Firstly, this is (mostly) money that should have been spent in the first place securing the systems. If the holes existed and the figures being touted are the cost of plugging these holes, the 'hackers' haven't caused this spending to happen, they've merely caused this spending to happen NOW when it should have been spent when the system was first implemented. Aside from this, the sums involved are trifling amounts when you consider some of the pointless things the US government spends billions on. I very much doubt if your taxes will go up as a direct result of this incident!
Secondly, the sort of sentences being touted for what is essentially a victimless crime (in this instance as no damage was done) is appalling. Last week a guy in England got 10 years for abducting a 6 year old girl from her house and raping her. It seems this guy is looking at 10 times that. Granted we're talking about the US legal system which is considerably harsher that ours in general, but even so, this crime does not imo warrant such a severe sentence. All that has happened is that NASA will have to spend the money they should have spent in the first place.
You think thats bad... my local supermarket has self service checkouts where you ring through all you own stuff, then you just have to swipe the card to pay! No pin, no sig check, nothing!
You make some interesting points, however I take the basic theme of your argument to be "certain people will exhibit violent tendancies when influenced in some form". (Please forgive me if i'm misinterpreting what you're saying).
I would certainly agree with that, however I would still argue that this is no basis banning these cultural influences. Taking that argument to the extreme would lead to practically everything being banned. In my mind it would be like uniformly banning cars because some people drive dangerously.
There is a limit to how much we can censor because the huge HUGE minority are negatively influenced. Even if we were to go down this route, there are far more dangerous influences (imo) likely to encourage unwarranted violence than games and heavy metal. George Bush for one.
Btw, I hate Cannibal Corpse too, I just mention them as they pretty much embody what most people consider 'Evil, Satan-worshipping Death Metal'.
I was going to post in disagreement to this until I remembered that Hitler completed GTA in 12 hours, Charles Manson sat at #1 in the BF2 leaderboard for the best part of a year and Geoffery Dharma would play Doom 3 for days breaking only to chew on a foot.
Or maybe that's bollocks and people were killing each other in a variety of gruesome ways for thousands of years before Computer Games and Cannibal Corpse came along.
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Firstly, this is (mostly) money that should have been spent in the first place securing the systems. If the holes existed and the figures being touted are the cost of plugging these holes, the 'hackers' haven't caused this spending to happen, they've merely caused this spending to happen NOW when it should have been spent when the system was first implemented. Aside from this, the sums involved are trifling amounts when you consider some of the pointless things the US government spends billions on. I very much doubt if your taxes will go up as a direct result of this incident!
Secondly, the sort of sentences being touted for what is essentially a victimless crime (in this instance as no damage was done) is appalling. Last week a guy in England got 10 years for abducting a 6 year old girl from her house and raping her. It seems this guy is looking at 10 times that. Granted we're talking about the US legal system which is considerably harsher that ours in general, but even so, this crime does not imo warrant such a severe sentence. All that has happened is that NASA will have to spend the money they should have spent in the first place.
You think thats bad... my local supermarket has self service checkouts where you ring through all you own stuff, then you just have to swipe the card to pay! No pin, no sig check, nothing!
You make some interesting points, however I take the basic theme of your argument to be "certain people will exhibit violent tendancies when influenced in some form". (Please forgive me if i'm misinterpreting what you're saying).
I would certainly agree with that, however I would still argue that this is no basis banning these cultural influences. Taking that argument to the extreme would lead to practically everything being banned. In my mind it would be like uniformly banning cars because some people drive dangerously.
There is a limit to how much we can censor because the huge HUGE minority are negatively influenced. Even if we were to go down this route, there are far more dangerous influences (imo) likely to encourage unwarranted violence than games and heavy metal. George Bush for one.
Btw, I hate Cannibal Corpse too, I just mention them as they pretty much embody what most people consider 'Evil, Satan-worshipping Death Metal'.
I was going to post in disagreement to this until I remembered that Hitler completed GTA in 12 hours, Charles Manson sat at #1 in the BF2 leaderboard for the best part of a year and Geoffery Dharma would play Doom 3 for days breaking only to chew on a foot. Or maybe that's bollocks and people were killing each other in a variety of gruesome ways for thousands of years before Computer Games and Cannibal Corpse came along.