6 ms·

Maybe he's a bad guy, but prison is worse than you think, and probably doesn't fit the crime here. Imnsho.

MBCook 3y ago
He wasted a fantastic amount of the court’s time and various people’s time and money which they never got back. He clearly knew what he was doing was wrong. Why shouldn’t there be some criminal statute to punish him? Nothing here fixes any of the harm he’s caused. It just (hopefully) prevents him from doing it in the future. Though based on how he got here I’m guessing he’ll find a new way.
- lmm 3y ago
  > He wasted a fantastic amount of the court’s time and various people’s time and money which they never got back. Virtually every crime costs other people time and money. We generally draw a line between that and more severe varieties of crime, such as those involving physical violence.
  - AnthonyMouse 3y ago
    Fraud and extortion are both criminal offenses that can carry prison terms without committing any act of violence.
    - mgkimsal 3y ago
      And once you get to prison, there definitely will be physical violence.
shmerl 3y ago
What do you think the punishment for protection racket and extortion should be? Patent trolling is exactly that, except masking under the legal system.
- javajosh 3y ago
  It's worse because it's coming from a particularly trusted position, an officer of the court. In the same way it is particularly heinous when a doctor physically harms someone for profit, it is particularly heinous when a lawyer legally harms someone for profit. In both cases they've taken specific oaths and have special duties above-and-beyond regular people to avoid doing such harm. In some sense the question of whether or not these bodies (doctors, lawyers, police officers) actually have higher standards or not is answered by what they do when they find a clear breach of conduct. If they do nothing, or rarely do anything to punish bad behavior, then they don't deserve their reputation for high standards and are, in fact, just a partisan group merely profiting off of a reputation of self-restraint.
  - 20after4 3y ago
    I don't think lawyers have a reputation for holding themselves to a high standard. There is a reason that an entire genre of insulting jokes exist targeting lawyers integrity, or rather their general lack of integrity.
- alistairSH 3y ago
  Prison costs us a massive amount of money. For that reason alone, I’d be fine with many non-violent criminals being sentenced to monetary punishment and community service or something else that might add value back to society.
  - westhanover 3y ago
    [flagged]
    - Brian_K_White 3y ago
      Spoken like someone who didn't lose a chance at a house or a college program or a kid or medical treatment or a job due to a thing like this. Fine, how about we give him a pony, it will be nicer. Hey this is cool, hyperbole is the best. So much easier than trying to actually figure anything out. Thanks for the tip. Were his actions accidents? Mistakes? Understandable human foibles we all might make? Is it physically possible for him to make all his victims whole by paying back money and un-fucking all the countless missed opportunities and plans etc? The answer to both of those questions is no. So what then? Prison already is the tempered response.
dudeinjapan 3y ago
Patent trolls literally destroy people’s livelihoods and lives. They make billions by destroying trillions in value.
- kube-system 3y ago
  Patents and copyrights are quite different parts of the law. They aren't the same thing.
lelanthran 3y ago
> Maybe he's a bad guy, but prison is worse than you think, and probably doesn't fit the crime here. Imnsho Seeing as how he is not required to make his victims whole, even prison time is getting off lightly. Other criminals don't usually get to keep the proceeds of their crimes, even with prison time. If the court ordered prison this time, he still gets to enjoy the proceeds when he gets out.

He wasted a fantastic amount of the court’s time and various people’s time and money which they never got back. He clearly knew what he was doing was wrong. Why shouldn’t there be some criminal statute to punish him? Nothing here fixes any of the harm he’s caused. It just (hopefully) prevents him from doing it in the future. Though based on how he got here I’m guessing he’ll find a new way.

lmm 3y ago
> He wasted a fantastic amount of the court’s time and various people’s time and money which they never got back. Virtually every crime costs other people time and money. We generally draw a line between that and more severe varieties of crime, such as those involving physical violence.
- AnthonyMouse 3y ago
  Fraud and extortion are both criminal offenses that can carry prison terms without committing any act of violence.
  - mgkimsal 3y ago
    And once you get to prison, there definitely will be physical violence.

shmerl 3y ago

What do you think the punishment for protection racket and extortion should be? Patent trolling is exactly that, except masking under the legal system.

javajosh 3y ago
It's worse because it's coming from a particularly trusted position, an officer of the court. In the same way it is particularly heinous when a doctor physically harms someone for profit, it is particularly heinous when a lawyer legally harms someone for profit. In both cases they've taken specific oaths and have special duties above-and-beyond regular people to avoid doing such harm. In some sense the question of whether or not these bodies (doctors, lawyers, police officers) actually have higher standards or not is answered by what they do when they find a clear breach of conduct. If they do nothing, or rarely do anything to punish bad behavior, then they don't deserve their reputation for high standards and are, in fact, just a partisan group merely profiting off of a reputation of self-restraint.
- 20after4 3y ago
  I don't think lawyers have a reputation for holding themselves to a high standard. There is a reason that an entire genre of insulting jokes exist targeting lawyers integrity, or rather their general lack of integrity.
alistairSH 3y ago
Prison costs us a massive amount of money. For that reason alone, I’d be fine with many non-violent criminals being sentenced to monetary punishment and community service or something else that might add value back to society.
- westhanover 3y ago
  [flagged]
  - Brian_K_White 3y ago
    Spoken like someone who didn't lose a chance at a house or a college program or a kid or medical treatment or a job due to a thing like this. Fine, how about we give him a pony, it will be nicer. Hey this is cool, hyperbole is the best. So much easier than trying to actually figure anything out. Thanks for the tip. Were his actions accidents? Mistakes? Understandable human foibles we all might make? Is it physically possible for him to make all his victims whole by paying back money and un-fucking all the countless missed opportunities and plans etc? The answer to both of those questions is no. So what then? Prison already is the tempered response.

dudeinjapan 3y ago

Patent trolls literally destroy people’s livelihoods and lives. They make billions by destroying trillions in value.

kube-system 3y ago
Patents and copyrights are quite different parts of the law. They aren't the same thing.

lelanthran 3y ago

> Maybe he's a bad guy, but prison is worse than you think, and probably doesn't fit the crime here. Imnsho Seeing as how he is not required to make his victims whole, even prison time is getting off lightly. Other criminals don't usually get to keep the proceeds of their crimes, even with prison time. If the court ordered prison this time, he still gets to enjoy the proceeds when he gets out.