Guy who hacked Houston Astros database gets 4 yrs in prison; Stanford rapist gets 6 months and Elizabeth Holmes 0?

rojo wrote:

The justice system confuses me non-stop.

It's not confusing at all once you figure out that it's all a dog and phony show that lines the pockets of the lawyers, police departments, ankle bracelet manufacturers, treatment centers, etc.

The biggest scam of all is the bail system. Let's say that the state wants to make an easy $1,000,000. Well that's simple to do. Find a rich person and find in the millions of pages of laws a white-collar crime that you can charge him with. Throw him in jail unless he coughs up $1,000,000 before his court date. It's like the mafia.

jamin wrote:The biggest scam of all is the bail system. Let's say that the state wants to make an easy $1,000,000. Well that's simple to do. Find a rich person and find in the millions of pages of laws a white-collar crime that you can charge him with. Throw him in jail unless he coughs up $1,000,000 before his court date. It's like the mafia.

The state does not make $1,000,000 if bail is set for $1,000,000, unless the

defendant skips town and doesn't appear in court at the required time.

Bail is posted to avoid staying in jail pending a court appearance and is effectively a fine for not appearing in court when you are required.

Typically, a defendant pays a percentage (like 10%) of the total bail to a bondsman who issues a bond for the full amount. The state does not make money as long as the defendant appears in court at the required time. If the defendant doesn't appear, the bondsman must pay the state the full amount.

Speaking as a lawyer with decades of experience, I must acknowledge this is the correct general answer to the original poster. However, the poster above who commented, "Here's the real reason for the sentences: Holmes has a lot of money. The Astros have a lot of money. Most rape victims don't have a lot of money", is, unfortunately, not nearly as wrong as would be ideal.

Hey Rojo,

Watch the documentary "Tickled" and tell me how many years David D'amato should have received for all the damage he caused.

Jurors typically don't set the punishment. The judge does that. Jurors determine if the defendant is guilty.

The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act is awful. It was written in 1984, has been amended 5 times since then (each time increasing the reach of the law) and punishes anyone who "exceeds authorized access" to a "protected computer." On top of that, your sentence can be multiplied by a certain number of points if you use "sophisticated means" and the courts still use file size to determine what the punishment is.

In the last five years there have been scores of high profile cases that have unbelievable sentences under this act.

Aaron Swartz was sentenced to 35 years for downloading the entire JSTOR catalog off a database he had access to

Barrett Brown, a nationally security journalist, was initially facing 110 years in prison for sending a publicly available link through an IRC to other journalists for the purpose of journalism because the link had some files w/ stolen credit card info (a while after the information had already been stolen)

Aaron Aurenheimer was sentenced to jail under the CFAA for compiling email addresses off of a website that AT&T forgot to encrypt.

true, but ... wrote:

The Astros have a lot of money.

Don't mess with the MLB. They would not have prosecuted the Federal crime if it wasn't Astros/MLB.

GlennGreenwald wrote:

Aaron Swartz was sentenced to 35 years for downloading the entire JSTOR catalog off a database he had access to

Barrett Brown, a nationally security journalist, was initially facing 110 years in prison for sending a publicly available link through an IRC to other journalists for the purpose of journalism because the link had some files w/ stolen credit card info (a while after the information had already been stolen)

Aaron Aurenheimer was sentenced to jail under the CFAA for compiling email addresses off of a website that AT&T forgot to encrypt.

You guys want to see what happens when you embarrass the Feds, check out Brown's story. Swartz's story equally awesome (in the literal meaning of the word) and terrible.

This was only MLB and real money in Houston. Don't beat the Feds.

Pro sports is one of the many protected classes.

That's why federal hearings on baseball doping that resolved nothing and the Supreme Court nearly having to hear a case about a leaky football. They got time for that instead of the other shit going on in our so-called society tight now?

Nick Bilton has a lenghty piece on Holmes and Theranos out in Vanity Fair:

http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2016/09/elizabeth-holmes-theranos-exclusive

It amazes me that she can't be fired. I hope she loses it all and ends up in prison.

rojo wrote:

Nick Bilton has a lenghty piece on Holmes and Theranos out in Vanity Fair:

It amazes me that she can't be fired. I hope she loses it all and ends up in prison.

Holmes is attractive, went to Stanford, and Theranos board of directors is a who's who of important, well-connected people.

She's an untouchable.

That's the way it works in this country.

Roger Clinton, Bill's bro, was a convicted drug dealer, did minimal time in a country club prison, then got a Presidential pardon, slate wiped clean.

Couple of weeks ago he got his third DUI in LA. C'est la vie, mon ami.