Rich Pretexter, Poor Pretexter

theodp writes "David Kernell used pretexting to gain access to Sarah Palin's e-mail. And now Kernell faces the possibility of a 20-year prison sentence. HP used pretexting to gain access to its Board's phone records. And now HP faces the possibility of supplying phones to the very companies that were victimized in the HP pretexting scandal. So perhaps Kernell should try coughing up $14.5 million to see if that'll make his pretexting problems disappear. Seems to have worked for HP!"

Comments

Re:Some Differences in These Cases

[BarryJacobsen]

Public service or not, he broke the law in the hope of finding or creating a scandal. The law doesn't say "don't crack someone's email UNLESS when you do so you find something juicy". His success is immaterial. The penalty should be the same whether the account is full of lols and party invites or baby killing and kiddie porn.

Two wrongs...

Actually, according to current law if you so much as FIND kiddie porn, you're immediately thrown in jail for the rest of your life. THINK OF THE CHILDREN....NO, NOT IN THAT WAY!