This hacker might seem shady, but throwing him in jail is bad for everyone

Re:This hacker might seem shady, but throwing him in jail is... by tedunangst on Tuesday September 24, 2013 @12:49AM (#6436050)

If only there were some way to determine what was meant. Barring that, maybe it's best not go around saying such things if you can't even convince one out of twelve people that you weren't serious.

Regardless of whether you truly intend to carry out the threat, the threat itself is a form of violence. It imposes your will on an unwilling subject.

If you rob a bank with an unloaded gun, you can't claim afterwards, "oh, they were perfectly safe and didn't actually have to give me the money, so therefore it wasn't a crime."

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Re:This hacker might seem shady, but throwing him in jail is... by jrockway on Tuesday September 24, 2013 @02:33AM (#6436359)

No, you missed my point. My point is that anyone can accuse anyone of a crime, so the law has to reduce the incentive for someone to make something up to get attention or revenge. "He said he would kill me," is nearly impossible to prove, so if you punish it severely, you create a cure that's worse than the disease. If you restrict it to certified letters, though, then you have a better balance.

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Re:This hacker might seem shady, but throwing him in jail is... by tedunangst on Tuesday September 24, 2013 @07:17AM (#6437168)

Don't we already have laws against filing a false report? I think I agree with you, but I'm not sure that the problem you described exists.

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