On Stephen Watt’s Incarceration
This is insane. Watt spent 10 hours coding a packet sniffer for the guy who went on to conduct the largest identity theft in human history. For free. Now he’s in jail for two years.
Prosecutors don’t dispute Watt’s claim that he wasn’t paid for the code, nor do they assert that he earned any profit from the stolen card data. But U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner felt the enormity of the TJX intrusion, which she called “mightily, mightily malicious and irresponsible,” demanded jail time.
The sentence would serve a clear message to Watt and others, Gertner said during one hearing, that “you cannot be a cog in this wheel knowing that someone else is stealing … even if you didn’t get a dime for it.”
Does he deserve to walk? No. But he’s guilty in the same way that every weapons manufacturer ever is culpable for designing stuff that is intrinsically used to kill people (or steal data). A fine or some kind. Probation. But two years in SeaTac is excessive.
-Shlok
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