:Hmmm . . .

[Anonymous Coward]

So what, you vote. So do the Iraqis.

The real problem here...

[BigGar']

is that the term hacking sounds bad. It's what crazed men in hockey masks with machete's do to college coeds. What we need to do is change the term to something like "Fluffin' the Bunny". Who'd think that's bad?

Here's an example:
Stan was arrested for computer hacking.
Judge: Give him 15 years solitary.

Stan was arrested for Fluffin' the Bunny
Judge: That's so nice what you did for that bunny. You're free to go.

See, the difference.

Remember, Fluff the Bunny