British Teen Cleared in "E-mail Bomb" Case

legaleagll writes "According to this article , a British Judge has ruled that a teen who sent approximately 5,000,000 e-mails to his former employer was not in violation of the U.K.'s Computer Misuse Act. It appears that the Computer Misuse Act is a bit outdated being that it was created 15 years ago when a number, perhaps most, of the current methods for misuse of computers were not contemplated."

e-mail bomb?

[Anonymous Coward]

What a nerd. "If my electronic mail-bombe doesn't inconvenience my former employer, then my name isn't Melvin Q. Ucklesworth!"

This is most likely what he said while rubbing his peach-fuzz moustache (nothing to twirl evilly quite yet.)

Re:'editors' heh

[destuxor]

Just as the rape victim shouldn't've worn a short skirt, the employer should've had a faster mailserver damnit!

Re:Time for a new server.

[Shut the fuck up!]

Here is CyricZ's recipe for posting:

1. Grease up arm all the way to the elbow
2. Insert arm into asshole (all the way to the elbow)
3. Firmly grab hold of a 'fact'
4. Post it to Slashdot

revenge

[Muhammar]

maybe the company can claim that the dude made some threats in the past. Maybe they can label him as a super-advanced cyber-terrorist and extradite him to US. (Maybe they can make him disapper there - in one of the secret prisons.) Wait - with the Blunkett laws, maybe they can do this without US help.

Re:being that

[Neil Blender]

And look at that floating comma... "According to this article , a British Judge..." They really should stop calling themselves editors and start calling themselves what they really are - cronjobs. They probably spend five minutes in the morning picking stories and play games for the rest of the day.

So let's see..

[EiZei]

It's illegal to mod your gaming console or copy your copy-protected CDs to your iPod but go ahead and fuck up some email servers? Got it.

Re:'editors' heh

[austinpoet]

The editors converted it from British Emails into American e-mails. Thus 5 million becomes 3 million.

Oh wait that's still backwards. *shakes fist* damn editors!

Congrats

[SnarfQuest]

Let's all send him email's of congratulation. 5,000,000 per ./ reader seems appropriate.

Or maybe sign him up for a few catalogs.

slashdotted

[Anonymous Coward]

Computer Misuse Act is a bit outdated being that it was created 15 years ago when a number, perhaps most, of the current methods for misuse of computers were not contemplated.

yes, i'm feeling like slashdotting my employer's website.

Obviously, we need to run a test

[ZachPruckowski]

If the editors had written it like "his previous employers, who are at this link: _______", then we'd get to see if they got around to updating that server. My money is on 'yes'.

Re:being that

[utnow]

Your mom gave me a cronjob last night...

Re:Congrats

[maelstrom]

lol, omfg ur funny

Moral of the Story

[ShieldW0lf]

If you live in Britian, drop this article around the office, then start dressing like someone from the matrix and talking in tech jargon. Your boss will fear you, and you'll be able to get away with murder!

Re:'editors' heh

[pe1chl]

No no no... the summary says 3,000,000 and the article says "5 million".

We all know that "5 million" equals "3,000,000".
If they meant "5,000,000" they would have written "5 mebimillion".

These were some nice days for the execs Blackberry

[lonesometrainer]

Just imagine that :) His device in his pocket, vibrating all day long... neeeeaaat?

Perhaps his exec forced him to do that?

Re:Moral of the Story

[Gumph]

What do you mean START dressing like some from the matrix and talking in tech jargon?

Re:Pros and Cons of a good piece of legislation

[DrSkwid]

Some years ago a friend of mine was a phreaker. Eventually he got caught.
The cops had to individually read out each phone call from the itemized list they had been given saying something like "on 12th september 1985 did you make a call to 555 5555" and he had to answer yes or no. It took them 10 hours of interview to get through the list.
When it got down to it there wasn't a suitable law in statue and they could only charge him with "Theft of Electricity" and he ended up with a minor fine.