
British Microsoft, Nintendo hacker given 18 month sentence - RobertSmith
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/03/british-microsoft-nintendo-hacker-given-18-month-sentence/
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_" At the time of his arrest in 2017, Clark was a security researcher working
for Malwarebytes, and made the hacks from his family home."_

 _" Clark was given a 15 month prison sentence, suspended (or delayed) for 18
months. So as long as he stays out of trouble for the next year and a half, he
won't have to spend any time inside. At sentencing, Judge Alexander Milne QC
said he was spared a custodial sentence because of the efforts made by his
parents—his mother has quit her job so that she can aid his rehabilitation and
supervision—and reports that he would suffer unduly in prison due to a
combination of autism and face blindness."_

I was a bit stunned by this. It makes me think of how politicians, at times,
voice physical health / mental health as the key problem when bad things
happen to the public (e.g., bullying and school shootings). Sometimes they
place more weigh on the individual(s) circumstances and view it as an isolated
event, and fail to look into structural problems. I wonder how the courts in
the USA would have resolved this - would this be labeled as an isolated
incident or would they think more carefully about this on a policy level?

