> Then you look at them, determine their intent (to publish Bill's SSN) and punish them or not accordingly. That sounds like a very pragmatic view of the legal

> Then you look at them, determine their intent (to publish Bill's SSN) and punish them or not accordingly. That sounds like a very pragmatic view of the legal system. I'm more idealistic so I'd rather say that you have to "prove" (rather than "determine") their intent before you can punish them. ;P Look, I'm not saying you're wrong, but there absolutely are times when the "geeks" win. For example consider export control for cryptographic algorithms which was thoroughly ridiculed by "geeks" [1] and later scrapped IIRC. 1. http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/ http://www.cypherspace.org/rsa/