Re:Why aren't AI companies being charged for hacking?
by criddell on Monday October 12, 2026 @02:09PM
(#50060388)
file complaint != press charges
I can file a complaint with the police that you broke into my computer but if charges are pressed that's done by the state and it's the state that is the plaintiff.
You're right though - reading about it in the news is enough for an investigation to commence but like I said elsewhere, resources are stretched thin and without somebody saying they were harmed it might not get ranked above some other case with an identifiable, cooperative victim and an easy to prosecute case.
Do Federal police and Federal prosecutors not read the news? I'd be shocked if they didn't. And while I would 100% believe a claim that not every cop and prosecutor is aware of tech news, I would find any argument that those that deal with "cybercrime" were unaware of the news to be completely incredible.
I'll also note that -unless my memory is failing me here- the only charges against Swartz that had anything to do with MIT were dropped very early on, whereas the charges that had to do with the "attack" on JSTOR's systems remained.
As I said, in many cases, the actual victims don't need to file complaints for The Federales to either begin investigations or press charges.
> I'm not saying somebody has to press charges...
Yeah, but you did? [0]
That might not be what you intended to say, but it is what you said. No worries, though... shit happens.[0] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50057353>