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Pirate Bay Founder Warg Being Held in Solitary Confinement
From Torrent Freak comes news that one of the Pirate Bay founders is now being held in solitary confinement after Sweden turned him over to Denmark. From the article: "In a recent letter sent to Amnesty and shared with TorrentFreak, Gottfrid’s mother Kristina explains her son’s plight. She says that Gottfrid is being kept in solitary and treated as if he were a 'dangerous, violent and aggressive criminal' even though his only crime — if any — is hacking. Gottfrid’s lawyer Luise Høi says the terms of his confinement are unacceptable and are being executed without the correct legal process. 'It is the case that Danish authorities are holding my client in solitary confinement without a warrant,' Høi explains, noting that if the authorities wish to exclude Gottfrid from access to anyone except his lawyer and prison staff, they need to apply for a special order."
Hackers like this are able to launch missiles with just a pay phone. Keeping him in the general population would be suicidal.
Solitary confinement in a Danish prison - doesn't that just mean he gets the jacuzzi all to himself?
Slashdot: providing anti-social weirdos a soapbox, since 1997.
He should have blown up the world's economy, using criminal fraud. No criminal prosecution, or even investigation, despite enormous harm to millions and likely criminal action. Evil hackers? Give 'em solitary for life.
In Scandinavia it's a common pre-court procedure to deny the suspect of news and other means to by which they might influence or be influenced by the world outside.
And no, Amnesty does not like it.
In the real world, solitary confinement is often used as extrajudicial punishment by unaccountable authorities.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Dangerous: Violent:: "your son violently thrust production executives and C-levels into a state of abject povery by freely distributing material from poor artists who hadnt the chance to sign up with a label. As a result these suffering destitute former billionaires are reduced to driving a mercedes and eating domestic caviar."
Aggressive: "Your son aggressively refused to roll over and die when we attacked and litigated his userbase, his family, his friends and his civil rights. He was incomprehensively aggressive in opposing our bribery and extortion of his regional and local government officials in our pursuit of the definition of truth and justice"
so you see ma'am, hes clearly a threat
--MPAA
"what he said but hes also a terrorist and he killed two cats that were about to make the kids laugh out loud."
--RIAA
Good people go to bed earlier.
I really wish you kids would stop discovering Mitnick and worshiping him like a hero.
Lets get some facts about Mitnick straight.
He wasn't a fucking hacker, he was a socially inept douche back who actually was capable of lying his way into accounts of people who didn't know that giving your password out to some random guy that calls you is a bad idea.
Nothing he did was even a little bit impressive. Ever. Again, let me repeat since it might not have been clear: NOTHING HE EVER DID WAS EVEN A LITTLE BIT IMPRESSIVE.
Well ... except for one thing: His ego that happened to be the size of Africa. Mitnick was made an example because he is an ignorant arrogant prick who kept acting like he was a bad ass even thought the cops and lawyers were frying his ass for doing it, so they just made it as unbelievably bad on him as they could.
If you knew anything about the ACTUAL history of hacking and not what you read because some old dude told you about this guy that was 'the first hacker' as far as the american public was concerned ... you'd know he wasn't the first. He wasn't any good. And people with far better talent than him also went to jail for long periods of time. The only difference is that Mitnick's ego made him talk and act like he was a bad ass ...
Other guys, the ones who ACTUALLY did shit, you didn't hear about, neither before or after they got caught (for those who did get caught).
So anyway, back to my point. When you young'ens pull out the Mitnick name, its makes us old guys realize you're an ignorant cluebie who's name dropping trying to impress us with your knowledge of Internet lore ... We instantly see through you and that you're a fake douche trying to pretend you're something you're not.
Mitnick was a fucking douche, learn the real history and stop treading on his name. It'll be far less embarrassing for you.
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California makes a lot of use of 'not solitary confinement' as a way to combat prison gangs.
It involves prisoners being kept in single cell for 20 hours a day, with four hours allowed for exercise in a small yard and no communication permitted with other prisoners. Entertainment is not provided. Even books are not permitted, and these conditions can continue for years at the discretion of the head warden. Note that this is not legally solitary confinement, because *that* could be legally considered a form of torture if conducted for so long. Legally, it's simply a means to isolate suspected members of prison gangs.
In much the same way that certain other branches of the US government decided that waking inmates up every hour to verify they are not dead is only a means of preventing suicide, and not intentional sleep deprivation. Because that would be torture.
There's very little outrage about the California situation, because there is very little public sympathy for prisoners, and politicians fear being attacked by their opponents as 'soft on crime.'
+1 - Since I have no points :(
Social Engineering isn't hacking... Fortune Tellers and Used Car Salesmen have been doing it for years before networked computers were created...
"We know what happens to people who stay in the middle of the road. They get run over." - Aneurin Bevan
Or suspected (but innocent) gangbanger. Or someone that the authorities don't like but conveniently label as a gangbanger in order to torture. I mean it's not as if authorities would ever be so petty as to apply such punishments to petty crimes like, oh I don't know, (alleged) copyright infringement is it?
But hey, if you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear, right?
Fuck you, you jackbooted apologist.
Or insulting guard. Or protesting against other ill-treatment. Or being targeted by another prisoner looking to start a fight. There's no judicial oversight or accountability involved, as the prisoner is, well, a prisoner. A warden simply announces 'that guy is a troublemaker, throw him into the isolation cell.'
Solitary cells, and prison cells in general, are usually constructed to minimise any form of stimulation. Uniform grey walls, undecorated. Grey bedding on grey beds. Nothing that can be picked up or moved.
The root of the issue is that a large chunk of society really struggle with the idea of 'rehabilitation.' Instead they can only see the justice system as a deterrant - in their view, prisoners need to be made to suffer as much as possible, because the threat of this suffering is what stops other people from breaking the law. Modern decency stops them from openly advocating for torture, but they don't feel much like protesting against it either. Any attempt to improve education for prisoners or provide them with help back into the workforce or support after their release is just regarded as a 'weakness,' lessening the terror that prison is supposed to inspire in those contemplating crime.
So we end up with an industrial system for taking people who commit minor offenses, destroying them socially, destroying their education, ruining them financially, making them all but unemployable... and then we wonder why they turn to serious crime once they get out.