French Power Company Fined For Hacking Greenpeace 196
judgecorp writes "Electricite de France (EDF) which uses nuclear reactors to generate the majority of France's electricity, has been found guilty of hacking into Greenpeace computers in 2006. EDF has been fined fined €1.5 million and ordered to pay Greenpeace a further half a million euros, for what the judge described as an act of 'industrial scale espionage.'"
And yet... (Score:5, Informative)
If the situation were reversed... Greenpeace would be declared terrorists and alot of people would be tossed in jail for a long long time.
Once again the lesson is.. If you wanna be a criminal. Start a company first.
Re:Kinda low (Score:5, Informative)
FTFA:
The judge sentenced Pierre-Paul François, who was EDF’s deputy head of nuclear production security in 2006 to three years imprisonment, with 30 months suspended. Meanwhile his boss, Pascal Durieux, who was EDF’s head of nuclear production security in 2006, was also sentenced to three years imprisonment, two years suspended, and a 10,000 euros (£8,500) fine for apparently commissioning the spying operation.
and
As a result of this, the French judge issued a guilty verdict in the case of Thierry Lorho, the head of Kargus Consultants. The former member of France’s secret services was sentenced to three years in jail, with two suspended and a €4,000 (£3,450) fine. EDF was also ordered to pay €50,000 (£42,800) to Jadot.
Re:Um, OK. (Score:5, Informative)
To be fair, this incident resulted in several people getting prison time.
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:2, Informative)
They only got to keep pennies on the dollar and most of the money had to go towards the loans and other investors.
I assume you're point is that it isn't terribly profitable to run a nuclear plant. How much more unprofitable would it be if you didn't have the government subsidizing those loans in the first place?
If the big oil/coal industries want to decry subsidies to green tech, they should also be screaming louder about the nuclear subsidies.
Green also doesn't tend to blow up and render large areas uninhabitable for decades...
Re:Um, OK. (Score:5, Informative)
So far from my observation if a private individual hacks, the private individual risks going to prison.
Whereas if a corporation does it there's no prison time involved for any of the people involved.
I think prison time would discourage both private individuals and individuals acting on behalf of corporations.
Under US law, corporations shield the owners from financial loss, not criminal behavior. A person commits a crime and goes to jail regardless of whether they acted on behalf of a corporation. The executives at Enron were all charged with fraud, for example. This case is under French law, tho.
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:5, Informative)
Green also doesn't tend to blow up and render large areas uninhabitable for decades...
Cough. [wikipedia.org] Also, which of these [nextbigfuture.com] numbers is lowest, again? Hint: it's not hydro, wind, solar, or biomass.
Re:Kinda low (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Um, OK. (Score:5, Informative)
"This way, the rich have the same incentive as the poor to abide by the laws."
German and Swiss law do this, the fines are expressed in "earned per day" (Tagessätze) amounts between 1€ and 30,000€ per day depending on your income.
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:5, Informative)
I will preface this by saying I have no idea of the comparative cash flows in different countries, or between different parts of the utility/electric industry. That said...
In the U.S., if you are part of the power grid (critical infrastructure, also known as the Bulk Electric System, or BES) and are found in violation, NERC [nerc.com] has the power to fine you one million dollars per violation, per day. This fine starts at the outset of the violation (not when it was actually discovered) and can continue until it is rectified. Example trade magazine discussion [powermag.com], second paragraph under NERC Basics.
Re:Um, OK. (Score:5, Informative)
I usually feel obliged to defend France (I think they get a raw deal, especially from Americans who can't see past the last 80 years of history and forget how the French contributed during the American revolution), but in this particular context I'm cynical. I grew up in New Zealand, and was living in Auckland the night the Rainbow Warrior [wikipedia.org] was bombed. The two official French secret agents were sentenced to 10 years, served two, and most of that was in a tropical resort. They've since received medals and accolades from the government, both been promoted, written books...basically made out like heroes from this.
I won't claim to speak for all my fellow kiwis, but this is about the only incident that I hold a grudge over and think was never handled fairly.
Re:a hefty bill? (Score:3, Informative)
Slightly OT, but just for kicks I calculated the deaths/TWh for nuclear if you included Hiroshima and Nagasaki (~250,000 deaths). I ended up with 6 deaths/TWh from the .04 deaths/TWh originally. Oil is 36 deaths/TWh and US Coal is 15. I think that nicely shows just how deadly Oil and Coal are.
Re:And yet... (Score:5, Informative)
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2845/why-arent-porn-actors-charged-with-prostitution [straightdope.com]
The key quote FTA:
But in 1988 his conviction was overturned by the California Supreme Court, which cited precedent establishing that "for [an act] to constitute 'prostitution,' the genitals, buttocks, or female breast, of either the prostitute or the customer must come in contact with some part of the body of the other for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification of the customer or of the prostitute" [emphasis added]. The court found that the "payment of acting fees was the only payment involved in the instant case. . . . There is no evidence that [Freeman] paid the acting fees for the purpose of sexual arousal or gratification, his own or the actors'." Thus, no prostitution.
Re:Greenpeace takes in over $300M/year (Score:5, Informative)