Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!ncar!boulder!bobk
From: bobk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Bob Kinne)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.wizards
Subject: Re: R. T. Morris (suspected Internet worm propagator) charged?
Message-ID: <10436@boulder.Colorado.EDU>
Date: 2 Aug 89 16:45:39 GMT
References: <11727@cgl.ucsf.EDU> <233@opel.UUCP>
Sender: news@boulder.Colorado.EDU
Reply-To: bobk@boulder.Colorado.EDU (Bob Kinne)
Organization: University of Colorado, Boulder
Lines: 25

In article <233@opel.UUCP> johnk@opel.UUCP (John Kennedy) writes:
>       ...Mark Friedell, an assistant professor in computer
>       science at Harvard University who was an advisor to Morris
>       when he was working on his bachelor's thesis there, was
>       apalled yesterday by the indictment.
>
>       "I think what Robert did was very irresponsible, but I don't
>       think in any way it is the sort of thing you usually think
>       of as a felony criminal act," Friedell said.  "It was the
>       act of an an immature student, not a criminal."
>
Hmmm.  Acts of immature students and criminal acts are not mutually
exclusive.  "Borrowing" a car and joyriding it into a wreck, or
torching the university computing center are also "acts of immature
students."  If (and these are questions for courts to decide) Morris
placed the worm on the Internet knowingly and with intent to have it
disrupt the network, he most assuredly has commited a criminal act.
Measured in lost human-hours to correct the damage, this runs into
the millions of dollars.  I tend to think of this as a felony, and
I think Friedell's statement shows the thinking of an immature
student.  One side of the public debate about so-called hacker crimes
seeks to absolve the hacker of all responsibility for the unforeseen
consequences of his acts.  This just isn't good enough.  Part of
being an adult is accountability for one's actions and the consequences.
"If you can't do the time, don't do the crime."