Can't Do The Time, Don't Do The Crime

A British hacker by the name of Gary McKinnon has lost his appeal for extradition to the US for hacking into sensitive military computer systems. What really burns my ass is this:

Mr McKinnon has never denied that he accessed the computer networks of a wide number of US military institutions between February 2001 and March 2002.

Mr McKinnon, arrested in November 2002, has always maintained that he was motivated by curiosity and that he only managed to get into the networks because of lax security.

So, going by that logic, he wouldn't mind if I stole his car since I can easily smash his windows? He wouldn't mind if I robbed him since he probably isn't armed? Lax security is definitely a problem for information techs, but it's not an excuse to commit a crime. It's not like he did this to one computer. He did this to 97 computers. He knew what he was doing was wrong and now he's going to have to face the music for it.

We extradite people to other countries for crimes they've committed there all the time. People around the Internet have used this case as an example of how Britain has become a servant of the US government, which isn't true. If Gary didn't hack into these systems, he'd be sitting at home right now.

If you don't want to go to jail, don't commit a crime. If you don't want to go to jail in a foreign country, don't commit a crime there either.

Travis
travis@rightwinglunatic.com