4 ms·

I don't think his crime warrants jail time. Then you would agree that the law should not have enabled the government to indict and then convict him on charges

• tptacek 11y ago
  There are no felony charges that don't warrant jail time. There are, however, federal sentencing guideline ranges that could result in probation instead of a custodial sentence given: no remunerative intent, no prior convictions, &c. I think a lot of people could agree that this is a crime that should have landed in the lower range of the guidelines (but might not, given the CFAA guideline damage scaling). I don't think CFAA sentences should scale with damages at all, unless the prosecution can prove an intent to cause those damages (that's tricky in this case because the prosecution can put on a pretty good case demonstrating that intent).
• at-fates-hands 11y ago
  That is the argument about the CFAA -- that the law should be revised to rein in the government's crazy abuse of it. I absolutely agree the law should be revised. The only problem is trying to set a decent spectrum of punishments that have clear delineation points. This is the main reason I feel it hasn't been revised. The law is broad in its application, and the feds can argue that judges still have the ability to hand down more lenient sentences where they feel its applicable. I do agree because of its broad and vague terminology, the feds have used it to go after a wide range of offenses. Sometimes merited, but I fell in this case, not so much.