No harm intended?

http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/interne....ap/index.html

Christopher Andrew Phillips, a computer science major at the Austin campus, was charged with unlawful access to a protected computer and unlawful use of a means of identification.

He told officials he had no intention of using the information to harm anyone, according to court papers.

Phillips said he wrote and executed a computer program to access a university Web site that tracks employees who attend training classes, authorities said.

If convicted, he could get up to eight years in prison.

Family friend Gene Baltusknis said Phillips is "fine young man" who has never before been in trouble with the law.

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Well he sure is in trouble with the law now and by his own admission he is guilty as charged. i believe his story. but if they cut him slack will that be a bad example to would be crackers that do mean harm?

Hmmmm...I haven't heard, but have been wondering....exactly how did the UT officials discover this?? True, he did (eventually) step forward and turn himself in, but I wonder, would he have done so if the media hadn't sensationalized the story?

Regarding your question about cutting him some slack....they let him go without bail -- I think that says a lot right there. I'm sure there are many other ways he could have demonstated his programming/cracking prowess. While his act deserves some punishment, I don't think he'll get, nor do I think he deserves eight years.

I think it's a waste of time to write a program that will just track employies. Why would you really want to do that if you dont even know who they are?

Hrm, I have a son who says "I didn't mean to" everytime he gets in trouble for something. Is this really all that different? Pretty easy to say you weren't going to do anything "bad" w/ the information you pulled out about personnel. I think the old adage "If you do the crime, be prepared to do the crime" fits pretty well here. However, that being said, I think 8 years is a bit stiff for hacking into a database. It would be different if he'd hacked into a credit card company and fraudulently used the data.

Deb