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Does Brian K. West deserve "the most severe punishment possible?"

The danger here is that people who know nothing about computers consider all programming tools and activities to be "hacking."

These laws will be created and administered by technological retards. Doesn't that scare you?

West "is just a guy who found a flaw and tried to fix it," as cryptography expert Bruce Schneier puts it. Even if he poked around a bit, these defenders say, he shouldn't be treated like a criminal. "The punishment doesn't fit the crime," Schneier says.

So, say you accidentally leave the door to your house unlocked and the guy across the street comes over to borrow your weedwhacker while you're not home. He knocks on the door and nobody answers. He gives the doorhandle a twist and notices it's unlocked. "Hmmm," he says to himself, "I wonder what ol' E. Pluribus Unum keeps in his underwear drawer?" So, he walks right in and starts snooping around. Shouldn't he have stayed out of the house?

Of course there has to be some common sense applied. Strict liability, applied to criminal cases, doesn't make any sense.

On the other hand, a single virus can cost billions of dollars in damages and even imperil lives. There is currently very little punishment being handed out, and it won't stop until there are some very high profile punishments handed down.

I assume most people here know I was deliberately exaggerating as far as the death penalty, although I'd actually support it if the hacking or virus directly led to loss of life.

"doesn't that scare you"--actually, yes, it does. We are right now witnessing in front of our eyes all the direst predictions of a klintoon martial law scenario being promoted by the majority of the public, including the bulk of the R's, and of the large amount of the so called governmental "leaders". It stinks, but it will go through in this reaction to a calamity that for all practical purposes can be laid squarely at government and big businesses feet, if you follow the cause and effect food chain back far enough. Their global free trade "business" and "law" policies lead substantially to the vulnerabilities we have just "enjoyed", and against which we had the constantly ridiculed warnings of a small handful of people. Now we have the same "experts" who will "come up with the solutions", the "response to terrorism". Uh huh, yep, I am real thrilled at this prospect, and doubly thrilled by the numbers of people who will march right off the cliff, not with them, but at their "orders". Not.

Hate to say it, but this is turning into the conservative equivalent of the columbine massacre making the liberals demand more "gun laws".

government=(create a) problem, reaction, solution, in most cases.