I don't know the guy but I would think prison is a bit extreme -- wouldn't community service or something (along with fine) be more appropriate?
prisons are for rapists, murderers, drug-dealers, etc.
I don't know the guy but I would think prison is a bit extreme -- wouldn't community service or something (along with fine) be more appropriate?
prisons are for rapists, murderers, drug-dealers, etc.
I'd rather have thieves in prison than drug dealers.
Its all well and good... and I think that would be an excellent system... but how would you police it?Quote:
Originally Posted by whispers
These people have already broken the law, so how can you trust them to do work in their field? Building software for the Gov, would no doubt have tons of back doors in, building websites would have all kinds of problems in it...
I mean getting prisoners to dig a holes and stamp license plates is one thing, but trusting someone who has broken the law to do something with skill and trust... well, I wouldn't want that labour...
Relax Aversion... it wasn't meant as a shot or a jab... it's just what came to my mind at the moment. This is because internet thieves (and theives in general) seem to use pseudonyms fairly commonly, so I think my comment wasn't all that misguided.Quote:
Originally Posted by aversion
Quote:
Originally Posted by whispers
wait a sec, according to the article, he already had a chance to "learn his lesson" without going to prison. Yet he kept doing it.
Besides, I doubt he even stays there for more than 2 years.
While not excusing his actions I feel that prison should only be for violent criminals or those that are a danger to society.
Otherwise there are plenty of better and more productive/redemptive efforts on which to spend their time.
Surely this fellow's talents could be put to use working for the authorities and/or his victims until he's paid his fine and paid back damages to the companies he harmed.
depends on the thieves, e.g.Quote:
Originally Posted by TallGuyLittleCar
1. A man who steals $1 million worth of software from a shop where he threatened the staff with a shotgun.
2. A man who steals $1 million worth of software from internet, P2P or whatever.
3. A man who sells drugs to some kids and fully knowingly that taking them may lead to death.
If there is only room for two people in our already overcrowded prisons I would rather send (3) and (1) to prison before considering (2).
Just my £0.02.
From what I've read, this isn't the first time he's done this, so perhaps a little time in the pokey is just what he needs to get the point (that and giving up everything he owns to pay some of the fines). Clearly he's not a productive member of society, and his freedom has proven to be a detriment to the well being of others.Quote:
Originally Posted by whispers
I'd assume he's probably not going to the most high security joint in Texas either. I could be wrong though.
Perhaps you'd think differently if it was your 1.5mil in goods that he stole. What would you want done to remedy your unrecoverable loss?Quote:
Originally Posted by Loyal Rogue
The thing you have to remember is that the US is a capitalist society which revolves around profit and loss. People who create loss by theft do damage society, in terms of economy and financial well-being.
Beyond that, do you really think a little supervised community service would be any sort of deterrant to future crimes? I think not.
I just can't see why, he has so much talent, was flashlevel not pulling in enough money?
Prison is a deterrant, not just to him but you can bet your ass there are a few people doing exactly what he did who are hastily packing up shop right now, they might not have done so if he just got some sort of community service.
I would be all for some sort of house arrest, tagging etc, but there has to be something more than community service and a fine to dissuade people from stealing. You've got to know that going down that route you're risking your liberty.
I have no idea about flashlevel but I know some other so called 'name' designers who were making less than $5k for some of these award winning sites, and I know one who was building sites for much less. You'd be surprised. There's far more money in building solid web sites with extensive back end functionality than there is in relatively static flashy promo sites.Quote:
Originally Posted by ctranter
I think that you could still put his talents to work without causing problems....he could develop websites or applications for the government but maybe just the frontend, you could then have a hired employee develop the backend for security purposes...even this way you sometimes get security holes. I used to think that having a hacker develop stuff for the government would be the way to go because if he knows how to get in, he may also know how to stop people from getting in. Actually I still think that way but maybe I don't know enough about hacking.
Funny... I just had to do the math on that one. At $20 per hour it would only take him 85.6 years to make restitution... and that figure assumes there's no tax on the income, and he works 24 hours a day for those 85 years.Quote:
Originally Posted by Loyal Rogue
$20 an hour, 7.5 hours a day, 5 days a week, 50 weeks a year, is about 32 years to earn $1.2 million. Assuming he keeps half to live on, that would be 64 years to pay it all back.
Still kinda impractical.
Martha had to do time over a lot less money. Besides that, he probably wont really serve 4 years.
I'm assuming that those advocating that only violent criminals should go to prison believe the Enron guys should walk?
See what happens when I do the math?
Someone else should always do the math.
A big TO NOTE: He did not simply offer the software as a free download violating copyrights and such.
He sold numerous copies of home-packaged, pirated software to people, whether or not they knew, allegedly twice. Money from this went directly into his pockets, to the order of $192,000.
It is indefensible.
$192,000 is:
771 Sony PSPs
946 Apple Ipod Nanos
711 Motorola Razrs
274 Copies of Flash 8 Professional
548,571 Packs of Winterfresh gum (35 cents)
518,918 thirty seven cent stamps
678 Gigabytes worth of music from Itunes (3.5 MB song size)(Math might be wrong)
401 Ounces of gold bullion
25 Pounds of gold bullion
That is the value of $192,000. Tangible dollars that he himself accrued in his own bank accont. Note that most figures are rounded.
However, I agree, if he were only giving away millions of dollars of software, I'd assume he was some free software fundamentalist that might need some probation and community service to understand that even if we don't like it, we operate under capitalism.
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Although Martha Stewart mishandled money, she broke security and exchange laws, she didn't technically steal, especially considering the company was involved :p
Guess the demand for Flash websites went cold...