[jheriko]

Can we stop giving a shit about this already please?

There are a million and one worse things perpetrated and supported by this government that they actually do happily admit to and which are actually /really bad/ - i.e. resulting in the murder of tens of thousands innocent children.

I refuse to pity self entitled pricks who should have known what they were doing and taken some responsibility for the relatively tiny consequences of their actions instead of topping themselves.

Disrespectful tone fully intended.

[beedogs]

Authoritarian prick detected. "He deserves bogus prosecution because he had it coming for acting like a douche." Yep, that's all it takes to justify ruining someone.

[jheriko]

I'm not saying its right - just that the amount of fuss is massively disproportionate. Bogus prosecution is basically nothing compared to having your life threatened with bona fide aggression.

First world problems, in the extreme.

[betterunix]

We are talking about a criminal case, in the United States, in which the defendant was a US citizen. The USA is a first world country, and this is purely domestic matter for us; yes, it is a first world problem. If Americans stop paying attention to these things, our problems will rapidly change from "first world" to "tyranny."

[jheriko]

You make a valid point, but even in this context there are better things to pay attention to...

[betterunix]

I am not so sure about that. I would say that the prosecutor's conduct in this case is symptomatic of a broad problem in America, and that the CFAA is symptomatic of that problem. Over the past few decades, the power of the police and of the executive branch as a whole has swelled, and the results have been predictable. What happened to Aaron Swartz is typical: aggressive prosecution by extreme conservatives who expect everyone to live life as passive, docile consumers (and only of particular products that are on the "good list"). It is another case of corporate interests superseding the rights and freedoms of individuals, and of the our government working for the benefit of those corporations while ignoring the needs of the people being governed.

It is not wrong to make a fuss about it, because it draws attention to bigger problems more than similar cases have. The CFAA is overly broad and can be used to prosecute almost anyone -- but it was not until Aaron's death that anyone cared. Prosecutors routinely pile on charges to intimidate defendants, but nobody cared until recently. While it is not as widespread as the superbowl, this case has received attention from people who usually ignore such things.

[samastur]

How great it is to meet someone who can tell us what is proportionate and can behave accordingly. What's six months or 400 hours of your time when there is still bigger injustice in the world.

You know when there's enough fuss? When you can see actual change, a problem being solved.

[jheriko]

i'm sorry i come off as being an authoritarian douche, but regardless - solve the right problems first. the fuss over this is borderline offensive in the context of the US position on the world stage and the impact it has...

so yeah, i would like to bake the cake and ice it before i go about putting the cherry on top.

[jbooth]

I'm gonna go out on a limb here and guess you've never so much as been in court, let alone charged with something serious and facing jail time.

[jheriko]

Its not a nice situation and I can understand why it is stressful, but you are right, I can't empathise entirely. Perhaps most shocking is the great amount of mental resolve required for suicide - which surely is the same that makes this sort of situation effectively non-threatening.

Still, personal feelings are largely irrelevant here - its pretty incredible to me that anyone can give a shit about this with, e.g. gun laws that enable the US to be responsible for 95% of child death by gun outside of warzones for instance. Changing that law will save thousands of children from death - I consider that infinitely more important than some kind of maybe, possibly a potential restriction on freedom if you want to interpret it that way...

Incidentally I find it interesting how this comment has been controversial - I was expecting it to be downvoted to death because it is obviously offensive and callous, but it has received quite a few more up votes than down.

[jheriko]

Not true actually.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that you've never so much as had to fight for your survival, let alone face what appears to be certain death.

Everything is relative. This is why I have a seriously hard time showing any pity or tolerance with this...

[jbooth]

I'm not a military vet, so no, although I have been places and seen how the world works. Generally have been smart/lucky enough to avoid serious trouble.

So, political prosecution, facing jail-time for something pretty innocent, and you can't find the least bit of pity because nobody's threatening to kill him?

I'd suggest developing some empathy, it will make you more successful in business and more importantly will improve your life.

[dllthomas]

Bogus prosecution is bona fide aggression, much like any other attempt to hold you long term against your will and threaten you with guns if you don't comply.

FWIW, I weakly agree with your basic point that this gets a disproportionate amount of play compared to other injustices, but you're not presenting it well.

[jheriko]

Thanks. I am certainly a little too far on the offensive side... but I take offense to the level of attention this receives.

[csense]

> the murder of tens of thousands innocent children

Citation needed

> relatively tiny consequences of their actions

So we can send you to jail for 30 years? It would only be a minor inconvenience if we did so?

[jheriko]

See drones in Pakistan, and collateral damage in the most recent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - then there is the support of the IDF in Israel. I could go back further but there is little point - it was a different administration, a long time ago etc. even if the same mistakes are being repeated.

The one thing learned from the Vietnam war being made so public seems to be 'control the media better' rather than 'war crimes are wrong'...

Any source of figures I quote is going to be suspect so I invite you to find your own an make your own judgement. I prefer Wikipedia to demonstrate how easily uncovered this information, or at least the suggestion of it is. Some official statements on the matter downplay the issues even by 2 or 3 orders of magnitude...

A quick browse of wikipedia on these matters gives a good overview of how confused the situation is... In particular even US allies do not agree with various statements from inside the US that the number of innocent deaths is as low as 'double figures'.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drone_attacks_in_Pakistan

For Iraq I believe the consensus is that civilian Iraqi deaths outweighed US military deaths somewhere between 15 and 250 times. There is a nice table with cited sources again on Wikipedia...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Casualties_of_the_Iraq_War

The cleanest cut case is perhaps Israel, where many Israeli organisations themselves keep track of figures. I think nobody disagrees that the IDF have killed more Palestinian children, than Israelis in total have ever been killed by Palestinian terror attacks. This is an organisation which is funded in part by US aid at a time when the money could be better spent back home helping the economy...

e.g. http://www.btselem.org/statistics/fatalities/any/by-date-of-...

... and yes, going to prison in the US for 30 years would be an improvement in quality of life for most of the world's population.

There is a reason why the US is so often loathed by Arabs and its nothing to do with Islam, fanaticism or oil...