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
Jono8 said:
This arguement just doesnt hold up. you can't break into a car and then just because the alarm doesnt go off,blame the alarm manufacturers and say "It's a good job i tested that alarm out, why don't you give me a job because i am clearly good at this..."

He is a criminal that broke international law. Whether you agree with the law or not or whether America's systems were weak is besides the point.
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You don't sentence a car thief to life imprisonment when he finds your door unlocked, has a look inside, doesn't take it or damage anything and then gets caught for having a nosey.
 
Atrox Moris said:
You don't sentence a car thief to life imprisonment when he finds your door unlocked, has a look inside, doesn't take it or damage anything and then gets caught.
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The door wasnt Unlocked he still had to go through some hefty work to gain access.

the punishment fits the crime. breaking into the US military databases is a little bit more serious than car theft.

Anyway. I have said it before and have said it again. Ignorrance of the law is not an excuse. There is a law in place for people that do this sort of thing and he has to be held accountable.

You surely can see they can't just let him of lightly or even give him a job!
Its ludicrous as everyone with some computer knowledge would give it a go!
 
Tbh, the methods he used for gaining access where quite simple. The majority of the terminals he took control of had no passwords.

The punishment does not fit the crime. Had he sold the information to the Chinese or Russians, maybe. And don't forget that McKinnon claims he wasn't the only one in their systems at the time. So they've picked a Brit for extradition, throw the book at him and hopefully put off any future hacking attempts by making an exaample of him.
 
Yes, hacking is wrong, anyone daft enough to do it to the yanks and the top agencies, after 9/11 and the war on terror the yanks are not going to take it lighly.
 
Ignorance of the law? It should be the idiots that left passwords as default that get there asses kicked, not the person that points it out....

No damage was done at all, if anything it was a good thing because guess what, they would have changed there passwords and upped security now...

Give the man a job for potentially saving millions of lives, how long do you think it would have been before someone wanting to do harm did something that was actually painfully simple
 
still irrellevant.

"I broke the law, but it was easy and there were other people breaking it so that makes me exempt right?"

You would be laughed out of court.
 
Neodite said:
Ignorance of the law? It should be the idiots that left passwords as default that get there asses kicked, not the person that points it out....

No damage was done at all, if anything it was a good thing because guess what, they would have changed there passwords and upped security now...

Give the man a job for potentially saving millions of lives, how long do you think it would have been before someone wanting to do harm did something that was actually painfully simple
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However letting him off and giving him a job could open the floodgates for anyone to have a go thus killing millions.
 
Jono8 said:
However letting him off and giving him a job could open the floodgates for anyone to have a go thus killing millions.
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killing millions?

do you not think if anyone wanted to do that they would care about the consequences ?
 
Jono8 said:
^ still irrellevant.

"I broke the law, but it was easy and there were other people breaking it so that makes me exempt right?"

You would be laughed out of court.
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If the Americans demanded the extradition of Chinese that were alleged to be on the system at the same time as McKinnon, the Americans would be told to go **** themselves. A Brit was chosen because we're a soft touch.

And yes, by McKinnons own opinion it was ridiculously easy. Perhaps if the American government spent as much money training their system administrators as they do extraditing people who embarass them because they show the world the ineptitude of their system administrators, they would avoid these problems.

And to be honest, if it was a foreign entity who hacked into Mi6, or Scotland yard, or the MOD, I'd still be calling for them to be given a job, rather than made a scapegoat for the services ineptitude.
 
How is it irrelevant? I take it you would rather this not happen, and we see the topic title read "Terrorist hacks government and bombs military bases"

The fact still remains, breaking the law or not. He helped sort out a retarded governments security.

If i seen someone mugging an old lady, i would chase, beat and retain the thief, now i would have broken the law by assaulting him, but i still did the right thing.
 
Atrox Moris said:
If the Americans demanded the extradition of Chinese that were alleged to be on the system at the same time as McKinnon, the Americans would be told to go **** themselves. A Brit was chosen because we're a soft touch.

And yes, by McKinnons own opinion it was ridiculously easy. Perhaps if the American government spent as much money training their system administrators as they do extraditing people who embarass them because they show the world the ineptitude of their system administrators, they would avoid these problems.

And to be honest, if it was a foreign entity who hacked into Mi6, or Scotland yard, or the MOD, I'd still be calling for them to be given a job, rather than made a scapegoat for the services ineptitude.
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Still irrelevant. He broke the law and should be made an example off.
 
if found guilty he should be punished accordingly and fairly

not given an over the top sentence to deter others or stop him from something he "may" do in the future but one that reflects any crimes he has commited
 
JBuk said:
if found guilty he should be punished accordingly and fairly

not given an over the top sentence to deter others or stop him from something he "may" do in the future but one that reflects any crimes he has commited
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I agree with this. 70 years does seem harsh but i do not know the maximum sentence for this crime is by U.S. Law.
 
Von Smallhausen said:
Do you think it is in the public interests of the US and UK that he should be given 70 years to serve in a mainstream US prison where he will very likely be picked on, assaulted and passed around for a pack of smokes ?
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No not all. It will be horrible for him.

But is in the public's interest not to let people get away with such crimes.

the bottom line is that he shouldnt have broken the law in an extremely stupid way.
 
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