Palin's E-Mail Hacker Imprisoned Against Judge's Wishes 502
Em Adespoton writes "It was a computer security story that made headlines around the world, involving the private emails of a woman who could have become Vice President of the United States. And now, it's ended with a young man sent to a federal prison, hundreds of miles from his family home. David C Kernell, the hacker who broke into Sarah Palin's personal Yahoo email account, is reported to have been sent to jail despite a judge's recommendation that he should not be put behind bars."
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:4, Interesting)
Pretty much. In this day and age, it surprises the hell out of me that he thought he could get away with something as easily noticeable as hacking a presidential candidates email...unless he knew he wouldn't get away with it, and didn't care.
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Do you have any idea how expensive it is to keep a person in jail?
Locking people up because they are stupid is enough to bankrupt any country. A much better punishment for nonviolent crimes would be community service (scaled to fit the gravity of the offense), where there's a net gain for society.
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
Oh, there's lots of oil.
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
WTF. Are we advocating low impact crimes to help society?
I don't see this as much different than the cash-for-clunkers program. The idea is that after rendering all moving parts inoperable so they can't be sold as used replacements, you smash what was a perfectly good car. Then you give someone $8000 ($4000?) in tax payer money to buy a new car. This helps the economy. If that is really true, we should start leveling houses - to boost the construction industry. We should start breaking legs - to show how beneficial single payer healthcare services are. We should have the National Guard out to burn our wheat fields - so farmers can plant organic crops.
The same logic applies to "low impact crimes can help society". We should encourage these so-called "low impact" crimes so we can increase the pool of "low impact" criminals that will do community service. Except, the criminal smashed something that belonged to someone else. In this clown's case, it was someone's privacy and their personal property (email account). The logic is so absurd it is almost funny - until you find out the people advocating it are completely serious.
another part of the story is missing here (Score:4, Interesting)
Yes, I think that what this young man did is reprehensible, but so are the other points above, none of which ever got pursued (to my knowledge). That stinks of a real and pretty obvious double-standard of accountability. Sweeping them under the carpet by employing some other distraction was the only magic trick required...
No wonder they hate ***leaks so much. The sort of action which might just begrudgingly force them to come clean about their own practices and start having to play by the rules themselves. For that reason, expect stiffer sentences for similar crimes in the future, to prevent anyone from ever seeing all of this dirty laundry being aired.
It's not so bad (Score:5, Interesting)
Now.. trying to find a good job with a conviction on his record once he gets out... That's the part which will suck for him.
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:3, Interesting)
what is hacking? when is your email 'inbox' private?
its not so private as you think. if you are at work, your employer has the right (so they say and so they act) to look at your emails (live or on disk) all they want. they can tap your phone, too, at work.
lets talk about the gov, now. all govs (world wide) want to have the ability to peer into your inbox. probably about half of them already can do this and the US most certainly can (it 'owns' the backbone router points and so it 'owns' the net for all practical purposes).
federal offense only for peons to invade privacy.
but if you're even slightly higher than a peon and have some official power or title, you can get access to email contents without a huge amount of effort.
I don't agree with the hacking (so to speak) but I also see a huge mixed message about 'privacy' and the world, as it is, has not really figured out who GETS absolute privacy and who does not.
why is it ok for all traffic in the US to be pattern sniffed, thresholded and triggered - yet one guy guesses a password and now he's being thrown into a bottomless pit?
too many conflicting 'ethics' headaches with all of this. different rules for different ruling classes. yeah...
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:4, Interesting)
CIting exceptions doesn't make what he did legal or ethical at all, did it? Was Palin his employer? No. I'm self-employed. I own my own emails. Your circumstances may be different.
If governments are looking into my email, it's without legal standing. Peon or not, it's still not legal or ethical.
You may or may not be pattern sniffed; I operate within the construct that my actions are legal, and protected constitutionally. Ethics are real, and sadly absent. Reviving them is a way back to civility and the common good.
Re:Too fucking bad.. (Score:5, Interesting)
And profit. Prisons are sub-contracted to private interests, that are paid in part on a per convict basis. There are documented instances of judges being convicted of taking kickbacks to supply more "product" to the prison industry, i.e. prisoners. There are simply some functions in a civilized society that must be stripped of profit motivation in order to insure justice.