[sociotech]

Google:

site:http://www.justice.gov "if convicted, * faces"

57,700 results.

There are many things to criticize about the universe, but the standard form language on US Attorneys' press releases is probably not the biggest thing we should be worried about. Linus, as he often does, is speaking too confidently and too hastily.

And the press releases always state the statutory maximum, which as I and many others have explained, Aaron was never actually threatened with. His lawyers knew that. He had to know it. Lessig either knew it or should have known. The only reason we're talking about "35 years" is because of Lessig's irresponsible PR.

I'm trying to think of a hacking analogy. Imagine if you write a routine for loop with an int increment and someone, trying to understand the code, asks "wait, how many times can this run?" And you respond with INT_MAX. In most situations, that would be a misleading, borderline autistic response, with no relationship to the real world in the normal case.

[raldi]

Hacking analogy: if you compile and run this program:

    main() {
      int i;
      i = i++;
    }

...the results are undefined. In theory (and the C FAQ has stated this for decades) the compiler can make a program that erases everything on your hard drive and then has the sound card start swearing at you.

But if you're being advised by an expert in the field, they'll tell you that in reality, the results aren't going to be anything like that.

[mpyne]

Dr. Lessig knew it too. In fact he knew that Aaron had been offered a plea, and knew that the jail time must not have been too extensive because he knew that the reason Aaron would not take the deal is that it would involve pleading guilty to a felony.

I don't want to accuse Dr. Lessig of bad PR though, as much as using the same wording the prosecution uses (although it's no secret how Dr. Lessig feels about this case).