[mikeocool]

35 Years seems a little over the top.

Gilbert Bland Jr traveled to university libraries around the country for years, stealing maps from irreplaceable antique books, by physically removing them with a razor blade. The total value of the maps that the FBI was eventually able to recover was over $500,000. In the end he paid $70,000 and served 17 months in prison.

[_delirium]

This is a general trend, dating to the 80s, of treating Scary Computer Stuff as somehow much more dangerous than other kinds of stuff.

Related: the kids who ran LOIC to send a few megabytes of data to some websites are being charged with crimes that carry more jail time than is typically given to people who throw bricks through windows as part of a protest. Heck, you could probably burn a cop car without being in greater trouble.

[GHFigs]

35 years is the maximum possible sentence according to the law assuming he were found guilty on all counts and given the maximum sentence for each.

For comparison, Bland was facing a maximum sentence of 120 years. (Six charges of up to twenty years each.)

http://dukechronicle.com/node/107961

[stcredzero]

Spy magazine once did an article, where the reporter documented himself committing dozens of innocuous looking acts in public, all designed to accrue ridiculous amounts of jail time.