News for hackers. Stuff that matters.

A comment on Malus – Clean Room as a Service. Parent comment

Re:Malus – Clean Room as a Service by array_key_first on Thursday March 12, 2026 @10:49PM (#47360137)
Laws can't be enforced 100% of the time because many laws require intent, which is unknowable. You have to make an educated guess behind it. Even if someone tells you their intent, straight up, you still don't know their intent. You just know what they want you to think their intent is, which may or may not be the same thing. It's legitimately unknowable.

Ideally, for a lot of things we want to punish people who knowingly do bad stuff, not people who do bad stuff because they thought it was good.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:Malus – Clean Room as a Service by bambax on Friday March 13, 2026 @06:14AM (#47362516)
Very true but not in all cases. In case of speed limit intent does not matter; "I didn't know I was speeding" is no excuse. Same with DUI.

In fact DUI should be a mitigating circumstance, because when you're drunk your ability to make decisions is impaired -- but the opposite happens, DUI is an aggravating circumstance.

[ Parent | on HN ]