Steubenville Hacker Faces Longer Prison Sentence Than the Rapists

joeflies writes "In a previous Slashdot article, hackers worked to preserve content for the Steubenville rape case. The two football players charged received juvenile detention sentences of one and two years. One of the hackers, on the other hand, faces 10 years in prison."

Comments

This is SO WRONG !!

[Taco Cowboy]

The system is totally fucked up, and I mean, TOTALLY FUCKED UP !!!

Never in my life I could imaging the government in the United States could be so fucked up !

Not only they broke the CONSTITUTION with their phone tapping and their PRISM, now they are doing that to the people who volunteered their skill to preserve what needed to preserve - THE EVIDENCES which had helped the prosecutors in that rape case !!

FUCK MAN !!!

United States is NO LONGER the land of the free, and those who live in it are no longer the braves, either !!!

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[Anonymous Coward]

You're not going to do anything about it though cowboy, are you? Sorry to Godwin, but the Jews that fared best in WWII were the ones that saw the writing on the wall and GTFO before SHTF. Good luck to ya though.

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[quenda]

Could be worse. If the hackers had exposed government coverup of murders, they would be tortured and charged with a capitol crime.

Lets spare a though for Bradley Manning here, whose torture and trial have barely rated a mention in the US media, unlike Steubenville.

United States is NO LONGER the land of the free,

Was it ever? Highest imprisonment rate in the world now, even worse than Russia.

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[Taco Cowboy]

I am a citizen of the United States of America, and I've moved out a decade ago and a half ago

At that time I said to myself, one day when USA gets better I would return

But, will it ??

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[Anonymous Coward]

why does shit like this get marked insightful when the comments here that point out the obvious fact that this alarmist idiot article is comparing actual to potential sentences, two totally different things get barely a mention?

1. "totally fucked up / never in my life could i imagine fucked up." good for you.
2. "broke the constitution.." except that they didn't, as judged have ruled. so take your hollywood upstairs degree in constitutional law.
3. "fuck man." brilliant.
4. "no longer land of the free." - you mean you can no longer illegally hack systems (even if you personally think you are ethically in the clear) and not expect to be punished and caught for it? "land of the free" means the freedom of opportunity - not freedom from punishment if you break the law.

grow up man. and SHAME on the mods who voted this juvenile rant as "insightful."

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[Anonymous Coward]

So choose to abet crimes or choose to be arrested.

That's some freedom you got there, fella.

Funny, it seems like it's the same freedom you had under dictatorships: you're free to choose to follow the rule of the dictator or face the consequences of your actions not doing so.

Re: This is SO WRONG !!

[bill_mcgonigle]

Manning committed treason and violated his oaths

Manning's most important oath is to defend the Constitution against enemies domestic - that oath takes precedent over any others. And it's exactly what he did.

Besides that, how can you possibly not have learned the lesson Nuremberg?

Re:This is SO WRONG !!

[bill_mcgonigle]

Funny, it seems like it's the same freedom you had under dictatorships

The most productive slaves are those who think they are free.

Re: This is SO WRONG !!

[bill_mcgonigle]

If Manning felt the need for whistle blowing, he had various options that did not include sending all that data to a foreign organization.

You are aware that he contacted the NYT and WashPo. (to the point of WashPo having a copy of the Apache video) and they didn't report on it, right? He then went to Wikileaks (allegedly).

And WikiLeaks isn't 'foreign', it's a post-nation-state entity (without allegiance to any government).

dat justice

[Anonymous Coward]

So... hacking into a fratboy's fb account is a more serious charge than raping the everloving shit out of someone?

Any tips on bulk-order condoms and hockey masks?

Re:dat justice

[Dthief]

From the article it appears that he is being charged with hacking the school website in order to upload the video, not being charged for preserving the content for authorities.

That being said, I still think the relative sentences are really out of whack, and that rapists (even juveniles) should absolutely be more harshly punished than hackers who do not hack in a way that causes significant harm.

Re:dat justice

[Charliemopps]

Keep in mind that "Significant harm" usually means the victim now has to spend lots of money upgrading the security that they never had in the first place. Because, after all, they would never had needed that if it wasn't for said hacker right?

Re:Juveniles get different sentences to adults.

[PolygamousRanchKid]

"Juveniles" who commit "adult" acts of rape . . . aren't really "juveniles" any more.

FTG

[AndyKron]

But it's OK for the government to hack everybody, all the time. FTG

perversion of justice

[MoFoQ]

I must say...it is a perversion of justice, puns not intended.

I may need to write to one of my local reps, Zoe Lofgren who's working to change the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to make it "less vague" and have her add some other reforms.
Sure, "hacking" for vigilantism is wrong and two wrongs don't make it right, but neither does three: throwing the book at Deric Lostutter.

heck, that guy in texas who killed that escort got less

Re:Juveniles get different sentences to adults.

[Attila Dimedici]

Reading some of the responses to your post, I think people are missing your point. So. I am going to rephrase it so that they might understand.

The summary compares apples to oranges. It compares the sentence which the rapists actually received to the maximum sentence that the hacker MIGHT receive. The rapists MIGHT have received a much stiffer sentence than they did and it would be a travesty of justice if the hacker DID receive a sentence longer than that received by the rapists.

Re:stop comparing apples and oranges

[Anonymous Coward]

It doesn't make sense to compare actual sentences (and in this case juvenile sentences!) with theoretical maximums for adult defendants

What they did, the way they fingered that poor girl, took video of it, and then spread the vid to everybody they knew, -- if that happened to your daughter, would you still say that it's a "juvenile" case ?

Re:All I can say is ...

[the eric conspiracy]

Since when has voting ever been enough? You need to join activist organizations. Volunteer for campaigns. Write letters to your representatives (look what letter writing did to SOPA).

The idea that being a couch potato for two years, then driving down to the polls and casting a vote is enough is ridiculous.

Real change isn't something that happens that passively. Learn some history. Look what it took to get the Civil Rights Act passed.

Survival vs Copping out

[Anonymous Coward]

Back in the pre WW II days, those Jews who decided to stay behind (even if they could afford to move away), sure didn't commit any sin of cop out --- OTOH, those who did cop-out, didn't end up in the oven, tho

Re:Survival vs Copping out

[Anonymous Coward]

Please lower your voice or you'll end up in Gitmo.

Re:Survival vs Copping out

[Anonymous Coward]

The USA has the highest incarceration rate in the world. Individuals who believe in civil rights have often been targeted by the government and imprisoned by the government (see: citizens of Japanese-decent during WW2, the labor movement during the 1930s, the many various human rights movements, the Black Panthers, Nixon's spying on the Democratic Party Headquarters, etc etc etc). The glaringly racist drug policies (see: powdered cocaine vs crack sentencing) and systemic poverty have combined to create a wonderful system of ethnic cleansing for Young Black Males, no barbwire required.

 

Re:All I can say is ...

[bill_mcgonigle]

Learn some history. Look what it took to get the Civil Rights Act passed.

No significant unjust law has ever been overturned by people obeying it and then voting for somebody who promised to represent them in hopes they would get it repealed.

They forget to teach that in Civics class, don't they?

Re:Aghast

[ATMAvatar]

Rather than flamebait, I would salute the GP for the ingenious satire of the very thought process which led to the sentences being as lopsided as they are.

sentence RECIEVED v maximum possible

[Anonymous Coward]

While you're not speaking, re-read the article or summary. They compare the sentence someone involved actually received to the maximum possible sentence any hacker could theoretically get. Most commonly, a first time offender "facing ten years" will end up with probation. At this point, we have no idea what punishment the hacker will get, if any at all.

Canada: We're Better For Now!

[Phil Urich]

I've long held that Canada is, at best, about 5 to 10 years lag behind the States in terms of these things. People started doubting my claims when the recent Bush Administration was elected. They ceased doubting me once the Harper Administration came into power.