I'm most surprised by what I've been reading in this thread. I disagree with the responses I've read so far, except for the initial notion that this list is not the a good forum for such a discussion... But I've been drawn in anyway. As a person who makes a living helping to secure IT infrastructures, I don't give a rat's ass about hacker's rights. Mainly because I don't consider myself to be one even though I use some of the same tools and techniques in my job. I understand that most of these tools were created by hackers, but I also think these tools would not be so necessary if some basic laws were in place. Some members of this list have argued that Johnny is going to prison for life if his new firewall accidentally scans an ISP. Oooh, scary! Let's bring the responsibility for deciding what constitutes 'terrorism' to a jury. You need laws for that. In the O.J. trial, and Whitewater investigations, where power, money, and public apathy ruled, we saw just how flexible our laws can be. Do we (list) fight this so hard because we don't consider others qualified to regulate us? Good point, and while that may be technically true, I submit that the collective ego of this group is the larger force driving the thread. The FUD posted so far greatly outweighs the useful content. After 225 years we still don't have our gun laws ironed out, but the basic right still endures. Are we so arrogant as to think that this is going to be resolved right now? If these laws became so effective as to spell the end of the IT security industry, I'd be the first to find something more rewarding to to do with my time. Am I the only one?
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Oct 17 2001 - 11:17:46 PDT