Yeah, in a positive way. Here is a guy that stood up for what he believed in and for the most part had support from other techies. By all accounts he was also a very smart and productive kid. Companies would have been lining up to hire him, if for no other reason than to thumb their nose at the feds.

It hurts a lot of the working class, where "no ex-felons" is a cheap and legal filter.

(If I ever wanted to get a security clearance again it would be an issue -- but obviously Aaron is exactly the person who should not get a security clearance.)

We have something called "Criminal Records Bureau" checking, which is used for anyone working with vulnerable people. (Children, old people, people with mental health problems, people with learning disabilities, etc etc.) There has been a problem with people using these too often (ie, for jobs that don't require them) and rejecting people for convictions that are either very old or that have no relevance.

But I've never filled out a "job application" for a software development position. For the kind of jobs that are typical of American readers of Hacker News, employers asking about your arrest record is less likely than them asking where/if you went to college.

(There are certain classes of software development jobs where a felony conviction would matter, like defense work.)

That you know of. But it is the sort of thing that some people do check up on quietly.

I have a felony computer hacking conviction and it is the opposite: I have to turn down job offers.