Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sol.ctr.columbia.edu!emory!athena.cs.uga.edu!mcovingt
From: mcovingt@athena.cs.uga.edu (Michael A. Covington)
Newsgroups: comp.org.eff.talk
Subject: Re: Allow students to run password guessers?
Message-ID: <1991Jun25.174025.9689@athena.cs.uga.edu>
Date: 25 Jun 91 17:40:25 GMT
References: <44260@fmsrl7.UUCP> <1991Jun24.173743.11003@Firewall.Nielsen.Com> <1991Jun25.132820.9303@athena.toronto.edu>
Organization: University of Georgia, Athens
Lines: 25

In article <1991Jun25.132820.9303@athena.toronto.edu> dwivian@uga.edu (Dwivian Unterschreiber) writes:

>And, I have a question:  Not long ago I was informed that the transmission  
>of knowledge that would allow a person to break into a computer system was a
>felony.  

  No. Only when the person's actual intent is to assist in a break-in.
  What matters is not so much the nature of the knowledge, as the intent
  of the act.  In law this is called "mens rea".
  
  I notice a pattern here. A lot of defective legal reasoning is seen on
  this newsgroup, and the defect is almost always that people think only
  in terms of technology and mechanical acts, not about intent.
  From the viewpoint of the law, intent is very, very important.

  One can become an accessory to a felony by such simple things as 
  holding a door open for somebody, if the intent is thereby to cooperate
  with a crime in progress. This does not mean there is a law against
  holding doors open!

-- 
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Michael A. Covington | Artificial Intelligence Programs
The University of Georgia  |  Athens, GA 30602   U.S.A.
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