Virus spreading is bad, but what constitutes an offense these days?

Here's a guy jailed just for using LYNX:

http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/28/031248&tid=172&tid=158&tid=17

Man Reportedly Jailed for Using Lynx
Security | Posted by CowboyNeal on Friday January 28, @02:53AM
from the freak-outs dept.
wezzul writes "A Londoner made a tsunami-relief donation using Lynx on Sun's Solaris operating system. The site operator decided that this 'unusual' event in the system log indicated a hack attempt, and the police broke down the donor's door and arrested him." Honestly, though, aside from a BBC article about a tsunami fund hacking probe that doesn't mention user agents there's little to corroborate this.  Hopefully Lynx users need not worry too much yet.

If you don't like slashdot here's the original references:

http://www.boingboing.net/2005/01/27/jailed_for_using_a_n.html

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4195339.stm

BT


Tracy Johnson
MSI Schaevitz Sensors 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On
> Behalf Of John Clogg
> Sent: Monday, January 31, 2005 2:39 PM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: [HP3000-L] OT: Teen Sentenced for Releasing Blaster Worm
> Variant
> 
> 
> This guy got off too easy.  If he had stolen an amount of 
> money equal to
> the amount his antics cost his victims, they would have locked him up
> for several years.  I understand the perpetrator's age was a 
> factor, but
> I hope this doesn't indicate that the courts still regard this type of
> crime as a prank.
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: HP-3000 Systems Discussion [mailto:[log in to unmask]] On
> Behalf Of Brian Donaldson
> Sent: Saturday, January 29, 2005 9:50 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: OT: Teen Sentenced for Releasing Blaster Worm Variant
> 
> Teen Sentenced for Releasing Blaster Worm Variant
> By GENE JOHNSON, AP
> 
> 
> SEATTLE (Jan. 28) - A Minnesota man was sentenced Friday to 
> 18 months in
> prison and 10 months of community service after pleading guilty to
> unleashing a variant of the Blaster Internet worm in 2003.
> 
> 
> 
> AP
> Jeffrey Lee Parson, right, walks out of a federal courthouse 
> in Seattle
> with his lawyers following his sentence.
> 
> 
> Jeffrey Lee Parson, 19, of Hopkins, Minnesota, was a high 
> school senior
> when he downloaded and modified the worm. His variant launched a
> distributed denial-of-service attack against a Microsoft 
> Corp. Web site
> as
> well as personal computers.
> 
> The government estimated Parson's version of Blaster crippled 
> more than
> 48,000 computers.
> 
> Parson initially pleaded innocent, but changed his plea last summer to
> one
> count of intentionally causing or attempting to cause damage to a
> protected
> computer.
> 
> 
> U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman said she was sentencing him at the
> low
> end of the agreed-upon range because although he was 18 at the time of
> the
> attack his maturity level was much younger than that.
> 
> Parson will serve his time at a low-security prison. He had faced a
> maximum
> penalty of 10 years in prison and a $250,000 (191,790) fine.
> 
> "I know I've made a huge mistake and I hurt a lot of people and I feel
> terrible," Parson told the judge.
> 
> Collectively, different versions of the virus-like worm, alternately
> called
> LovSan or Blaster, snarled corporate computer networks worldwide,
> affecting
> millions of machines.
> 
> 
> 01/28/05 15:42 EST
> 
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