[pistle]

The potential impact of a hacking crime is massive. Millions to billions of dollars and a real impact on people's lives for well over 2-3?! years. If someone suffers identity theft, invasions of privacy, etc. the direct impact could easily go beyond a few years and secondary impacts almost surely would.

The sentencing guidelines make available remedies for those cases - and I can imagine large scale attacks which should be punishable by life in prison.

Do the merits of this case warrant max staycations in prison? I dunno, but the government should have the flexibility for the lulz.

[josho]

And a physical analogue: The potential impact of breaking and entering is massive...

So, B&E is a relatively minor offence, it's the crimes that follow (theft, destruction of property, etc) that are significant. The same should apply for a cyber-B&E. In fact do you even need a law for breaking into a computer? I wonder if we could simply revise the traditional B&E definition to apply to computers as well.