Petition for David McOwen....

[Io.]

http://www.petitiononline.com/movsog/


for those who haven't heard.....

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.cfm?catid=39&threadid=490400

http://www.openp2p.com/pub/a/p2p/2001/07/10/mcowen.html

Io

[Rick_Deadly]

It's very hard to decide whether to support this guy or not. Does he deserve jail time? Does he deserve a huge fine? Did he even deserve to get fired in the first place? I can't even figure out these questions until I figure out these things:

Did he cause harm or intend harm, to any individuals or entities by running this client?
:confused: If anybody knows exactly what type of Dnet he was running, please tell me.

Did running this client actually cost the orginization any money?
:confused: If the orginization is using leased or flat monthly/annual fee lines, he probably didn't not incure any additional expense on the orginization.
:confused: If these are "leased by the minute" when active lines, he may well have caused thousands of dollars per hour damages. I've be in on a few "per minute" secure ISDN line that cost about $100.00Can per hour for each 64KB ISDN line.

This case does reak of a typical "Let's sue the bastard for as much as we can." lawsuit, which is understandable in the states. If it is, I hope he beats it.

I cannot understand the felony charges unless he actually did cause large financial damages.

Losing his job was even too severe in my opinion unles he was in some way malicious about the Dnet install, or did actually cause a financial loss to the orginization.

Just to many questions for me to jump on the bandwagon. Of course we can't get all the real info, because his lawyer would be insane to make any statements that could be used by the prosecution. I just hope he gets a really intelligent judge that can figure out the facts of this case.

[Hemi]

This whole thing is such BS that I'd prefer not to comment on it, but I will anyway. :)

He was running the RC5 client, and from what I can tell, the university was paying for their internet pipe whether he used RC5 or not. The only peice of evidence about just how much bandwidth he used (that I know of) comes from Dnet, who was forced to turn over statistics on how many data packets were sent and received by the clients he was running. Regardless, it seems like someone just wants to burn this guy really bad. I'm sure we haven't heard the end of it though....

From this, we can learn that you should always get permission before trying to assemble a mega farm using PCs at work. Our buddy Dyyryath uses somewhere in the neighborhood of 100 machines (if I remember correctly) from work, but he has full permission to do so.

[Virus]

I won't support him. I do feel that the penalty is way too harsh. A firing should do, especially now that it's kinda hard to find jobs, but the penalties are ludicrous. What about all the people in the company who are surfing the web? I'm certain that they are using much more bandwidth. That should be his defense. He needs to get a listing of all of the internet sites that his web server has accessed. Why would a school system want to publicize this kind of information? I as a parent would be outraged if my school district was paying that much for internet related material. You and I know the networking aspect, but that's all the parents are gonna think, is INTERNET!

[LBaker]

He should have obtained permission no doubt, but what has happened to common sense in this world. We are having problems with weapons in schools here in the states. Recently close to home here, a 2nd grader was suspended from school for having a fingure nail clipper in possession. Down south there was a HS senior who was denied attending graduation because security found a butter knife in her car. It just so happens she was helping her family move and it fell out of a box. Zero tolerance is just plain stupid. I personally think the DA in the McOwen case is trying to make a name for himself. Was McOwen wrong for doing what he did, yes. Does the crime justify the penality, no.

LB

[Io.]

"dull mode on"

uh...wouldn't checking one's personal email or surfing the net use resources and take up bandwith? 'Cause if it does then wouldn't all of us who do so (even occasionally), without having specific permission to read personal email or surfing, be guilty (even if in a broader sense but remember the law is the law) of much the same crime allegedly perpetrated by McOwen?? If yes....the DA is gonna have a LOT of cases going.....

"dull mode off"

let's see how big a hornets' nest I've stirred with that....

Io

[Virus]

Good point, but software isn't loaded to check ones email. His lawyer only needs to get a full copy of every website that has been accessed since his departure. This would prove that the internet in general is being abused. No jury will fine this guy with that stiff a penalty. I doubt a judge will either. Common sense and compassion will prevail.

[verT]

I have known many offices where employees install "crap" that is downloaded from the internet. It usually ends up f***ing up their machine costing the company money by having to dispatch one of their IT staff to fix what shouldn't have happened in the first place. So whether the abuse is in the software or the internet it's there and it is a huge fact of this "new world" we live in. I agree with you Virus the charge holds about as much water as a rain barrel run over by a D2 dozer.

[fizler]

allright, i got some stuff to say..... i just graduated high school... in my computer classes, or basicly any computer with speakers... there was napster or something to play mp3's.. we were told to never install stuff, but everyone did....not only that but did we actully use the internet for something related to school as we were ONLY allowed to do. **** no.. 98% of the time was screwing around at some stupid site like bangable.com or newgrounds.com i can only imagin what the bandwidth bill would be....... these people that are going after this kid are jerks.. if he did cause 1/2 a million in bandwidth bills, the admin should have seen that shit about $450,000 dollars before the half a million mark.. we use to get busted for downloading a gig or so to one machine at school...this is a school...with a crappy network, im sure this company has a way better system, and could have told what computers are sending 100 gigs out a day or whatnot. this is total bullshit, im actully getting mad thinking about this.

[Io.]

maybe one doesn't have an email program installed because it isn't necessary. If one then installs it for the purpose stated above.......

Io