This is a good thought experiment. I'd like to expand on it. The author points to these items: - The value they expect to gain for themselves by attemptin

This is a good thought experiment. I'd like to expand on it. The author points to these items: - The value they expect to gain for themselves by attempting the attack. - The probability of getting caught. - The punishment they expect to receive if they do get caught. They then make the argument that it's disadvantageous to try to maximize the probability of getting caught or increasing the punishment (items 2 and 3). Legalizing cybercrime would have some positive effects, for sure, but also many negatives, as discussed. What if we tried to minimize "value they expect to gain for themselves by attempting the attack"? Here's a twist, I'd like to consider minimizing that by breaking it down further. There are two important components here: 1. the value 2. the who (the boundary of what's included as part of "themselves") I don't think it's easy or viable to reduce the value gained, but what if it were possible to change the definition of "the who"? I look at myself as an example here. I personally have very little interest in harming others. Even if I were in a hypothetical situation where I knew I could do something with low chance of being caught and/or low punishment, I still wouldn't take advantage of that situation. In fact, I would really enjoy being nice/white hat in such a situation. But it's not because the value is low, it's because I consider "myself" as the overall humanity and not just myself the person who's typing this comment. My goal is to maximize the benefit for everyone by creating net positive value. I know that if I could to DDoS or steal money from someone, even if it's risk-free or legal, I still wouldn't do it just because it doesn't benefit all of humanity (even if it benefits myself)... the value as I see it is overall negative (I gain less than someone else loses). So I wonder if it's possible for more people to look at things that way, where they try to maximize value for everyone rather than themselves. Can we increase people's empathy? But most importantly, if everyone behaved this way, would that actually be better for us, or would absence of selfish behavior and competition be harmful?