Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by toomuchtodo 3023 days ago
Remember this when you end up on the wrong side of the law, and the book is thrown at you when it shouldn't be. Easy to cast the first stone.

Aaron Swartz was eligible for 50 years in prison and a million dollar fine based on his computer crimes. That's fair too, right?

Y'all need some empathy and compassion. People are human, and make mistakes. The punishment should fit the crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aaron_Swartz#Arrest_and_prosec...
3 comments
cdr 3023 days ago
That's quite disingenuous. Entirely different circumstances and facts.

You're using the absolute maximum prosecutors were threatening Swartz with in order to extract a plea deal. They would not have brought anything near that to trial had it gone to trial, much less convicted him on it. In fact, in your link, this is what he was offered: "During plea negotiations with Swartz's attorneys, the prosecutors offered to recommend a sentence of six months in a low-security prison".

The statute Swartz was charged under has also widely been recognized as flawed. Not the case with what Shkreli was charged with.

link
wintermutesGhst 3023 days ago
That is the issue though, someone has to decide whether to "throw the book at you" or not. As long as someone is left to decide that, then you risk things like "being offensive" working against you, or "showing remorse" helping you.

The allowance for empathy, compassion and mistakes are what lead to the (to you) unfair punishment that was given.

link
s73v3r_ 3023 days ago
Shkreli did not "make a mistake". He purposefully defrauded investors.
link
toomuchtodo 3023 days ago
Aaron Swartz did not make a mistake. He purposely obtained unauthorized access to JSTOR and exfiltrated data for public consumption [1].

Poor judgment with minimal damage should not cost you a tenth of your life, or in Aaron's case, his entire life.

[1] https://archive.org/details/JSTORSwartzEvidenceAllDocs

link
s73v3r_ 3023 days ago
Yeah, no. I'm rejecting your argument. The two are nowhere near the same. Shkreli purposefully did what he did, and more so, he showed no remorse in doing it, and he insulted the court.
link