Father: Aaron Schwartz Internet Genius Killed by Obama Admin

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

Whatever was last done to Lindsey Lohan.

Seriously? I'd give him six months in jail suspended to one week (long enough to get a taste of it), a $10,000 fine and 16 hours a week of community service for the next three months. If he does something similar again, the suspended sentence goes into effect, on top of whatever else he has earned.

[Edit: that's without going into any issue of whether the law is a good one or not, just the issue of sane enforcement versus malicious, terroristic prosecution.]
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SiberianSniper · Posted: Thu Jan 17, 2013 10:29 pm Post subject:

This reminds me of http://thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=suicide_blame

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

dmitchell · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 3:24 am Post subject:

Muso · Posted: Fri Jan 18, 2013 6:57 am Post subject:

richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

Blame the naive Democrats who elected corrupt-ass Obama, who whored out to the entertainment, software, pharmaceutical, biotechnology, and financial industries (among others), and is stunning his liberal-minded supporters by persecuting file downloaders and software pirates with unbelievably brutal prosecution and penalties so severe they should only appropriate to corporate litigation, not individual crimes of little consequence.
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richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

To what extent would you agree or disagree with this statement:

The U.S. Federal Government's prosecution of electronic violators of copyright and intellectual capital suddenly increased in intensity following the election of Barack Obama, in terms of the number of cases brought, but most notably in terms of the severity of penalties sought (with unprecedented penalties at individual level being sought, ranging into decades of prison time and millions of dollars in fines).

a) entirely true

b) mostly true

c) somewhat more true than false

d) somewhat more false than true

e) mostly false

f) entirely false

I'll give you a hint: the answer is (a). Also note that none of the choices have a "..., but blah blah blah ....." clause.
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richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

dmitchell · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 1:35 am Post subject:

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

More to the point, the prosecution chooses what penalties shall be sought, and then convinces the court they are in keeping with a rational interpretation of the letter and intent of the law.

What seems unfair about it to me is that this is a common behavior, but instead of broad-based punishment of a comparatively mild degree sufficient to deter repetition of the behavior, they are choosing what I call a terroristic approach, in singling out a few people and essentially destroying their lives. It doesn't seem right somehow; it seems malicious and oppressive.

But, maybe richk449 has a point as well. Maybe the law needs to be re-written. Maybe every file or site is not a new count of the offense. We don't write cable theft laws to count each show watched as a new count of theft of services or even each day.
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dmitchell · Posted: Wed Jan 23, 2013 4:56 am Post subject:

There's no question that the law needs to be written. Probably any law with a so-called mandatory minimum sentence needs to be rewritten.
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Your argument is invalid.

Tolstoi · l33t Joined: 20 May 2004 Posts: 670

The law has to act in a proportional and balanced way and it seems a bit unbalanced in this case. Unfortunately a lot of facts come together in this case - the depressions of Aaron and not being aware of the fact that civil disobedience has consequences and perhaps the prosecutor overreacting and a lot of things happening at once and at the wrong time. That builds up a lot of pressure.

If a case isn't handled balanced and proportional compared to other cases like theft, murder or any other kind of criminal act and people taking part in the case are trying to squeeze out anything that goes out of the case then the whole thing gets out of proportion.

So in the end he didn't rape or murder anyone nor did he cause physical harm to anyone. It has to be verified how much financial damage he may have caused of course and then the court may have tried to come to a balanced view of the whole case.

dmitchell · Posted: Thu Jan 24, 2013 6:25 pm Post subject:

He didn't cause any financial harm. All he did was download with wget instead point-and-click individual links. He violated TOS and the fedsmade it a felony hacking case.
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Your argument is invalid.

richk449 · Guru Joined: 24 Oct 2003 Posts: 345

http://journal.davidbyrne.com/2013/02/020513-civil-disobedience.html

Bones McCracker · Veteran Joined: 14 Mar 2006 Posts: 1605 Location: U.S.A.

Is going to jail part of civil disobedience? It depends on your flavor of civil disobedience. I don't think I'd willingly go to jail unless I thought it would inspire other people to act, and maybe to get my ass out.

Wikileaks :roll:

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pjp · Administrator Joined: 16 Apr 2002 Posts: 17121