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
rypt said:
Suppose Mugabe sets up a website hosted in Zimbabwe, and then suppose he passes a law stating that it is illegal to access this website from outside Zimbabwe.
Then suppose I happen to access this website - should I be extradited to Zimbabwe because I broke a Zimbabwean law?
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For extradition to be possible under the treaty with the US then the crime commited has to be illegal in both countries.

rypt said:
With internet/remote related crime you should always work within the jurisdiction of where the offender is - as they are only required to be aware of the laws of where they are - not the country where the webserver is hosted.
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Moot point, the crime was illegal in both countries so he didn't have to be aware of the laws in the US. It is US systems he damaged/hacked so it is the US that wants to prosecute.

Not really seeing a problem with it myself.
 
Mik3 said:
He broke the law in the UK and as such such be charged under UK law, that's my belief.
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His actions were illegal in both countries and the US is the one that is more interested in prosecuting.

jaxon said:
I thought it was more a matter of "logging on with default windows password" as opposed to hacking lol?
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It doesn't really matter how easy or difficult gaining access is here (aside from as a measure of technical prowess), he did gain access to systems that he had no legitimate right or interest in, as such he committed a criminal action.

That it was apparantly extremely easy to do so isn't really germaine to the whether he should be punished or not - it is a side issue as to what should be done to make the systems more secure in future and secondly if there should be any form of disciplinary action taken against the people who failed to secure the systems.
 
I don't really care what happens to him. If he's extradited he'll be sent to some deep, dark, Guantanamo Bay-ey prison where he'll have a car battery permanently attached to his gentleman parts thus preventing him from passing his stupidity onto another generation. If he's allowed to stay here then America will be even more embarrassed than they already are, which will be mildly entertaining. It's win win as far as I'm concerned.
 
There was a thread on here a few weeks back where a lot of members of this forum used the same method Gary did to gain access to printers. Should they all be extracted?
 
its a shame they wont halt the extradition, because it wouldnt be right for ministers to intervene in criminal justice, but wait hang on a minute didnt jack straw halt the extradition for his mate pinoche
 
RDM said:
For extradition to be possible under the treaty with the US then the crime commited has to be illegal in both countries.

Moot point, the crime was illegal in both countries so he didn't have to be aware of the laws in the US. It is US systems he damaged/hacked so it is the US that wants to prosecute.

Not really seeing a problem with it myself.
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What "crime", the man is currently simply accused of doing something .. something that several experts believe might not actually lead to a prison sentence were he to be tried under the UK system (due to the fact that he simply used default passwords and so on)
 
rypt said:
What "crime", the man is currently simply accused of doing something .. something that several experts believe might not actually lead to a prison sentence were he to be tried under the UK system (due to the fact that he simply used default passwords and so on)
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The crime he is accused of doing. It needs to be illegal in both the US and the UK for extradition to be commited.
 
Mik3 said:
There was a thread on here a few weeks back where a lot of members of this forum used the same method Gary did to gain access to printers. Should they all be extracted?
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It's not quite the same thing and I doubt there would be the political or commercial will to do so but again if what they'd done was a serious enough crime in both countries and therefore covered by the extradition agreement then legally they could be. The only real argument at that point is whether it is a proportionate response.
 
Steve2000 said:
Hacking is any form of unauthorised computer access, regardless of the purpose or method.
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So when my mate says he "hacked" into someones facebook account by guessing the password it means he actually is a hacker. I've always wanted to know a hacker :D

In all seriousness, I think he should have a trial here and he should receive some form of punishment because as has been stated, he did break the law and it can't go un-noticed.

Whoever deals with this needs to seriously take into account that this guy has impaired social awareness and probably had no idea how serious his actions were, once someone with autism gets fixated on something its hard to stop them. If he had done anything more than guess passwords then a fairly serious sentence would be slightly more on the cards but as it stands I think anything more than a year jail term would be out of order
 
semi-pro waster said:
It's not quite the same thing and I doubt there would be the political or commercial will to do so but again if what they'd done was a serious enough crime in both countries and therefore covered by the extradition agreement then legally they could be. The only real argument at that point is whether it is a proportionate response.
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The crime and method is exactly the same. But its OK to condemn him to 70 years if its a government computer?
 
Mik3 said:
The crime and method is exactly the same. But its OK to condemn him to 70 years if its a government computer?
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One is gaining access to (what were supposed to be secret and secure) governmental computers, the other is printing out pages on unsecured networked printers. I'm still going with not quite the same thing but irrespective of that it comes down to the will and ability to prosecute. The only real argument at this point as I said is whether it constitutes a proportionate response.
 
semi-pro waster said:
One is gaining access to (what were supposed to be secret and secure) governmental computers, the other is printing out pages on unsecured networked printers. I'm still going with not quite the same thing but irrespective of that it comes down to the will and ability to prosecute. The only real argument at this point as I said is whether it constitutes a proportionate response.
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I agree with that, but the method to access the computers was the same.

I just think this guy is being used as a scape goat.
 
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