Web world of law online

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The continuing techtv - Adrian Lamo saga.

Well, techtv's "the screen savers" followed thru on what it said it would do and sent one of its people down to meet with Lamo before he turned himself in. There's an interview and footage of Lamo talking with a Federal Defender investigator. Then they follow him all the way to the door of the federal building as he goes to turn himself in.

Apparently he is facing two felony charges, each with a maximum of 5 years and he has hidden all his gear (of course, as part of whatever plea made he will be forced to turn those over - hopefully he did at least a DoD wipe so there is no evidence for new charges).

While the good people at the screen savers were quick to point out that they don't approve of what Lamo did they seem puzzled over the prosecution. And I gotta say I'm right there with them. Unless there is more evidence than is apparent, this hacker did no harm and in fact helped a number of companies by pointing out what was wrong with the security on their systems. It just seems that the NYTimes was petulant and somehow was able to exert enough influence to drag the feds into its tantrum.

Will this prosecution hinder illegal, malicious hacking? No. All this prosecution does is suppress whatever good instincts are out there among those hackers who might actually have done something beneficial.