Well you were being a bit dishonest; the actual maximum sentence was 50 years. :P > Why does trespassing onto a network fit into a category of crimes for which

Well you were being a bit dishonest; the actual maximum sentence was 50 years. :P > Why does trespassing onto a network fit into a category of crimes for which prosecution can (and does) seek worse punishment than for actual physical assault? In a word: automation. It can be (note: doesn't mean always is) entirely different in scope to be a network trespasser than to trespass in real life. The Allies executed Germans after WWII who never so much as met their victims, based only on the fact that they wrote, approved and otherwise perpetuated policies that caused millions on the same continent to later perish. I'm not trying to say that Aaron or anyone else is killing people obviously, just that there's a lot of things you can conceivably affect on a computer network, which might make a computer-related charge even more serious than a similar charge in real life.