Poll: Should Gary McKinnon be extradited to the US for hacking?

Should he?

  • Yes

    Votes: 232 19.5%

  • No

    Votes: 823 69.3%

  • I don't like poles

    Votes: 132 11.1%
  • Total voters
    1,187
The case is absolutely laughable. Connecting to servers with a Perl script and default passwords. The US government is just exaggerating the "damage" he did to cover up their pathetic security botch job. He deserves to do some community service at most and the US should be thanking him for highlighting what a retarded bunch of sysadmins they employ.
 
dirtydog said:
We might let him off a custodial sentence on the grounds he didn't do any real harm, and he had no INTENT to do any harm at all - it isn't like he hacked in to sell secrets to the Russians.

In fact the Yanks should be employing him, to help sort out their evidently lacking IT security.
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I thought your opinion was that our sentencing regime is too soft when crimes are committed, and that we shouldn't be letting people use excuses for their behaviour?
 
dirtydog said:
We might let him off a custodial sentence on the grounds he didn't do any real harm, and he had no INTENT to do any harm at all - it isn't like he hacked in to sell secrets to the Russians.

In fact the Yanks should be employing him, to help sort out their evidently lacking IT security.
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he still hacked into top secret computers , some could have been very sensitive infomation that protects a lot of lifes
 
Dolph said:
I thought your opinion was that our sentencing regime is too soft when crimes are committed, and that we shouldn't be letting people use excuses for their behaviour?
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Straw man. I think sentencing is too weak overall, but for some crimes I think it is correct, and for some crimes I think it is too harsh.

I expect McKinnon would receive something closer to justice in a UK court than he is likely to receive in a US court.
 
dirtydog said:
No malicious intent and no harm was done, equals he shouldn't be getting extradited and facing 60 years in prison.
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Isn't the whole "60 years" thing the absolute worst case and has come from those representing him rather than from the US? Wasn't he offered a deal right at the start of the process that was a few years?
 
dirtydog said:
We might let him off a custodial sentence on the grounds he didn't do any real harm, and he had no INTENT to do any harm at all - it isn't like he hacked in to sell secrets to the Russians.

In fact the Yanks should be employing him, to help sort out their evidently lacking IT security.
Click to expand...

His INTENT was to BREAK INTO computer systems - this is a crime.

There's plenty of intent there.

dirtydog said:
He committed the act on British soil.
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By breaking into US systems. So by your theory, I can fire a missile at London as long as I do it from France and the UK should be expected to just ignore it?
 
Tute said:
His INTENT was to BREAK INTO computer systems - this is a crime.

There's plenty of intent there.
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He had intent to do what he did, he didn't have intent to harm anyone and he didn't.

By breaking into US systems. So by your theory, I can fire a missile at London as long as I do it from France and the UK should be expected to just ignore it?
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Firing a missile is likely to result in casualties so it is a bit more serious than what McKinnon did :confused:
 
dirtydog said:
He had intent to do what he did, he didn't have intent to harm anyone and he didn't.
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You don't have to harm someone to commit a crime.

Firing a missile is likely to result in casualties so it is a bit more serious than what McKinnon did :confused:
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My point is, it's still a law I broke, from the confines of another country.

Let's say I didn't fire it at anyone, but that I destroyed a large portion of land somewhere. I'd still expect consequences from both the country I fired it from, and the country I fired it into, despite there not being casualties.
 
I dont think he should be extradited. He should be punished for what he did, but he should be punished here.

I say this, because if someone in the US did it to us, we'd never get an extradition even if we wanted one.
 
dirtydog said:
No, but intent and the effects of your crime determines what crime you broke, and it determines sentencing.
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Yes, and his intent was to break into US computer systems. He knew this was a crime, Aspergers or not. But he went ahead and did it anyway - therefore there was intent to break the law, not just in the UK but in the US as well.

My guess is that he knew that he could just play the Aspergers card and wriggle out of it, and drum up huge media support due to the current hate for the US and the fact that he has a "disability".

Regardless of what the US do to their criminals, we have an extradition treaty in place. So he should be extradited, end of. I don't care if he gets 10, 50, or 100 years in a US jail. He took the risk and he's ended up getting shafted. It's none of our business what they do with their criminals - he took that risk when he hacked in.
 
Tute said:
Yes, and his intent was to break into US computer systems. He knew this was a crime, Aspergers or not. But he went ahead and did it anyway - therefore there was intent to break the law, not just in the UK but in the US as well.

My guess is that he knew that he could just play the Aspergers card and wriggle out of it, and drum up huge media support due to the current hate for the US and the fact that he has a "disability".

Regardless of what the US do to their criminals, we have an extradition treaty in place. So he should be extradited, end of. I don't care if he gets 10, 50, or 100 years in a US jail. He took the risk and he's ended up getting shafted. It's none of our business what they do with their criminals - he took that risk when he hacked in.
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I hope you've never warezed anything belonging to a US copyright holder lest you be whisked off to face trial in a US court eh ;)
 
Tute said:
Yes, and his intent was to break into US computer systems. He knew this was a crime, Aspergers or not. But he went ahead and did it anyway - therefore there was intent to break the law, not just in the UK but in the US as well.

My guess is that he knew that he could just play the Aspergers card and wriggle out of it, and drum up huge media support due to the current hate for the US and the fact that he has a "disability".

Regardless of what the US do to their criminals, we have an extradition treaty in place. So he should be extradited, end of. I don't care if he gets 10, 50, or 100 years in a US jail. He took the risk and he's ended up getting shafted. It's none of our business what they do with their criminals - he took that risk when he hacked in.
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spot on , and if he did get let off and then a muslim man with aspergers done the same thing do you think he would get let off , no , thats why he should pay
 
The usa should thank him for showing them what a very bad and unsecured system they had.

But then you have this
"The 21-year-old hacker who wrote the first iPhone worm has landed a job developing software for the phones."
 
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