Wally 's Techdirt Comments

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  • On the post: Reuters Editor Faces 10 Years In Prison Because Vandalism Is A Federal Crime When It Involves Computers

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:39am

    Re:

    One key difference is that this case falls squarely in the jurisprudence of the FBI. The investigation and prosecution are both handled by the FBI rather than the US Secret Service.

    The other key point is that the FBI is handling this case rather well.

  • On the post: Reuters Editor Faces 10 Years In Prison Because Vandalism Is A Federal Crime When It Involves Computers

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:32am

    Re:

    The difference is that Keys did not hand over passwords to Government Passwords. The fact that the FBI is investigating or accusing Keys over this does not mean he committed a federal crime. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act clearly dictates the difference that handing over private information that can affect the commerce of an organization (web page defacement in this case), and the fact that he is clearly an accessory in the second person to Anonymous' acquisition of those passwords on a non-Gvt. computer system.

    My guess is simply that he gets 5 years for the social engineering man in the middle attack (as being disgruntled employee would be his motivation), and another five years for violating the privacy and aiding an organization known for illegally hacking computers from time to time. Hence the 10 years.

    It's not a federal offense because no US Government computer systems were affected by the attack.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:09am

    Re: Um... where are you quoting from?

    Run your mouse cursor over each word you see in the article and click. There's your links....and proper accreditation.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 07:07am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    "People do not need health insurance, they need health care."

    Good luck trying to afford a dose of chemo therapy, medication that is roughly $20-$600 per pill for a 30 day supply, paying $350 an hour for a half hour visit to a doctor's office, and paying $30,000 in case you have to get your tonsils or appendix removed....without copay...which more than halves all that cost...

    My medication is $92 per pill for a $30 day supply and all I pay is $6.56 in copayment. Why? Because I have health insurance. Obamacare doesn't cost the consumer, it costs the economy.

  • On the post: Reuters Editor Faces 10 Years In Prison Because Vandalism Is A Federal Crime When It Involves Computers

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 06:55am

    Re:

    Take your mouse cursor and scan the entire article word for word. If you see a hand in stead of an arrow...click on that spot. If you are using FireFox 19...look at the PDF attached to the article. There are plenty of links to how the case against Keys is strong.

    Now, that being said...the FBI handling these investigations is equivalent of a third party private eye investigation. The FBI is law enforcement and the US Secret Service is military. On Swartz's first charges brought up by the FBI, they handled everything within the Boyd's if the law. They did not wrongfully arrest Aaron Swartz. The DOJ and the US Secret Service handle investigations differently and as we have seen, not too well.

    In the case of Keys, it's evident that he did in fact send passwords of his colleagues (of whom work for a major news agency) to Anonymous. That and Haymenn isn't prosecuting.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 06:43am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The GOP realized it wouldn't work the way Obama wants it to work. Ohio had things like this proposed and as a result Ohio's Medicaid program is one of the strongest in the US. The problem isn't one side or the other but people not understanding that it's a brokerage program rather than actual fund streaming. Filling prescription holes and a less costly copayment was what most of the GOP proposed. The problem is that instead of relying on the social security system, Obamacare is a separate tax. What Obamacare is meant to do is not the issue, it's how it's funded and how much it costs that is the issue.

  • On the post: Reuters Editor Faces 10 Years In Prison Because Vandalism Is A Federal Crime When It Involves Computers

    Wally ( profile ), 15 Mar, 2013 @ 08:38am

    Trolls just please shut up...here's why...

    I can give a good reason for the swooping FBI indictment. Keys had malicious intent and handed the passwords over to Anonymous. Social engeneering attacks are what hackers mostly had to use to hack into corporate office servers and/or telenet servers when the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act was drafted...if anything, it was ahead of its time. Some of social enginerring attacks actually include looking over a person's shoulders. Given the fact that his profession as an editor is likely because he can quickly read and observe mistakes, I think it's fairly safe to speculate that he had a photographic memory and used it to carry out his misdeeds.

    It's easy to forget the Routers is a financial business site and that literally thousands upon thousands of users rely on it for their financial news. Heck, some peopl actually make stock purchases and trades based on what Rueters posts on their website. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act also states somewhere that any person attacking in a way that affects the commerce of individuals is punishable.

    I think it's reasonable to say that he should be punished to a somewhat full extent. When it comes to affecting the economic stability of individuals, that's 5 years maximum prison time in of itself. He also carried out the social engeneering attack to carry out an attack willfully...that's another 5 years.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 10:59am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Gas prices raise and fall with supply and demand. The harder it is to get to a place the higher the prices will get. That's a rather odd comparison to make to insurance forms.

    The problem with Obamacare is that all it relates to is insurance brokerage...where the Federal Government is your insurance agent. The whole thing costs us 30% of our income in a separate tax on top of our federal income taxes.

    There is no need for a massive supply and demand system in a health insurance situation unless you account for your specific individual rates going up or down depending on your health...Obamacare bases your rates in a tax basis of the national average health care cost...which is never universal and never should be.

    Then there's the excuse that it pays for everything when it actually pays more than twice than what is necessary to pay for. Under Obamacare, a procedure that would normally cost $18,000 co-pay for normal insurance outside of Obamacare would cost the Federal Gvt. 60,000 for the same co-pay under Obamacare. Why? Because at some point the tax code actually makes the IRS pay back a certain percentage of the cost you put into them paying for you (sort if like social security taxes on steroids). So really, left or right wing...anyone capable of algebraic mathematics can test and retest all that.

  • On the post: Details Come Out On US Attorneys Withholding Evidence In Aaron Swartz Case

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 09:49am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    Dude, you miss the point. The PDF file is from the equivalent of the DOJ's internal affairs office...who is also not too happy about the decisions made by Haymann.

    Now unless Mike Mansick is personally involved in the case of Aaron Swartz (which as most of us with a brain know...he isn't), that's when we could discuss it...but until then your personal attacks and attempts to derail discussions off topic will fail.

  • On the post: Details Come Out On US Attorneys Withholding Evidence In Aaron Swartz Case

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 09:40am

    Re: Re: Re:

    Wake me up when you and your kind actually want to discuss something relevant to the article in stead of question Mike Mansick's motives or personal life or philosophies or beliefs.

  • On the post: Details Come Out On US Attorneys Withholding Evidence In Aaron Swartz Case

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 08:39am

    Re: Re: Re: Re: Re:

    The accusations are accurate. The PDF file attached to the article is from the Office of Respinsibility in the DOJ (Internal Affairs Office for the DOJ). If they are questioning the charges on Aaron Swartz, it's not going to bode well for the prosecution.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 07:13am

    Re: Re:

    "Our healthcare system is a mess."

    If you think it's bad now...wait until the US Gvt. becomes the biggest health insurance broker in the nation. Obamacare is not universal healthcare...it's a tax law that pays into your insurance provided by the federal government. It's universal health insurance.

  • On the post: Virginia ISP Locks Customers Into 25-75 Year Contracts; Sues Everybody When Monopoly Threatened

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 07:08am

    Re: Re:

    It isn't the county officials who signed it....it's people subscribing to the company who are getting 75 year contracts. Usually packages of normal cable/satellite companies offer 1 or 2 year contracts to stay on and most will charge an early termination fee (mine would be $35) but that's about it. OpenBand suckers customers into 25-75 year contacts and rather than coming up with a reasonable termination fee...they file suit against the customer for wanting to cut the cable.

    Now that being said, I'm pretty sure that this is a Sherman Antitrust Act Violation...or something close to it.

    All I know is that the county and city officials are not responsible for the contracts that a cable or broadband company acts upon its customers.

  • On the post: Details Come Out On US Attorneys Withholding Evidence In Aaron Swartz Case

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 06:44am

    Re:

    We might here the sweet sound of silence from the trolls in this article Ninja :-) But I doubt that stops others from trolling the claims of AAG Heymann's claims.

  • On the post: Details Come Out On US Attorneys Withholding Evidence In Aaron Swartz Case

    Wally ( profile ), 14 Mar, 2013 @ 06:54am

    My Asperger's Syndrome Senses are tingling....(never ignore things we notice ;-) )

    "Furthermore, the claims of prosecutorial misconduct are bolstered by showing how Heymann and others in the US Attorney's office appear to have abused the plea bargaining process, in that it's not supposed to result in a punishment that is massively different than what would happen via a full trial."

    Has anyone else noticed a pattern in the Presidential Cabinet where the appointed cabinet heads are pawning off their responsibilities and letting the middleman or their assistants take the fall for direct bad decisions they make?

    "That resulted in an interesting discussion in the comments, in which a few DOJ defenders suggested that since there were no details, we were probably making this up (as if we don't have better things to do)."

    Jesus H. Christ!!! If there were no details (not really any new news there), they probably should have dropped the charges and tried not to get an Alford Plea out of Aaron Swartz.

  • On the post: Professional Boxer Gets Trolled On Twitter, Shows Up At Guy's House

    Wally ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2013 @ 12:32am

    Re: Re: Re: Re:

    In the US a brew means two things...looking for a fight....or to have a serious discussion with a person over a pint of beer about their behavior.

  • On the post: Professional Boxer Gets Trolled On Twitter, Shows Up At Guy's House

    Wally ( profile ), 13 Mar, 2013 @ 12:37am

    Trolling at certain levels (such as the trolling in this case) and bullying are one in the same. There are things you never do in life, and trolling a professional boxer with a global championship title is not one of them. If it was pervasive (and trust me I have had personal experience being victimized by it) enough, and I had a way to confront the asshole face to face....I would have. It's not as if the person got beaten up when Woodson came knocking....

    Simply put, if you are dumb enough to taunt and troll a professional boxer on Twitter...you shouldn't be allowed on the Internet...at all.

  • On the post: Team Prenda Does Not Show Up In Court; Judge Is Not Amused

    Wally ( profile ), 11 Mar, 2013 @ 06:24pm

    I'm just wondering...isn't all this enough to actually get all these people at Prenda Law kicked out of the California Bar Association? I mean seriously, why haven't these clowns lost their licenses to practice law?!

  • On the post: SimCity: The Backlash

    Wally ( profile ), 10 Mar, 2013 @ 06:26am

    Re: Succession wars

    "Only an idiot "buys" something that requires begging for permission from the manufacturer to use it. Only the heir to the throne of the kingdom of idiots buys something that can only be used under constant supervision of the manufacturer."

    The new Sim City box carries no warning of the totally online only saving mechanism. Average consumers will be duped and this is the biggest dick move since Spore initially being allowed to install only 3 times on a license key with an expiration date of 3 months.

    *"Only an idiot developer creates something that requires begging for permission from the manufacturer to use their own product in a reasonable manner."

    Fixed that for you.

  • On the post: Holder: DOJ Used Discretion In Bullying Swartz, Press Lacked Discretion In Quoting Facts

    Wally ( profile ), 09 Mar, 2013 @ 09:49am

    Re: Re: Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

    Which is why the charges concerning PACER were dropped by the FBI. Actually it was the FBI who was after him after the University pressed charges. While you tried showing that I failed you missed the fact that the reason why Aaron Swartz was not charged was because he gave the data he collected back.

    As for your comment:
    ""...a first time offense on unauthorized access to non-government material and/or computer was a maximum of 5 years in a regular minimum security prison and a fine of $5,000."

    If the affected party (in this case, the univeristy) chooses to press charges.
    The university declined to press charges, boy."

    Seriously...."... ,boy,"???? I mean do you strive to be rude or something?

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