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Judge Refuses To Convict Hacker
Jake96 writes "A judge in Wellington, New Zealand, declined to convict a man who ran an unrequested security audit on a bank's phone systems and was charged with 'intentionally accessing a computer system knowing he was not authorized to,' according to an article in the New Zealand Herald."
I know. Amazing isn't it.
Although there was the slight matter of calling the bank and presenting a bill for services that were never asked for, but I'm willing to chalk that up to creative marketing. . .
On a side note, my uncle (who is a lawyer) has a low opinion of judges and tells the following joke which you may tell your friends under the JPL (joke public license):
Q:What do you call a lawyer with an IQ of 50?
A:Your Honor. (Substitute M'Lud or other region appropriate judge appellation here if necessary.)
Enlightening indeed. After all those lawyer jokes the lawyers finally made a joke about somebody else ... and it wasn't even funny! Nice try by the lawyers, but there's gotta' be another lawyer joke in there somewhere.
what is it over there, like some kind of geek paradise?
there is no need to sign your posts. this isn't usenet. your username is right there above your post. stop it.
It's the only joke about lawyers. The rest are true stories.
New Zealand was never a penal colony, so has never had criminals shipped to it, other than the state visits by royalty and presidents. You are obviously thinking of Australia, a completely separate country about 1800 km away. You could drop Texas into the gap in between. (and nobody would miss it either)
Right, who does he think he is , the government?
He committed no intentional crime. He was identified a security flaw, and provided this info to the bank before asking for money. Sure, it's a little like the guy who washes your windshield at a sopt light asking for money, but it's far from dishonest.
If the bank were a computer company with the present mindset, the bank would get to work on fixing the problem, and he'd have been ignored when he asked for cash, rather than prosecuted.
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Judge (interjecting): "You mean as drunk as a lord?"
F. E. Smith: "Yes, My Lord."
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I just remove my windshield. The look on their faces when they try to wipe it is worth it.
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