Jim Seymour Build your FREE Web site in minutes. They can't decide whether to send him to jail or to bed without supper. Okay, this actually is serious business.
Some people think incarceration is too severe a penalty for a minor.
Others say he has to be made an example to deter further hacks. I'm not sure what is appropriate. I think jail time is overly harsh, but I'd be happy to see the authorities take away his computer and ban him from accessing the Internet for the next ten years. That's a punishment that would fit the crime. Speaking of appropriate punishment, the same week this arrest was reported, the Justice Department was wrangling with the 19 state attorneys general involved in the Microsoft antitrust suit, trying to get agreement on what penalties they should ask the presiding judge to impose on Microsoft.