I don't think you should qualify them based on either intention or consequences. Sit-ins and other civilized protest tools have both disruptive intentions and c

I don't think you should qualify them based on either intention or consequences. Sit-ins and other civilized protest tools have both disruptive intentions and consequences. I also think they are much closer to vandalism, but this is because of the technology of the act. If me and a couple of friends decide to hang around the entrance of a public institution and politely tell everybody who passes our opinion, that's civic protest. If we use any kind of tool to block the entrance door, no matter how briefly or cleanly, it's a crime. Same with DOSes. There is a threshold which once passed makes the whole thing a crime. 100.000 people visiting a site? Civic protest. 100.000 clicking F5? Most likely civic protest. 1000 people using specialized tools which are designed to go over DoS filters? I dare say it's much easier to make the case that this is a crime.