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Email Bomber Faces Retrial

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the putting-the-case-back-on dept.

An anonymous reader writes "A UK teenager who was cleared last year of launching a denial-of-service attack now faces a retrial. Judges have ruled that crashing a server with five million emails probably isn't permitted under the law. With NASA hacker Gary McKinnon vowing to fight on after losing his extradition fight yesterday, it's been a busy few days for the UK courts."

4 of 106 comments (clear)

  1. named for being 18 by Kaenneth · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why can they now name him?

    I thought the general principle under which juvinile records are sealed is to protect someone from being punished for life for a childhood mistake.

    1. Re:named for being 18 by ScouseMouse · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I dunno about the US, but the age after which you are considered fully responsible for your actions and can be go to jail (Although usually a young offenders institute) in the UK is 14, not 18.

  2. What if? by Zaphod2016 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    I was working on a new cron tab the other day. It had been one of those 20-hour days, so I was already well-past "bobo mode" when I started. After a half an hour, I began to wonder where the hell all my confirmation emails were going....(er duh).

    I wasn't "spamming", I was setting up on a new server and tired. Luckily, the default sendto was a null addy, but *what if*? What if one day I accidentally run a cron tab, and mail bomb the shit out of some poor shmoe?

    Don't get me wrong: if I *did* ever do something so stupid, I would expect a civil lawsuit, and I would expect to lose. But is this really a criminal offense?

    --
    barack to the future?
  3. Re:what the hell by Shimbo · · Score: 2, Interesting
    they can just have a retrial like that?


    They can appeal against a poor reading of the law in the lower court. I don't it find it particularly scary that someone who is incorrectly acquitted on technical grounds can face a retrial, if a higher court so orders.