The punishment should fit the misdemeanor. Jail time and a felony conviction is an extremely harsh punishment for surreptitiously downloading academic articles. Anyone with a speeding ticket has committed a far graver threat to society.

It is easy to believe both that Swartz's actions were wrong and that the prosecutors actions were wrong. Or even that the prosecutors were more wrong than Swartz. That's what I think.

So the feigned incredulousness of that comment upthread isn't particularly convincing.

if the deal were

"plead guilty and only have one hand amputated, or spend a million defending yourself with the risk of execution."

would you still waste our time bring up personal responsibility?

because no one's arguing that he wasn't personally responsible for entering the server room. the issue is how unreasonable the offer is considering what he did.

This from the person equating 3 months in a Western prison with having your hand chopped off?

How is any logical, reasoned debate supposed to follow from this? How is having a limb amputated supposed to compare to Aaron's case?

stop and ask yourself exactly why you think i'm equating anything here.

it's just the first straw-man misinterpretation you could invent to respond in any way, isn't it?

in any case, you've conceded that the reasonableness of the plea deal is the issue here and personal responsibility for entering the server room is irrelevant.

Agreed.