RE: Civil Disobedience

[Robert Tillman <Robert.Tillman () veritas com>]

If you make hacking a terrorist activity punishable by life in prison, you
take the responsibility away from
those companies that put out bad software. Hackers have driven the security
industry and kept companies like M$ and $un for shirking their
responsibilities. My question for congress would be this. Would a terrorist
who has no problem dieing for his cause give a rats ass about going to
prison for the rest of his life. Considering that at the end of his life he
has a free ticket to heaven?

I think is best said by Thomas Jefferson (if I'm wrong on this someone
correct me).
-- "Those who would give up freedom for security deserve neither! "

Realizing the totality of our freedoms shrinking faster with every year, do
not we consider how comfortable we
are now in our security roles. Compared to a witch standing in front of a
Spanish inquisitor I think comfort would be a faded memory.









-----Original Message-----
From: Felix von Leitner [mailto:leitner () convergence de]
Sent: Monday, October 15, 2001 10:38 AM
To: vuln-dev () securityfocus com
Subject: Re: Civil Disobedience


Thus spake John Thornton (jthornton () hackersdigest com):
> Again, I have always felt it was my duty to report attacks against my
> network to there ISP. I looked at it as doing my part to make the internet
> more secure. I figured it is a good lesson for the kid to have his service
> taken away. If this bill becomes law then its no longer just some kid
> getting his service taken away. It is something that can escalate to much
> more and could result to some kid going to jail for a long time. I will
not
> be a part of it even if there is just a slight possibility that this can
> happen. I want nothing to do with it.

And what will that achieve?  The opposite of what you actually want: the
computer crime statistics will show a marked reduction of "cyber
criminality" and the government will not only believe they did the right
thing, they will also use this as precedent for other "terrorist"
problems.  Driving too fast, for example, because a very fast car causes
more damage on impact than a slow one, so it is obviously a terrorist
weapon.  So we better enact the death penalty on it.

Felix