I never said that society shouldn't show mercy or forgiveness. I think we should. I do however think that people should be punished when they commit a crime. The only one of your examples above that is similar to writing a virus is calling 911 when there is no emergency. I know that alot of people call 911 for stupid reasons and these people need to be educated about when to call 911. If someone is calling 911 as a joke because they get off on it then they should be punished. None of the other situations you mention are illegal and I understand that accidents do happen and in those cases I don't think criminal punishment would be appropriate. If you change the first senario a little and make it driving a car while drunk then it is a different story. That would make it illegal and if someone dies, or is hurt, because you are driving drunk then you should be punished and in my opinion severely. I also don't buy your argument that virus writers are immature teenagers and this somehow makes it less serious of an offense. I don't think that the age of a perpetrator should allow them to commit crimes. I do think it is obvious that most virus writers know that it is a crime to release a virus or they would include their name on it so they could become famous. If they know it is illegal and they still do it they should be punished. It looks like we agree on that and just disagree on the severity of the punishment. I've never supported "Zero-Tolerance". Using a zero-tolerance policy usually removes common sense from the equation and to me that is just a bad idea.
Please don't try to speak for everyone here. You may be right about the general attitude of slashdot readers when it comes to virus writers but not everyone here thinks that spreading a virus is a minor crime. I personally think that people who intentionally spread a virus should be treated very harshly. When you say its not like they killed someone you really don't know that. People can indirectly die because of a virus. It can screw up systems at a hospital which can lead to problems that may cause the death of a patient. One of my coworkers nearly died in a car accident in the middle of the night because we had to come in and make sure the systems had the latest virus signatures to protect against the outbreak of a new virus. Maybe if we treated these people more like criminals and less like children it would send a message to others who might write a virus or even videotape a movie. Whether you agree with my opinion or not just remember that when you use terms like 'we think' it makes it seem like you speak for everyone when you don't.
Slashdot Mirror
cyt0plas,
I never said that society shouldn't show mercy or forgiveness. I think we should. I do however think that people should be punished when they commit a crime. The only one of your examples above that is similar to writing a virus is calling 911 when there is no emergency. I know that alot of people call 911 for stupid reasons and these people need to be educated about when to call 911. If someone is calling 911 as a joke because they get off on it then they should be punished. None of the other situations you mention are illegal and I understand that accidents do happen and in those cases I don't think criminal punishment would be appropriate. If you change the first senario a little and make it driving a car while drunk then it is a different story. That would make it illegal and if someone dies, or is hurt, because you are driving drunk then you should be punished and in my opinion severely. I also don't buy your argument that virus writers are immature teenagers and this somehow makes it less serious of an offense. I don't think that the age of a perpetrator should allow them to commit crimes. I do think it is obvious that most virus writers know that it is a crime to release a virus or they would include their name on it so they could become famous. If they know it is illegal and they still do it they should be punished. It looks like we agree on that and just disagree on the severity of the punishment. I've never supported "Zero-Tolerance". Using a zero-tolerance policy usually removes common sense from the equation and to me that is just a bad idea.
Rob
Rob
Xepo,
Please don't try to speak for everyone here. You may be right about the general attitude of slashdot readers when it comes to virus writers but not everyone here thinks that spreading a virus is a minor crime. I personally think that people who intentionally spread a virus should be treated very harshly. When you say its not like they killed someone you really don't know that. People can indirectly die because of a virus. It can screw up systems at a hospital which can lead to problems that may cause the death of a patient. One of my coworkers nearly died in a car accident in the middle of the night because we had to come in and make sure the systems had the latest virus signatures to protect against the outbreak of a new virus. Maybe if we treated these people more like criminals and less like children it would send a message to others who might write a virus or even videotape a movie. Whether you agree with my opinion or not just remember that when you use terms like 'we think' it makes it seem like you speak for everyone when you don't.
Rob