> If we think [Aaron] was treated poorly, we should realize we are condemning the system as a whole, not just the treatment of Aaron, and we should beware of special pleading for this famous person and friend of the famous; our concern should go equally to the unknown, poor and poorly represented person.
> To the extent that Aaron couldn’t live even with the possibility of the penalties that he might have received at the end of the day, then maybe he should not have been committing acts of civil disobedience in the first place.
That would make sense if anyone could possibly understand the penalties.
It's like saying don't jaywalk if you aren't ready for felony charges that might get applied. I mean the only law you really broke was jaywalking, but then you are charged with 9 counts of wire fraud because you wore a different outfit each day -- obviously changing your appearance was fraudulent.
It would be like that if no one knew that jaywalking carried felony charges, but it's not as if CFAA is a new law, or that there haven't been at least a dozen or so other famous hackers fall afoul of it. Given that aaronsw seemed to know pg, it would stand to reason that he'd at least heard of rtm, (convicted under CFAA and also a Y Combinator co-founder).
