University of Twente NOC Fire Arson

Lars writes "A 26-year old man from Hengelo has admitted to deliberately setting fire to the Network Operations Centre of University of Twente, last Wednesday. The fire gutted two wings of the building and devastated one of the fastest networks in Europe. The arsonist is an employee of the University, which must come as quite a shock to those involved. The University released a short statement to the press. It mentions that the total damage caused is roughly 40-50 million euros (about the same in dollars) and that the guy was caught last Friday, when he tried to set fire to one of the faculty buildings."

Comments

How's he gonna repay it?

[Joshuah]

I mean, he's 26. He now owes the university and several companies 40-50 Million Euros (dollars). Its just arson so thats what 3-5 years. To me, thats way to easy to get off. Even if he makes $50k after taxes, it will take him 800 years to pay off 40million. Thats just messed up.

So, this guy gets out when he is 30yrs old, can find a job and move on with his life looking for more buildings to burn down. isnt there something wrong with that?

Re:How's he gonna repay it?

[Zathrus]

So, this guy gets out when he is 30yrs old, can find a job and move on with his life looking for more buildings to burn down. isnt there something wrong with that?

Well, presumably he'd be required to disclose his conviction to potential employers. I sure wouldn't hire him at that point - if he's a disgruntled employee then I don't want to hire him and possibly piss him off. If he's a fire bug then I just don't want him around, period. He could not report that he was convicted, but unless he gets an entirely new identity a routine background check will show the conviction. This is why more and more companies are doing background checks now.

As far as paying back the damages, it's the insurance company that's going to have to suck up the cost of replacement. Yeah, I know - it means everyone who uses that insurerer will have to pay higher premiums for some time. But they're the ones that would have to sue for damages. And they very well may. But getting repaid is obviously not going to happen.

The idea of debtor's prison is long gone, and for a good reason. The idea was that if you caused material harm then you could be thrown in jail until you repaid the harm. But it's rather difficult to earn money when imprisoned, which leads to a rather vicious circle. Debtors prison was often used to perpetually incarcerate political or business opponents. Let's not even think about bringing it back.

Re:How's he gonna repay it?

[SealBeater]

I sure wouldn't hire him at that point

Whatever happened to having "paid one's debt to society"? Assuming that he
does in fact, go to jail and serves time, when does the deeds of one's past no
longer impact who you may be in the future?

SealBeater

Re:DOS attack

[Christianfreak]

Oh that would be great. We complain on /. that companies sue over deep linking but now you want to sue Slashdot because they linked to someone who has a page on the public internet. The parent post is a troll, if they don't want to have people coming to their website then they should block access to it.

Re:University is also to blame

[Sabalon]

Yup...that is the reason I like working at the university I work at - the infinite funds to spend to do everything 100% right!!!