Hackers may get life sentences under proposed new law! (1 Viewer)

[Deane Johnson]

A new Anti-Terrorism law proposed by the Bush Administration would include computer hacking as a Terrorst act with penalties up to life in prison.
Now if they could just include spammers and telemarketers in the bill life would be good.
Deane

 

[CRyan]

I wonder if that will include those that write viruses. That would be nice. Although, these things need to be addressed, I wonder hard it would be to actually prosecute.
C. Ryan
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http://www.elitestoragedesigns.com/RyanOAR.bmp

 

[Brent Cantrell]

What's scary to me is their possible definitions of hacking. Things like this tend to be too broad in scope and hurt innocents as well as criminals. Look at Skylarov and the DMCA. This could be bad.
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http://www.dvdprofiler.com/mycollect...lias=BCantrell

 

[BrianB]

A new Anti-Terrorism law proposed by the Bush Administration would include computer hacking as a Terrorst act with penalties up to life in prison.

And this is definitely a Bad Thing as the definition of 'hacker' is incredibly loose & biased. Look at the current case of Adobe vs Skylarov.
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Nothing In Particular

 

[Deane Johnson]

Here's a link to the story.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/sci...00/1568302.stm
Deane

 

[Bill Catherall]

Here's a quote that should ease your minds a bit:

Officials and academics have warned that cyber attacks could be a dangerous part of warfare against the US.
"The vast majority of previous politically related cyber attacks have been nuisance attacks, and it is extremely likely that such attacks will follow any US-led military action," said a recent report by the US-based Institute for Security Technology Studies.
It added that, "the potential exists for much more devastating cyber attacks following any US-led retaliation to the 11 September terrorist attacks on America. Such an attack could significantly debilitate US and allied information networks".

This new legislation doesn't say that all hackers will receive a life sentence. It just allows for that kind of penalty if the crime is heinous enough. Not all murders get life sentences, but it is available to some.
I think this is a great plan.
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Bill