Teen Sentenced for Releasing Variant of Blaster Worm

ScentCone writes "Minnesota teen Jeffrey Lee Parsons got a year and half for releasing a Blaster variant. The lightweight sentence was due, said the judge, to the parents' neglect. Quoting the judge: 'It's not a healthy thing to lock yourself in a room and create your own reality.' Which means most slashdotters basically have a get out of jail free card."

Comments

Community Chest?

[MorboNixon]

'It's not a healthy thing to lock yourself in a room and create your own reality.' Which means most slashdotters basically have a get out of jail free card."

Don't you mean a "locked yourself into jail already" card?

18 months in jail != out of jail

[realdpk]

When did Slashdot math change it so 18 months in jail is like getting no jail at all?

"He will still have to pay restitution to Microsoft and to people whose commuters were affected in an amount to be determined at a hearing set for Feb. 10."

"The judge imposed three years of supervised release following his prison term, during which Parson can only use computers for business and education - not video games or file-sharing or hacking."

Come on. He's not getting off easy. He didn't do anything irrepairable, why would more jail time change things?

Re:Parents need more legal liability

[loucura!]

I doubt his parents would realize he was making a virus even if they were looking.

He used a hex editor to change the name of the virus and put his "handle" in. That's it. He didn't write a variant of the blaster worm, he changed a couple strings in a binary.