rprasad

10 ms·

31.
by rprasad 14y ago
It should tell you something that every lawyer on HN is defending Ortiz. It's because Ortiz isn't the problem--the system, and more specifically the laws, are the problem. Nietzsche's justifications have no relevance here. Removing Orti
32.
by rprasad 14y ago
Congress wrote the law making those acts a crime and imposing sentencing guidelines, not the USDOJ.
33.
by rprasad 14y ago
4 black teens in NY went to prison for 2 decades after a white woman mistakenly identified them as her attackers. Texas has executed several innocent men. The South had a history of lynching black men without a trial, and letting white
34.
by rprasad 14y ago
PACER was designed in the early 1990s, before the internet was popular, i.e., when AOL was the internet for most of America. Indeed, PACER is probably as old, if not older than, most HN users. It has not been upgraded since then, largely
35.
by rprasad 14y ago
Kristen, please ignore jacquesm, he is a known troll. Public interest lawyers are far more valuable contributors to HN, and especially to this discussion, then the histrionics and hyperbole of him and his ilk.
36.
by rprasad 14y ago
If a great injustice really was being committed, the EFF and the ACLU would have fallen over themselves to represent Aaron pro bnono (for free). The fact they did not suggests otherwise.
37.
by rprasad 14y ago
I believe this is a per se example of what potatolicious was referring to. Lessig, Stamos, and Swartz are what is legally known as "biased" toward Aaron's case. Naturally, MIT, JSTOR, and various persons in the federal government have diff
38.
by rprasad 14y ago
As a former defense attorney, I would have loved it if jury nullification was intentionally designed into the system. Unfortunately, it's not. It's just a great side effect of the right to a trial by jury. In the American legal system, the
39.
by rprasad 14y ago
JSTOR charges an access fee so that it does not have to waste resources on constant fundraising. Fundraising for nonprofits is not like fundraising in SV. Nonprofits can easily spend 50% of their income on fundraising because it is damned
40.
by rprasad 14y ago
The government generally does require that publicly funded research be made publicly available without cost. However, that same statute grants agencies the right to have such research withheld from public distribution for various reasons (
41.
by rprasad 14y ago
If that were the case, they would not be a non-profit. The IRS zealously audits nonprofits (except for the religious ones) to make sure that their resources are not going to the benefit of insiders. Penalties for such situations are...ext
42.
by rprasad 14y ago
Yep, missing a word in my original comment... my net market returns were close to zero or negative until late 2012.
43.
by rprasad 14y ago
Google has several billions in free cash lying around to do stuff like this, and many billions more coming in from its various income sources. JSTOR does not many billions in cash, nor any income sources other than access fees. Ergo, JSTOR
44.
by rprasad 14y ago
JSTOR is merely a repository; it does not control what journals do with their articles. Some contributors to JSTOR also make their articles freely available online. Many do not. Either way, it's not for JSTOR to decide.
45.
by rprasad 14y ago
If that's true, then I think you need to follow up with the authorities, i.e., by sending your website to the California state Department of Justice, which has the authority to investigate these matters, or else to the consumer protection a
46.
by rprasad 14y ago
It is necessary for you to actually read the citations referred to by that page (which is just a general summation, not an authoritive declaration on the authority of federal prosecutors), since federal criminal statutes generally do not
47.
by rprasad 14y ago
Pvt. Manning leaked classified information while serving as a member of the armed forces. Members of the US Military are subject to significantly higher standards of conduct than are civilians. Pvt. Manning should consider himself lucky th
48.
by rprasad 14y ago
Aside from the collaboration functionality which is now present in Office 2013, Google Apps is about where Office was in 2000. It has a long way to go before it is a suitable replacement for anything except the simplest business uses.
49.
by rprasad 14y ago
Microsoft doesn't sell desktops, so it doesn't care what brand of hardware Windows is running on.
50.
by rprasad 14y ago
Until Android can run an office suite that doesn't horribly mangle basic formatting, Microsoft has nothing to worry about.
51.
by rprasad 14y ago
People who voluntarily affiliated with the Nazis suffered a permanent black mark on their reputations, even when they were not aware of what was going on at the time. Those who, after the extent of their evil actions were known, continued
52.
by rprasad 14y ago
I invoke Goodwin's Law. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Godwin%27s_law
53.
by rprasad 14y ago
Federal prosecutors swear an oath to uphold all federal laws, and are generally bound by that oath unless an executive order by the president directs them not to enforce a particular law (in which case the president, not the prosecutor, wou
54.
by rprasad 14y ago
Generally, the best prosecutors (in the sense of securing convictions) view their targets as trophies to be collected. This is part of what makes them so "good"--by objectifying the target, they are better able to think purely strategically
55.
by rprasad 14y ago
Europe's sentencing laws are not comparable to U.S. sentencing laws. In the U.S., that same crime would have resulted in a minimum of life in prison, and possibly would have resulted in the death penalty.
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by rprasad 14y ago
It depends. Did Gonzalez's actions result in anyone committing suicide, or any divorces or families breaking up? If it did, then it definitely deserves as long a sentence as murder. Indeed, an (attempted) financial crime of this magnitude
57.
by rprasad 14y ago
The fact that the family chose to come forward with such a clear and bold statement condemning particular institutions on the day of their loss alone is proof enough that they strongly believe MIT and the DA's office played a critical part
58.
by rprasad 14y ago
As a former criminal defense attorney, I will say that based on what has been published about her on HN and other websites she's actually very good at her job as a prosecutor , precisely because she is overzealous. In fact, if her fellow
59.
by rprasad 14y ago
1) A bad check is a state level offense, not a federal offense, and the discretion afforded to state and local prosecutors is far greater than the discretion afforded federal prosecutors (though federal prosecutors have broader powers). 2)
60.
by rprasad 14y ago
The prosecution does not say that Aaron was a bad man. They merely alleged he committed acts which fall within the definition of a crime under statutes passed by Congress. It is irrelevant whether Aaron is bad or good; the law addresses on

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