Monday 14 April 2008

Sentencing/ preventive measures

Rare are the decisions on sentencing and preventive measures. Yet for cybercrime, knowing which sanction is most appropriate is crucial. Ban of computer use may seem obvious, but apart from the question of being feasible, lies the issue of the extent of the ban. The following US example is quite enlightening and maybe the judge could have done with a bit of common sense. Cybercrime may be different (although that is still argued) but it does not mean it should escape logical reasoning. In an alleged $90000 (about £45 000) in tax fraud in New-York, a woman was banned from using computers. A bit too broad a preventive measure; it's like banning somebody to travel around the world for having trespassed in a park...

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/Top_News/2008/04/09/fraud_suspect_banned_from_computers/1256/
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20080410/010534808.shtml (11 April 2008)

and the NY Times http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/10/nyregion/10indict.html (10 April 2008)

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