"Hackers"-- brief review and anecdote...

[Brian Davis]

On Sun, 17 Sep 1995 hallam at w3.org wrote:

> 
> >I saw "Hackers" yesterday. It's not bad and its political sensibility is
> >very cyberpunk. The ad campaign even uses the tag line, "Their only crime
> >is curiosity." 
> 
> I know companies who have spent millions cleaning up after a hacker breakin. 
> I've been up at two in the morning trying to stop a person with known mental 
> problems breaking into a site with some very dangerous computer controlled 
> machinery. I've dealt with people trying to get rich quick by defrauding others. 
> I've met some real evil bastards who simply want to ruin as many other peoples 
> lives as they possibly can, including people that thought they were their 
> friends.
> 
> To me teenagers who break into computer systems are not funny at all, its like 
> joyriding, its funny until someone gets hurt. I know people who have got hurt 
> real bad.
> 
> I like having privacy, part of the cost of that privacy is respecting the 
> privacy of others.
> 
> 	Phill
> 

Phill obviously presents one point of view, vigorously and well.  What do 
the rest of you think about a teen who, say, busts into a .edu site, 
plays with the files, and ultimately brings the system down entirely for 
36 hours?  Fun and games?  Send him to his room, sans modem? Prosecute 
him?  Have a TLA hire him???

Not an easy answer for me for "mere trespass," but as damage mounts, it 
becomes easier. 

I'll try to post later tonight on my prior key escrow question.

EBD



Not a lawyer on the Net, although I play one in real life.
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Flame away! I get treated worse in person every day!!