This is a shot of me in a Bablylon 5 Role Playing sim I bumped into recently. And if you've never seen the show, I strongly recommend it, and even go so far as to say that FX, which were ground breaking CGI at the time, hold up surprisingly well all these years later. The show was mostly a single story over five seasons, much of it written by creator J. Michael Straczynski . Who is probably known to some Marvel fans as well for his work in that cannon. It's a five year long story of people doing things that they were not supposed to do, some for the good of others, some for the good of themselves, some for complex reasons. The fact those who first seemed the bad guys turned out to be "the good guys," and those that seemed harmless did great harm, was an interesting twist on the cardboard cut outs of most TV series characters. One character said something I have taken to heart.
- "You know, I used to think it was awful that life was so unfair. Then I thought, wouldn't it be much worse if life were fair, and all the terrible things that happen to us come because we actually deserve them? So, now I take great comfort in the general hostility and unfairness of the universe."
- Marcus Cole to Franklin in the episode 'A Late Delivery from Avalon'
Which brings me to my next deep thought. You may not have heard about it, but a member of the hacker group Anonymous recently released information that assisted police in arresting, charging and convicting a pair of rapists.
You can read about it here.
Ones first thought is "Go KYanonymous!" As is my 2nd and many that follow. But among them are the thought, he did break the rules to get that information. The same skills he has for doing good, are very easily used for doing not so good. I think of it much like carrying a pistol. One typically needs some authorization to do that, because, pistols are frankly much better at doing bad things than good things. So society wants some assurance that your motivation for carrying the gun is for the good. It's hard to do that with a set of skills.
As a general rule, I disapprove of hacking into secure systems much as I do peeping in windows, running stop signs, and other such activity. I do not look on it nearly as bad as malicious activity such as using various types of malware for personal gain, to vandalize or misappropriate data or a system, or simply for the "fun" of it. But the skill set is essentially identical. So, since legislating on "motive" is nearly impossible, I am generally OK with laws against hacking. But I think the penalty when you are caught should be strongly influenced by what you did with the information you accessed.
Coming down hard on KYanonymous sends the wrong message to him, and to everyone. Hackers and Joe Bob on the street. For one thing, what he did is not fundamentally different than what law enforcement is starting to do. I saw a thing about the NYPD using social media to catch gang members. Then there's all the furor over various government agencies mining data off the Internet in other ways. So, obviously, society, or at least the government, seems OK with what he did, as long as they do it. So, what he did was do good, using a dangerous skill, without authorization.
Do we really want to send a message to everyone that you have to stop and ask the authorities before you do good? OK, grabbing a gun and going all vigilante', not saying that's good. That's bad. The police will shoot you and you might shoot the wrong person. Don't do it.
But let's say you are walking down the street and you see someone laying unconscious just on the other side of a glass door in a building. You see fire in the back far behind them. Do you call the fire department, or break in the door and drag them out then call the fire department? OK, take the fire out of the equation. Do you call an ambulance? Or break down the door first? That makes it a harder choice doesn't it? What if the person laying there would die without CPR till the medics arrived? What if you happen to be a lock smith and have a set of picks in your pocket, so you don't even have to break in the door. What if a burglar broke into the building and found them unconscious, but if he helps them out of the building he knows he'll be caught...
In a lot of the options I've given above, you may have just committed a crime by breaking into the building. Very gray stuff. But after much thought, and for no good reason since I have no pull in the big bad world, here's my take on it. He should be applauded for doing good. Then charged, given a suspended sentence and put on parole for a number of years. That number should in no case be longer than the sentence received by the rapists.
I think that clearly says, you did good. But you broke the rules. Everyone should want to do good. But know that breaking the rules to do it has consequences. If you don't really hurt anyone in the process, then you will not be punished this time. But we encourage you to get authorization from someone appropriate next time before doing good.
Why do I think we should do it this way? Because the universe is unfair. But humans need not be. The legal system is not about justice, it is about the law. But it is unjust to punish a "good" act beyond what it merits. And given, as far as I know, no harm was done to anyone but the rapists, and the information was made available to authorities to utilize. How is this different than an anonymous phone in tip? If you do not know how they got the tip. How is it different from cutting a deal with a law breaker to dismiss a lesser offense in exchange for evidence about a greater crime? Yes, there are specific differences, but I do not see any differences in how this helped "society." What harm did he do beyond the act of breaking a law? If that is not a true assessment of the happenings, perhaps I would change my thoughts on it. But until I know more, that's my take on it.
