|
I'd say that punishment for hackers should be base don what they do. Something along the lines of hacking someone's website and writing "STOP WAR" on it seems like it would normally be more or less electronic vandalism (possibly other things depending on the manner it was done in, but, anyway), so I'd say treat it, criminally, as vandalism. The same with other electronic crimes.
A quesiton to the original poster... As an example of why hackers are good, you mentioned that they can help you get revenge on someone you're not very fond of. Now, I'm a bit curious... Are you for legalizing other things that are currently criminal actions if the person's motive is revenge? because the non-electronic versions of most anything a hacker could do, I think, would also be illegal.
Now, for spam, spyware, and identity theft... I'd say some sort of light punishment for the first, punishment for the second based on just how invasive the spyware is, and very heavy punishment for the last, since the last is a nice little way to ruin someone's life (I'm assuming you mean identity theft as in stealing someone's personal information for one's own personal use, specifically information usable to make purchases of various sorts)?
|