The length of time spent doing something illegal shouldn't absolve guilt that it was illegal in the first place.
No, it doesn't, but no one was saying it did. Read the comments. They're saying the punishment was too harsh.
The length of time may contribute to the amount of damage done (if any), and so should be considered in cases like this.
Because all crimes are the same. You're an imbecile for even bringing that up.
The fines are not used for restitution nor are they intended to be used for restitution. Fines are part of the punishment.
It doesn't matter. People are saying the punishment doesn't fit the crime. Maybe you should actually read people's posts, you insolent bootlicker.
It's not my idea, it is how it currently works.
I don't care.
Don't participate in an illegal conspiracy if you don't want to get caught and penalized.
That has nothing to do with this.
Maybe this will serve as a lesson to someone else
Not only does that Tough On Crime nonsense not work (as we've already seen with copyright infringement), but it doesn't matter if it did work; justice is more important than security. Period.
Case law sits at odds with that.
I don't care what case law sits at odds with.
If the risk for committing a grave offense is too low, then the penalty when caught usually rises.
As I said, justice > security, just like freedom > security. I'm opposed to the TSA, just as I'm opposed to this garbage of punishing someone more severely merely because it's difficult to catch people who do that crime.
Again, I don't think there was ever a point when America was some bastion of freedom. The government has always been violating people's rights and the constitution. It's not a matter of perfection, either; the violations have always been egregious.
On the other hand, over thousands of people and many years the overall theft adds up to a lot if left unchecked.
Again, that's ridiculous. You shouldn't punish someone severely to make an example out of them; the punishment should fit the crime. The end.
This is not an attitude I'd expect from the "land of the free and the home of the brave."
Imagine if everytime you went to the store, you took a nickel out of the till. Now imagine everyone doing the same thing. No one person is "stealing that much" but in aggregate, they are stealing the store into bankruptcy.
What does that have to do with this? Nothin'.
In short, STEALING is a crime, because it wrong
That makes no sense. What is moral is not always legal, and what is immoral is not always illegal. Stealing isn't necessarily a crime merely because it's wrong.
Nonsense. Did they catch him stealing more than 5 cents worth of electricity? No. You can't punish him for things he merely may have done; that's ridiculous and unjust.
I was thinking the same thing. Everyone loves electric cars so much that they naturally defend any fellow hippie driving one, when he's stealing electricity from the man (because, hey, electricity should be free, man--you know, like the air and shit).
I haven't seen a single indication that that's the attitude people here have.
plus I know I have nothing to hide.
What the hell kind of logic is that? You're not the one who decides that, anyway. If the government doesn't like something you do (regardless of what you think of your activities), you may find yourself in an uncomfortable situation.
When was America free? In the past, plenty of groups that didn't include white men didn't have very many rights. Even in the past, the government violated the constitution and discarded people's rights to supposedly keep them safe. I agree that there are some very serious problems at the moment, but I'm not sure America was ever truly the bastion of freedom that some people seem to think it was.
Not get molested at airports. Protest without being required to have a permit or sent off to a free speech zone. It's not something I'd personally like to do, but there are many drugs that are illegal. The fourth amendment is being consistently ignored. There are constitution-free zones around the border. Those are just some things that are a problem at the moment. You obviously didn't try very hard if you couldn't think of one problem.
I'd also like to not have my communications spied on by the government.
Nothin'. If I criticize a business, I could cause others to not want to shop there, which would "deprive" the business of customers who haven't even shopped there yet! Losing things you never had is damage.
Out of about 100 students that participated 6 where caught- 4 who hadn't even dumped the soap yet and they had to pay for the entiee security theator that ensued for a midemeanor act of mischief.
And? It happened before, so it's good?
"Ninety percent of baseball is half mental." -- Yogi Berra
