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Kevin Mitnick Free Today
Posted by
Roblimo
on Fri Jan 21, 2000 07:23 AM
from the four-years-eleven-months-six-days dept.
from the four-years-eleven-months-six-days dept.
Well, today is the day Kevin Mitnick is supposed to be released from prison. But many people feel sites like this one aren't obsolete quite yet, because it's hard for ex-cons to make their way in society, and it may be especially hard for Kevin because he isn't allowed to use computers - and that's what he's good at, right? A 60 Minutes interview with Kevin is scheduled to run this Sunday. Hemos comments, "One wonders if having a microphone near violates his Draconian parole computer restriction orders." An interesting - and scary - thought.
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Kevin Mitnick Free Today
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Re:Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:3)
He spent four years in jail without being convicted of a crime. This is partially because his lawyer was forced to waive his rights to a speedy trial. There were several million pages of evidence presented by the government, and Mitnick was given one part-time lawyer (whom the court refused to pay extra to give him more time to sift through the pile of evidence) and extremely limited access to a law library (and no access to computers). If he didn't waive his rights to a speedy trial, he'd have to waive his right to a fair trial. Forcing him to give up one or the other of his constitutional rights is obviously not something that should be allowed.
The damages claimed by the various companies also raises the issue of the financial cost of piracy, an issue discussed on slashdot in the past in other stories. Several companies claimed that since Mitnick obtained the source code to their operating systems and software, they had sustained a loss equal to the entire cost of development of the software and any future projected sales. This is obviously extremely innacurate (but common practice among the various anti-piracy groups). There's also the interesting fact that these millions of dollars of supposed losses were not reported to stockholders, as required under SEC regulations.
Finally, there's the issue of computer-use restrictions on parole. Many people, including myself, feel that these are wrong, and certainly counter-productive. Rather than keeping him from engaging in computer-related crime again, they will be more likely to remove his chances for employment and force him into crime to make money. His skills are computer-related, and even if he were to go for a job that wasn't directly computer-related, nearly all jobs these days use computers in one way or another.
Anyway, these, and some other assorted reasons, are why I, and I suspect many other slashdotters, care about Mitnick, despite the fact that he's a relatively uninteresting hax0r d00d in and of himself.
Re:Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:3)
Damages? (Score:3)
I think this is an excellent point of view. Lots of private information can be exploited for profit, but the acquisition of it is not necessarily theft.
By this logic, if I inform someone that their house is on fire, I should be charged with arson.
Legal boundary? (Score:3)
Can he still code? (Score:3)
Welcome home, Kevin... (Score:3)
Surely I wasn't the only one in this thread that remembers hearing WGO radio giving thier 'Mitnick
Manhunt Updates', and thought something like,
"What if that was me?".
*shiver*
Hey Kevin, let me buy you your first beer in four years. It's the least I can do.
"No Computers" (Score:3)
Or a B&E artist that he may not posess a crowbar, hammer, or any rope?
Or... a white-collar money launderer that he can't have any money?
Or... well, the list goes on.
The exception, of course, is guns... but we, as a society, prevent those who committed 'violent' crimes with guns from being allowed to legally posess guns, as they have demonstrated that they are a threat. A *violent, life-endangering threat*
Theft is defined by state law (Score:3)
Not for years has the legal definition of theft been limited to the "taking and asportation of personal property of another with the intent to deprive permanently." Modern statutes have liberalized or deleted virtually every element of the crime, largely because of hypertechnical arguments used by criminals to avoid justice.
Many words have both common and legal meanings, that may differ. Such differences, even if present, do not factor into whether the man is a criminal. By his own words, he was "like James Bond." Great, so instead of being a mere thief, he committed a capital crime!
So, this "argument" is really down to p.r. or sophistry. Sure, it may not be Kevin-Theft, or Slashdot-Theft, whatever those words might mean but if it is Legal-Theft (read the statutes) guess what? He goes to jail and deals with his probation.
For my part, this man's conduct was both wrongful and illegal, whatever it might have been called. He has not manifest great insight or technical skill in his admittedly routine cracking. He has offered nothing of value to the society which he has harmed. And so, he has done nothing to justify the martyrdom status bestowed upon him, and reflects poorly upon us all.
How he _not_ going to use computers ??? (Score:3)
Telephones, TVs, elevators, cars, ATMs, POS, VCRs, CD players and the list goes on. Even fastfood joints use computerised cooking equipment. Oddly, an old reel-to-reel tape recorder has no computer, so Kevin could use one to reprogram credit card magnetic strips. So maybe he shouldn't use credit cards either. If he could even get one.
Now the Judge probably didn't mean to prohibit these devices, or even know that they could be considered computers. But Parole Officers have a bad reputation for capriciousness, especially with high-profile parolees they want to take down a peg-or-two. So Kevin will have to watch is back, perhaps worse than in prison.
-- Robert
Re:Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:3)
Yes we all fuck up at some time in our life, but we don't all blatantly break the law like he did.
Trying to excuse his behaviour because he was addicted is like excusing a drunk from holding up a liquor store because he's an alcoholic. It just doesn't fit.
Adam
Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:3)
He's the computer equivalent to the shaking junkie who sticks a gun in the face of a 7-Eleven clerk to get money for a fix, then waves to the security camera on the way out. He left a trail a mile wide, and couldn't stop his illegal activities even when he knew the authorities were after him.
Why is he being portrayed as some kind of Digital Martyr?
Oh, this just marginally on topic but... (Score:3)
"Kevin Mitnick has been imprisoned by the U.S. Government for:
4 years, 11 months, 6 days, 12 hours, 12 minutes, 55 seconds
Kevin Mitnick will be released from prison in:
11 months, 30 days, 19 hours, 14 minutes, 8 seconds"
Y2K bug still alive and well huh?
Re:Slashdot interview? (Score:4)
Thanks for the idea.
- Robin "roblimo" Miller
Re:Rob, Get Kevin for a Slashdot interview! (Score:4)
Other stuff (Score:4)
ZDNet's got a Kevin Poulsen-written article on the Mitnick release here. [zdnet.com]
(Most of what I know of the Mitnick story comes from Jonathan Littman's book "The Fugitive Game" (which is about as Kevin sympathetic as "Takedown" is self-congradulatory), and the article sounds like Lewis DePayne's pretty Anti-Kevin now -- of course, he's got his own legal problems and probably wants to avoid some of the attention that a former accomplice might bring)
ABC News [go.com] has (at least as of midnight thursday) a poll on whether hackers should go to jail on their front page. (Not many options though.) They've got the Associated Press story on it here. [go.com]
Salon's got the same AP story here. [salon.com] (in case you want to look at different banner ads, I guess)
A decent summary of the Miramax flick is here. [corona.bc.ca] (interestingly, it lists the Project phase as "In the can" which sounds worse than "On the shelf" as the other articles mention-- which is too bad. I kinda wanted to see the story with a fistfight between Mitnick and Shimomura and everyone on rollerblades and constantly saying "What is the Matrix?")
-transiit
Re:Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:4)
Only job Kevin can actually do now. (Score:5)
Transcript of the interview. (Score:5)
KM: SKREEEEEEEEAWWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
GONNNNNNG GONNNNNG
KSSHHHHHHHHHHH
Kevin's case and the Justice system.... (Score:5)
First off, I'm all in agreement with everyone who said that Kevin's treatment by the Justice System was a shambles. Alot of the system got trampled in the rush to prosecute, and I'm not happy with the way the whole thing went at all.
That said, I'm really tired of people bitching and moaning about how Kevin really didn't do anything, and how his sentance was soooooo long, and now he has all these nasty restrictions, etc...
Some facts and a reality check here, folks.
So please, stop with the bitching about the sentance length. It's not atypical, nor unreasonable.
Bottom line here, folks, is that Kevin broke the law bigtime. I don't condone how he was prosecuted, but he IS a criminal.
And, if you look at things in the big picture, white collar crime is seriously UNDERPUNISHED in the US. White collar crime is generally far more damaging to society that violent crime (whose affect is more focused), in that white collar undermines the economic system itself. A couple of years washing dishes in a minimum-security facility doesn't even come close to being either a deterent or reasonable punishment.
One last thing here. The terms of his parole are neither onerous, nor atypical. Yes, for most of us, living without a computer would be unpleasant, but it is VERY easy to live a life without coming into contact with computers (or at least, in ways that Kevin's parole stipulate he not use them - and the ATM argument is bogus. He should have no problem using an ATM, if I read the parole terms right). Sorry, Kevin, you're just going to have to go be something other than an IT worker. That still leaves lots open. And plenty of non-menial jobs, too.
An old aphorism hold here:
If you can't do the time, don't do the crime.
I have no sympathy for Kevin himself. None at all. I'm still mad that prosecution handled itself the way it did, and I think they need to be taken to task for it, and heavily chastized. But I still don't feel for Kevin one iota.
And, I'm sorry, but /. shouldn't be interviewing convicted felons.
-Erik
Re:Who cares about Mitnick? (Score:5)
I can take a stab at this, by answering "why not" first.
Not because he was doing something right -- he wasn't. He acted exactly as you describe. The thing to keep in mind about his case is NOT Kevin Mitnik's behavior, but the behavior of the legal system and law enforcement authorities, and that gets under some folks' skin (like mine).
If I had raped or murdered someone and been busted the day Kevin got caught, I'd have (on average) long been out by now, walking the streets you walk. I'd have gotten a trial WAAAY before he did. It's likely my arrest warrant would have been (gasp) actually signed by a man in a black dress...I could go on, but I think you see my point. We can rightly say that what he did was wrong, and hope that he & people like him will leave the computer systems that many of us rely upon to keep food on the table alone, but that doesn't change the fact that we live in a country that has a constitution and a bill of rights. Ignoring them once, for an unpopular person, means possibly also ignoring rights again. Someday, either of us might need them, and the time to think about that is BEFORE you're in a jail cell staring through metal bars.
The above is ONLY my personal opinion, it has nothing whatsoever to do with my employer.
JMR
Rob, Get Kevin for a Slashdot interview! (Score:5)
... See subject.
60 minutes may not get the questions that we want to hear. Ok, so we'll find out on Sunday.
Steven Rostedt