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You don’t understand, when it comes to taxes we follow the letter of the law, not the spirit. Financial hackers are technically using legal means to accomplish

by xwdv 4y ago

You don’t understand, when it comes to taxes we follow the letter of the law, not the spirit. Financial hackers are technically using legal means to accomplish their goals. The law is the law.

amelius 4y ago
My point is that this is strange. Breaking into a government website is illegal. However if the code on their server was part of "the law", it suddenly becomes legal?
- xwdv 4y ago
  If the law says it’s legal, that is the law.
  - amelius 4y ago
    Still strange. It should be: if it's against the spirit of the law, it's illegal. Otherwise we could replace judges by computers who just evaluate logic statements in the book of law.
    - xwdv 4y ago
      No, fuck the spirit of the law. If that’s what society runs itself on then the written laws don’t matter and the real laws become whatever subjective bullshit the judges decide at the moment. “Hidden” laws essentially. Dystopia. Logic statements that evaluate to legal or illegal is the ideal when it comes to laws, judges are only necessary when logical certainty isn’t possible.
      - amelius 4y ago
        I see a contradiction there. You want the law to be like code, but actual computer code you are still not allowed to use in unintended ways? How would that last part be encoded in the law? Anyway, I'm ok with a more logical, objective interpretation of the law, but then also the loopholes in the law should be treated as code exploits: it should be possible to report them and then they should be fixed asap.
        xwdv 4y ago
        The loopholes are not exploits. They are unintended consequences of poorly written laws. What you are asking is for laws to be rewritten. There are already normal procedures in place for proposing changes to laws. Write to your congressman.
- palata 4y ago
  The code is not the law. You break laws by breaking into a government website. You don't break law by hacking it, that's the point. A loophole is not illegal, it's a workaround.
loa_in_ 4y ago
So if a website gives one access to some data, is it okay because it clearly serves it to public?

by xwdv 4y ago

You don’t understand, when it comes to taxes we follow the letter of the law, not the spirit. Financial hackers are technically using legal means to accomplish their goals. The law is the law.

amelius 4y ago

My point is that this is strange. Breaking into a government website is illegal. However if the code on their server was part of "the law", it suddenly becomes legal?

xwdv 4y ago
If the law says it’s legal, that is the law.
- amelius 4y ago
  Still strange. It should be: if it's against the spirit of the law, it's illegal. Otherwise we could replace judges by computers who just evaluate logic statements in the book of law.
  - xwdv 4y ago
    No, fuck the spirit of the law. If that’s what society runs itself on then the written laws don’t matter and the real laws become whatever subjective bullshit the judges decide at the moment. “Hidden” laws essentially. Dystopia. Logic statements that evaluate to legal or illegal is the ideal when it comes to laws, judges are only necessary when logical certainty isn’t possible.
    - amelius 4y ago
      I see a contradiction there. You want the law to be like code, but actual computer code you are still not allowed to use in unintended ways? How would that last part be encoded in the law? Anyway, I'm ok with a more logical, objective interpretation of the law, but then also the loopholes in the law should be treated as code exploits: it should be possible to report them and then they should be fixed asap.
      - xwdv 4y ago
        The loopholes are not exploits. They are unintended consequences of poorly written laws. What you are asking is for laws to be rewritten. There are already normal procedures in place for proposing changes to laws. Write to your congressman.
palata 4y ago
The code is not the law. You break laws by breaking into a government website. You don't break law by hacking it, that's the point. A loophole is not illegal, it's a workaround.

loa_in_ 4y ago

So if a website gives one access to some data, is it okay because it clearly serves it to public?