4 ms·

What weev did crossed many times into criminal territory. He harassed a lot of people in ways that made it either hard or unlikely to press charges. Seriously,

• fnordfnordfnord 13y ago
  So prosecute him for the shit that deserved prosecution and leave the CFAA out of it.
  • mpyne 13y ago
    Well someday we'll get CFAA reform... but even then I'm convinced that weev in particular would still have run afoul of it in this case (though presumably a misdemeanor variant of it). Security researchers in general wouldn't run afoul of even the current version IMO, though it's certainly prudent for security researches to re-emphasize how key some of those techniques are for them, so that we don't end up in a surreal situation where even altering a URL, cookie, etc. one time would subject one to conviction under CFAA.
    • chalst 13y ago
      What the current version means depends on how it works out in prosecutions. If weev is prosecuted, normal security research is endangered. That's the whole point of the Mencken quote squeak posted. Another favourite: "Bad cases make bad laws" - if bad principles get enshrined in the precedents made by convictions of bad people, those bad principles will hurt good people or good activity down the line. That's precisely why the EFF, Schneier, Felten, et al., are devoting their precious time to this case.
• moocowduckquack 13y ago
  I think that people who employ your kind of cowboy-film morality on suspension of rights for those they dislike to be complete scumbags. I'd still want you to have a fair hearing if you ended up in the shit however, as I hold the quaint notion that the criminal justice system should at least attempt to be more than a popularity contest if it wants to retain any kind of legitimacy.