The strategy worked and the magistrate announced there was no way he
was sending the young hacker to jail.
The prosecutor looked genuinely disappointed and launched a counter
proposal--1500 hours of community service. Anthrax caught his breath.
That was absurd. It would take almost nine months, full time. Painting
buildings, cleaning toilets. Forget about his university studies. It was
almost as bad as prison.
Anthrax's lawyer protested. `Your Worship, that penalty is something
out of cyberspace.' Anthrax winced at how corny that sounded, but the
lawyer looked very pleased with himself.
The magistrate refused to have a bar of the prosecutor's counter
proposal. Anthrax's girlfriend was impressed with the magistrate. She
didn't know much about the law or the court system, but he seemed a
fair man, a just man. He didn't appear to want to give a harsh
punishment to Anthrax at all. But he told the court he had to send a
message to Anthrax, to the class of school children in the public
benches and to the general community that hacking was wrong in the
eyes of the law. Anthrax glanced back at the students. They looked
like they were aged thirteen or fourteen, about the age he got into
hacking and phreaking.
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