I was thinking about it like this: I could tamper with the brakes on your car, but there would only be a very very slight chance they would actually fail at a life-threatening moment... probably you'd realize they were faulty, and even if they did fail you'd probably be fine. I'd probably still be in trouble for it though.
Yea, the fact that it was only done after the victim revealed publicly that he suffered from epilepsy and the suspect reportedly claimed he attemped to exploit that health issue.
Kinda like purposely giving someone something they're allergic to.
That would require insight we don't really have. Personally, I had no idea something like this would work. I assumed it would need something more powerful in intensity, like an actual strobe light.
Maybe the suspect in this case knew it would work, maybe not.
The suspect specifically targeted the target because he said so in messages to some of his "fellow travelers" in whatever sorts of internet political circles he runs in.[0]
I would urge you to do some reading on these sorts of events. Following the facts of the case can do wonders for your own arguments.
Yes, he did say things like ""I hope this sends him into a seizure" and "let's see if he dies." You can imagine, though, similar situations where that's puffery. There's also a pretty loose correlation between a seizure and death.
Edit: Should clarify that it's still atrocious, and seems criminal. Not convinced though, that it's clearly attempted murder. The charge is interesting in that the penalty is 10 years max, even though it speaks of intent to kill.
Nothing you say will be considered "puffery" by the prosecution in a court. Do not _ever_ pretend anything you say in bluster or anger can not be used against you in court...
Also, they're not charging him with attempted murder here. They're charging him with "Cyber Stalking, in violation of U.S.C. s2261A(2)(a) and s2261A(2)(A) and (B)"
There's no doubt at all, that if the evidence as listed is true, he's in clear violation of this: https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/2261A (Something which I suspect a lot of GamerGate/4Chan/shitposters/self-identified-edgelords should think carefully about... I bet a lot of them have no better opsec than this guy...)
It might be like https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_Proposition_65_(198... where the incentives are to mindlessly post a warning without any effort to confirm whether it's necessary. Result: warnings on everything until they're nearly unavoidable.
Them's the breaks. When you have such laws like that "everything causes cancer in california" one, the only recourse companies have is to cover their asses.
It takes one guy to file a suit that he got a seizure from your game when it didn't have a warning. Even if he didn't get a seizure, have fun in court.