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More Jail Time For Computer Crime Starting Next Month
An anonymous reader writes "Washingtonpost.com is running a detailed story about how new changes to the sentencing guidelines will increase jail time for most computer crime cases, starting November 1. When will the feds learn that raising penalties isn't going to deter this type of crime? The piece ends with a quote from uberhacker Kevin Mitnick saying just that."
...regarding the word "hacker". As many of us here know, the term "hacker" does not mean "computer criminal", as the mainstream press continually connote or denote it. I've often heard the defense that "well, once 99% of people start using a given word in a particular sense, that becomes a/the 'correct' meaning." By this logic, the millions of people who point at their computer (the box with the power supply, optical drive(s), floppy drive(s), hard drive(s), PCI/AGP/ISA card(s), etc. in it) and call it a "CPU", or a "processor", or a "hard drive"-- or even a "modem"-- are correct. They're not, nor are the people who think that "hacker" means "cyber-criminal".
I'd say that perhaps 99% of lay-people would, if shown a computer sans monitor, keyboard and mouse, call it either "a CPU", "a processor" or "a hard drive", and a few will call it "a modem" or "some computer thingy". This does not make these terms correct.
"Hacker" will never mean "computer criminal", no matter how many ignorant journalists and non-techies take it as such.
I am most definitely a hacker. I am most definitely not someone who breaks into systems, creates or uses exploits, makes viruses, etc. etc. etc.
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
It's about actually punishing the crime. This might filter out a few people who would've committed a crime, but that's only a secondary function of the law. Given the greater damage incurred by attacks (worms and viruses being a key component of that), it seems fit to more severely punish those who take a part in this increased damage.
You zap the moderators with a wand of humor! The moderators resist!
Hey boys...Just keep pumping out more of these "Hackers are Witches" kinda dumbass penalties and you're going to start to find that good computer help won't help your asses anymore.
Get it?
"A microprocessor... is a terrible thing to waste." --
GeneralEmergency
So the only reason you're not out killing people is because you'd get put behind bars for the rest of your life?
I'm glad I'm not your neighbour.
And many people who commited crimes no worse than would get them 6 months community service from a city court will get 20 years in federal prison and then be exfelons forever afterward with many of their rights of citizenship permenantly removed.
The laws will be misapplied, giving harsher and harsher sentences for more and more trivial offenses until everyone has a cousin or sibling who has been cruelly treated under these laws.
Then a sense of outrage will ensue amongst the populace and these laws will be "reformed."
At that point everyone will promptly forget any of the abover ever happened.
Rinse and repeat.
So it has always been. So it shall, it seems, always be. It seems we've not only forgotten history, but relegated Santayana to the historical realm.
KFG
Yeah, the guy you responded to was a troll, but don't brush off the US prison situation like that. It's pretty fucked up that we have the largest percentage (per capita) of people in prison. The prison system is a big money maker for corporations like Marriot and many others--yeah, it costs the taxpayers a bundle, but we don't count.
As far as the part about being "not to hot to trot on the killing of criminals," you say it as if it's more common elsewhere. How many other "civilized" countries still have the death penalty? I'm not trying to make a statement here because I don't have a problem with capital punishment, but it's important to recognize that we've got a pretty fucked up system of justice going on right now.
I love my country, and wouldn't want to live anywhere else, but I'm not going to pretend it's not as fucked up as it is.
Most of the non-technical people I know refer to their monitors as their "computer". (The box itself is of course just the CPU)
I wonder, if common usage forces "hacker "to mean "computer criminal", will it force "computer" to mean "monitor".
I like your l33t name there m0rhp3us0. It's almost as mature as the thoughts in your post.
I'm amazed at how much ignorance you crammed into one post:
I dont live in the US nor frankly care - Funny how often you'll hear Palestianians or Iranians talk about how they want to live in America for its opportunities, even though they hate its politics...
democratic theocracy - Where the hell did this come from, because Bush is religious? America is pretty anal retentive on seperating church and state. Lets compare this to other countries...say...Italy with their full support of Catholicism.
The sooner the US falls - You think the world would be better without the US? Wow! America only helped shape global world politics 3 times last century, WWI, WWII, and the cold war. If America's influence wasn't there, we all know it would have been worse. Amazingly, even the French strongly agree (accoring from recent polls at least) that the world is a better place because of Americas influence than without it.
americans are unwilling to pay minor costs associated with social services but are willing to pay huge costs associated with running the worlds largest prison population. Check out this flamingly liberal site http://www.warresisters.org/piechart.htm. It's devoted to spinning numbers to show how little America pays on social services. Social services get anywhere from 34% to 55% of the budget, while military gets 17.5-47%, and prison costs, well, its far too small to even merit it's own category. These numbers kind of fly in the face of your statement, doesn't it?
In short, it's may be exciting to be a 14 year old anti-US activist...but m0rph3us0, you have to grow up a little.
Could it have been the time in prison?
The latest Slashdot meme.