Slot Machine Justice for Melissa Author

Slot Machine Justice for Melissa Author
Mark Rasch, 2002-05-13

Under capricious computer crime sentencing rules, virus-writer David Smith managed to get the right prison term for all the wrong reasons.

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Slot Machine Justice for Melissa Author 2002-05-14
Anonymous (2 replies)

Surely this whole approach has been wrong. Virus distribution is an act of vandalism and attention-seeking. I suggest it would have been better to pick a comparable act of physical damage and impose a corresponding sentence. If we list a few crimes we can imagine:

1) breaking a window
2) spen...

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Slot Machine Justice for Melissa Author 2002-05-15
Anonymous

Oh please. Virus creation comparable with car burning? Let me see....$15K-20K car vs incalculable lose of productivity, corporate data and trust. Hmmmm let me think about that. The problem with these silly discussions are that people are trying to compare the act of virus writing and hacking to ...

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Virus Writing Like Burning Cars 2002-05-15
Mark D. Rasch (1 replies)

It is indeed an apt analogy. How would you deal with someone who intended to burn an abandoned car (without authorization) but ended up gutting a forest or neighborhood? Should we punish intent, effect, or both? ...

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Virus Writing Like Burning Cars 2002-05-17
Anonymous (1 replies)

At a basic level, arson is arson. No matter the circumstances. Look, if I develop a virus, I know what I am doing and the level of potential harm which can be done. To say "oh I created Melissa (or whatever) but didn't know it would cause harm" is ludicrous.

If you attack my network in any fa...

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Virus Writing Like Burning Cars 2002-05-18
Mark D. Rasch (2 replies)

Clearly virus writing (actually writing is protected speech -- distribution) is a crime, and should be punished. Also, the punishment should relate to the seriousness of the offense. My question is whether monetary loss (tangible and intangible) is the most significant factor in determining seriou...

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What loss? 2002-05-22
Bugman (1 replies)

You mentioned that no companies declared a loss or claimed insurance from Melissa. Doesen't the govt need to show a loss? I'm suprised the defence didn't ask for habius corpus (sic, I know). I have not seen action against spammers (or junk mail for that matter.) All Melissa did was create a lot ...

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What loss? 2002-05-23
Anonymous

I believe a company can show a loss due to productivity decrease. While we were not hurt by Melissa, we were devistated by Nimda and CodeRed and the productivity numbers show it.

The fact is virus writers are developing code whose purpose is to affect systems in a negative manner and releasing...

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Virus Writing Like Burning Cars (hmmmmm) 2002-05-28
Pierre Vandevenne

This analogy is, indeed, interesting. Let's imagine that I burn a car. Without any doubt, I deserve to be punished.
Now, what if the neighbouring car catches fire because of the heat and then in turn lights its neighbour etc... until 25% of the cars in the city burn ? Woudln't car manufacturers sh...

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Pathetic Security Get Hammered And Then They All Cry 2002-05-25
Skull K.

These companies crying foul, and crying about losses are almost certainly companies that had pathetic security. If I parked $10 million dollars worth of china next to a football stadium with drunks and then complained why I kept losing merchandise no one would be sympathetic. It is only because comp...

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