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Mitnick Charges Dropped

Posted by justin++ on from the free-meatloaf! dept.

Keefesis (the first of many who wrote in with the news) writes "The L.A. District Attorney dropped the case against Mitnick according to this article by MSNBC. Nice birthday present I guess :) " I wonder what this will do the movie Takedown (based on the book) that is currently in post-production, and stars Tom Berenger as John Markoff, and Skeet Ulrich as Kevin Mitnick. No joke. Update: 08/07 01:43 by J : To clarify, he is not out of the woods yet. The federal charges against him have not been dropped.

1 of 247 comments (clear)

  1. Script kiddie, no. by Signal+11 · · Score: 3

    For the full scoop, check out freekevin

    Kevin Mitnick was in the wrong place at the wrong time. This story has been going on for longer than slashdot has been in existance. This story was going on before Linux was more than a twinkle in somebody's eye, and before the Web was anything more than the province of colleges.

    So you'll forgive me if I am alittle irate at the idea of people comparing him to a "script kiddie", because not only don't they know the story, but they are doing a grave dis-service to the community by saying something like that.

    Kevin Mitnick, in short, is a political prisoner. He was in the wrong place at the wrong time, and has paid for it with over four years in jail without a trial. That's what makes this story significant to the community - that our government was, and still is, so ignorant of how computers and networks work, that they will imprison people for years and years without a trial because they don't understand. Kevin is in jail because of political posturing - the SS and FBI needed to make an example, and that came in the form of one Kevin Mitnick, a petty thief with just enough knowledge of computers to fool the public into thinking he was some super-terrorist.

    And that, fellow slashdotters, is why this story is important. Somebody's right to due process was stripped away; Because of ignorance, apathy, and political posturing, a man has been sitting in jail for four years, unable to contribute anything to society. Rapists spend less time in jail than this person has.

    Keep that in mind before you try to dismiss this as just another script kiddie who got caught...

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