U.S. Seeks 5-Year Prison Sentence for Nintendo 'Hacker' Gary Bowser

In 4 of those states they are “pretty much legal” but you may have issue a defend as to why your procession of them Wasn’t for illegal purposes. https://toool.us/laws.html

Other states have laws preventing the procession of them if you have prior convictions for things like burglary.

But in general, they are pretty much fine to own.

Not sure on the state laws surrounding the sale of such tools from a sellers point of view.

roastedpeacock• 4 years ago

While I am no advocate with regards to for-profit piracy, can we get to prosecuting other serious criminals with comparable sentences? (i.e Capitol rioters, price gouging of certain essential supplies during this pandemic, etc)

satronaut• 4 years ago

the people who set up CHAZ last summer, lying to the FBI to start investigations, and illegal wire tapping would be nice to prosecute too.

stjohnswarts2• 4 years ago

They are being prosecuted in droves currently, and lots are in the queue. Most are only getting a couple years, but that will basically ruin their lives having a federal felony on their records so it's not like they're getting off easy. Some of the leaders are getting 5+ years for conspiracy and such.

canti• 4 years ago

So long, Gary Bowser.

Maursault2• 4 years ago

I don't understand why punishment in hacker cases isn't always the exploitation of the guilty hacker's skills redirected towards societal benefit for extensive periods rather than expensive prosecutions, expensive prison sentences, and ultimately disenfranchisement of a valuable resource. When they catch them, they should just give them a choice, prosecution, or "you work for us for as long as we say," draft them into the Cyber Force as closely watched grunts that can advance with merit, accomplishments and earning trust, with positive reinforcement effectively eliminating recidivism. It is incredibly cheap to keep a hacker happy and producing compared to the cost of prosecution, etc. Granted, the vast majority of criminal "hacks" involve unimpressive retaliations for being mistreated by an employer, but even some of those were impressive, at least among the hacks we know about. I know a few convicted hackers went into security after restitution, but I think we can avoid the expensive and slow process of heavy justice for most of these crimes that entirely happened on computers, where most had little effect on the material world... few were maimed, physically injured, suffered immensely before dying horribly at their hands. Three years is not enough for murdering someone, but 5 years is far too much for anything that happened only on a computer and left no actual legitimately human carnage.

Smithalicious2• 4 years ago

You make it sound really cool but I think the term you're looking for is "slave labour"

Maursault2• 4 years ago

I think it's properly conscription yet doesn't quite become as bad as prison labor. They'd have better personal security, more freedom, get to choose and keep their own stuff, and access to the world. Compared to prison, a military base is a spa.

inefficient• 4 years ago

13th amendment makes slave labor legal for those that are imprisoned. And do you make the same argument for community service?

stjohnswarts2• 4 years ago

If you can't do the time don't do the crime. Anyway, I'm sure he'd rather do that than sit in gen-pop worrying about getting shanked or having to join a prison gang.

Kye• 4 years ago

The 13th Amendment does explicitly carve out an exception for this. Not that I approve, but it's perfectly constitutional.

easton_s• 4 years ago

That's called community service. It exists and is commonly used.

Larrikin• 4 years ago

This argument seems to come up from people who want to be able to hack into things and not really get punished for it. Should people who hot wire cars be employed by the government for auto mechanic work? People who burglar homes be employed as home security consultants?

There's an argument that can be made for reducing sentences, especially for children. Breaking the law but in a certain category shouldn't give some people a job and some people prison.

dicknuckle• 4 years ago

In the real world, breaking the law in any number of categories can lead to community service or other "jobs" within the prison system.

It really doesn't take much skill to break into a car or a house. Anyone can learn how to do it within an afternoon and anyone can learn to protect from it within a few afternoons without learning how to break in. Gaining access to digital systems requires a wide range of skill sets and at least a subset of those are generally required to learn how to protect from it properly.

BizarroLand• 4 years ago

I don't understand why a Canadian is being tried in the US after being captured in the Dominican Republic. That's just bizarre.

chews• 4 years ago

Both DR and Canada allow extradition.

vlark• 4 years ago

Because the people overseeing the convicted hacker have no clue what the hacker is capable of and are afraid they will use their skills to commit more crimes right under their noses.

Never underestimate the technological ignorance of the majority of people that make up any bureaucratic governmental system.

0des• 4 years ago

They could be whistling missile launch codes, can't be too careful.

JohnHaugeland• 4 years ago

He's not a hacker. He's a commercial pirate

It's amazing to me how easily torrentfreak tricks people on hn

Five years is less than you get for stealing a painting

Sorry, but he shut two companies down. You don't have the background - on the case or in general - to second guess society's rules

U.S. Seeks 5-Year Prison Sentence for Nintendo 'Hacker' Gary Bowser

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