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Mitnick to Plead Guilty 97

Posted by CmdrTaco from the how-many-years-has-it-been dept.
Roast Beef hooked us up to a ZDNet article that proclaims that Kevin Mitnick will Plead Guilty to computer-related crimes. After four years in prison waiting for a trial, he might be out by the end of the year.
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Mitnick to Plead Guilty More

Mitnick to Plead Guilty

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  • Mitnick is an embarassment. (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    All questions of injustice aside, Kevin Mitnick is an embarassment to hackers everywhere. He's a _cracker_ for one thing, not a hacker. And a poor one, at that. He really lacks the skills to crack anything. He's a script kiddie, nothing more. I read his list of priors a while back... he's just a common criminal, who happened to try using a computer once. He got caught. What a fool. Latch on to him all you want, but make sure you're doing it for the right reasons.

  • I hope he rots in jail (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward

    The guy is a criminal and is where he belongs. I was on Netcom when he stole my credit card number along with the credit card number of half the internet.

    And in case you forgot he also stole millions of dollars worth of software from Moterola!

  • Finally over? (Score:1)

    by Anonymous Coward
    I find it retarded they'd go that long way to save a criminal like kevin. The Governement, allthough it lies, cheats, and steals from the people, isn't going to hunt down any "Hacker" it sees.

    There are people in jail right now, who ARE innocent, but nobody gives a damn.

    People used him as a tolken, and tried to make the government bad by doing that. They went about it all wrong.

    Lets face it. 2600 jumped to the opertunity to make him a marter, spreaded FUD about the case, and trying to make him some sort of marter. It worked, and kevin sold his ass out. Now for the rest of my life, im going to have to listen to skript kiddy aol hax0rs bitch about him. I don't want him to die or anything, but I hope the sentance is reasonable, long enough for him to get it up the ass a few times from bubba and cleetus. hehe, hope 2600 sends him soap on a rope!

    If I saw kevin on the street, i'd give him a peice of my mind, and a kick in the balls.
  • 4 years w/o a trial? And now Kevin saying he's pleading guilty?

    There's more up his sleeve than what is being reported.

    ZDTV is reporting that the defense was held up by goverment prosecutors in gathering evidence, so the end blame is the Justice Department.

    I would not be surprized if a lawsuit AGAINST the DOJ for causing such delays is filed.

    ---

  • They did their own independent story at:
    http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/18 566.html

    ---

  • I haven't read 2600 in such a long time it's probably to my benifit to only passively read it if it ever shows up. But anyway, baised off of ZDNET and WIRED, the goverment was witholding evidence after alot of discovery motions were filed, causing the motions of continuence to be filed too just to cope with it. If the DOJ complied, then Kevin would of been tried already. Not off of 2600, but ZDNET and WIRED articles. If a third mainstream resource pops up which collaborates everything, I'll believe it. ZDNET has a ton of salt to it's name. ZDNET backed up by WIRED has a salt-shaker full. 2600 is *not* a mainstream resource AFAIAC.

    ---

  • Incorrect. "Cracker" is a term that describes the talented asm coders who remove copy protection from software. It does not refer to hackers or script kiddies who circumvent computer security. Those who do so are, if they demonstrated considerable talent in finding and exploiting the security hole, rightly considered hackers. If not, they're merely script kiddies.
  • I can see why his previous bail-jumping would keep him from getting bail here, but that's not the argument the government used. The government claimed that he would disrupt the 1996 presidential election if he were loose. They even had some Secret Service agents testify about his ability to assassinate somebody.

    The justice system is insane. They have this image of Mitnick as a super-hacker who can do anything he wants with electronic equipment. The prison officials even took a way a walkman from him because they were afraid he'd modify it to record conversations. How could he do so with a cassette player that had no recording head?
  • He didn't hire his lawyer. Not being rich (he didn't use any of those credit card numbers he had), he couldn't afford his own, so he was appointed one by the court.

    He would've been better off if he stole a bunch of money with the credit cards and fled the country. Instead he decided not to steal money from people, and he gets stuck in jail while his court-appointed lawyers muck around for 4 years.
  • Facts my ass. Takedown is an extremely biased book, with very few facts in it. It's co-authored by mr. shimomuro (sp?), the egomaniac, and john markoff, the not-quite-competent technology writer for the NY Times.
  • I've heard that Mitnick is considering suing Mirimax for libel. Has anybody heard anything more about this? He'd certainly have a good case.
  • Posted by PasswdIs ScoreOne:

    It just goes to show that your right fly right out the window when the court decides it wants to "make an example of you". Four years just waiting for the trial? That's pathetic and for what? Cracking systems and stealing (but never once using) some credit card numbers. Meanwhile many drug dealers, killers, and rapists are tried, jailed, and back on the streets in less time than Mitnick has just been waiting for a trial. Wheather or not Mitnick is guilty or not (and he probably is), does anyone else see anything wrong with the way the courts have treated him? Even if you despise Mitnick, you *must* despise the courts *more* for the way they have treated him.
  • Posted by AnnoyingMouseCoward:

    ...please get it right.

    "Do not call up what you cannot put down, by that, meaning, do not call up one who can in turn call up others against whom your most powerful devices are of no avail".

    Reputedly a quotation from Al Azif that appeared in the H.P.Lovecraft story "The Case of Charles Dexter Ward".
  • Agreed, and wholeheartedly so. I don't mind having two entries under the word "hacker" in the dictionary (hell, it's happened to better words before, right?) The warez dudes (and their Biff Alphabet) can have IRC all to themselves for all I care. As far as icons go, Mitnick is no Mandela.

    But his rights as an accused criminal were either definately violated or walked the line too closely. IANAL, FWIW, so YMMV. :-)

  • how plead you? (Score:3)

    by pohl ( 872 ) on Thursday March 18, 1999 @05:13AM (#1974134) Homepage
    Mr. Torvalds, Mr. Stallman, Mr. Wall: you stand before this court to face the most serious charge of hacking libre, a criminal offense against the First Church of Rand. Our game theorists have run simulations which show that your act will lead to the eventual marginalization of our precious dogma; we predict that your crime will inevitably reach treasonous proportions on June 27, 2012 -- how plead you?

    Linus: It wasn't just me; a lot of other people helped.

    Richard: Will I be allowed to redistribute a modified version of the court-record?

    Larry: I sure am happy.

    This court is offended by your sight. You are sentenced to copy The Fountainhead onto Big Chief Tablets with a crayon. Bailiff!

  • What about this quote:

    "In April 1996, he pleaded guilty to possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices (cloned cellular telephone numbers), and for violating supervised release, and was sentenced to 22-months in federal prison. "

    So while he *was* awaiting trial in prison, he would have been there anyway because of his own guilty admission. Dumbass.

  • Here is the point. I'm sure we all can argue like 5 year olds that Mitnick was a cracker not a hacker and he went against the "hacker code" (which applies to crackers now I guess). Anyway, the point is that it is FOUR years that he has been waiting for a trial! Doesn't that bother anyone else? I mean what if it turned out that he didn't do it in a trial that may be another year down the road (I know ZD says it would take place next month, but its ZD and they never get their facts right)? He could have served 5 years for nothing? I would honestly like to know what sort of progress has been made on this case each week by the people who have been putting off the trial.

    Thats what its about my friends.

  • Now Miramax can go ahead with its libelous movie!

    I wonder if he actually has that robotic arm in the most recent rewrite.


    --
    As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
  • The issue (AFAIK) has always been civil rights, and the government's reflexive and irrational fear of crackers; not that Mitnick was ever some sort of 3l337 H4x0r.




    --
    As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
  • I'm not sure I understand what the Randroids have to do with it, (aren't libretarians pro-freedom?) but that was very funny.

    Especially the Larry bit.


    --
    As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
  • Mumia's case is only slightly less fscked up than Leonard's. I bet those "Free Tibet" stickers really get on his nerves too.


    --
    As long as each individual is facing the TV tube alone, formal freedom poses no threat to privilege.
  • This reminds me of Phiber Optik.. Computer criminals being treated worse than murders and rapists..

  • I'm not down wit tha stereotypes boyyyy
  • Ummmm hacker is also someone who fouls a lot during a basketball game. But when I call someone a hacker on the basketball court, I seriously am not discussing computers at that time, nor am I discussing golf, or furniture.

    I've never seen a more hypocritical statement in my life. You're trying to sound all smart and all because you have a freakin dictionary open in front of you, and are telling people to look it up and all.. did you look this up your own ass ?

    Gay..can mean two things.. but when someone is talking about Gay rights.. they aren't talking about the right to be happy and to be merry. They're talkin about rights of faggots(bundle of sticks) or homosexuals.

    Before you go around waving your brand new reading skills and the ability to look a word up in a dictionary.. go read up on english, go read up on context.


    One word can have an entirely different meaning depending on the context.. lately you hear people saying something or someone is phat.. when you hear it.. it sounds like fat.. are they calling your mother fat or phat ? how do you know ? it's the context in which they speak.

    it's obvious the article and every comment about it is in reference to computers, not basketball/golf/ or furniture.

    People like you, people without a clue, should be in jail for possession of stupidity.

    I convict you of possession of stupidity with the intent to distribute.

    Now go get buttraped.
  • Except Mitnick waved his right to a speedy trial. That's why he's been in jail so long, becuase he's an idiot. Well, at least that's what I think he is.
  • I am very glad most of you hate Kevin Mitnick as much as I do. Seeing those "Free Kevin" slogans is as irratating as seeing the "Free Mumia" signs. A criminal is a criminal, 'nuf said.
    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user, Jon Katz hater: bite me!

  • Bull (Score:1)

    by NYC ( 10100 )
    Goto http://www.justice4danielfaulkner.com/ for the entire truth. Stupid popular media is believing all the lies told by that sack of garbage. Burn that mother fucker, burn!
    --Ivan, weenie NT4 user, Jon Katz hater: bite me!
  • It's not hard to wonder why little Kevvy has waived his right to a speedy trial.. He is being kept in a FEDERAL prison. Wat does this mean to us?
    Well, for starters, he gets not 3 but 4 square (read: nutritionally balanced and professionally prepared by (sometimes)Cord Au Bleu chefs) meals a day, color TV in his private cell. Outdoor activited which include golf, swimming, bikeing, and running. A full library, and access to college education materials.
    Don't feel bad for him kids, hes living better than yor humble narrator, and probally better than most of you.
  • >What is also not helping him are the web page
    >hackers that go around putting up "Free Kevin" on
    >NY Times and IdSoftware web sites as well as
    >others.

    IMO, it's a valid form of protest, roughly
    equivalent to a picket or a sit-in. And you can
    understand why they'd pick the NYT as a target,
    after the quality of their reporting of the case.

    And quite frankly I'm surprised there haven't
    been riots over this. Three-odd years without
    trial in the self-proclaimed leader of the Free
    World?

    K.
    -
  • So essentially he spends less time in prison if he pleads guilty to the crime than if he were to plead innocent and go through a lengthy trial. What a great justice system we have. The government can get people to admit guilt just by throwing them in prison and letting them go only after they admit guilt. Doesn't this violate the constitution? The right to a prompt trial by one's peers?

  • I've never known anyone (except the ones who are downright anal about it, like you see in this thread, and even they accidently use "hacker" sometimes) use the word "cracker" to describe someone who illegally breaks into others' computers. Most computer people take the word cracker to mean someone cracking software (e.g., removing copy protection, figuring out registration key algorithms, etc.), not breaking into systems. I'll put forth that in their zeal to change the common definition of "hacker," these people are polluting the common definition of "cracker." Look, 95% of the time, you can tell whether it's a neutral hacker or a malicious hacker by the context of the words around it, so get over it already.

    Or maybe I should just constantly bitch that people are giving Saltines and Ritz a bad name...

    Cheers,
    ZicoKnows@hotmail.com

  • I think one of the other posters had a good point. Ya, he was screwed on this, but he did have priors and he did jump bail before. No way a judge would let him get bail on this.
    One other hand, he changed lawyers three times and his defense team filed many delays (Claiming the goverment with held evidence.
    Kevin had to know he was screwed when he got caught. Prior convictions, and he got caught again. He should have been smart, like every claims he is, and pleaded guilty to the charges. I don't think he would have gotten 20 years, but it would have been less time that he has been sitting in LA county jail. Remember is he guilty of many of those charges!
    What is also not helping him are the web page hackers that go around putting up "Free Kevin" on NY Times and IdSoftware web sites as well as others. I use to feel sorry for the guy, but not after his supports went to such lenghts, to prove what a bunch of children they are.
  • script kiddie or not, ummm, doesnt he have a right to due process like the rest of us???

    get a clue...latch on to him not because he is a great cracker, but because our great government is trying to show others what happens to people like him by holding him for 4 years without trial or bail hearing. it sounds more like the plot of a government power flick than real life...scary.

  • ...then hang him high!
  • From what i've heard, he was forced to waive that right in order to return to GEN POP. Can you imagine 4 years of solitary confinement?

    ~PanIc~
  • We all know that Mitnick has been making much money with the gov't...now his time is done and they will set him free or something.

  • ROTFL! (Score:1)

    by TWR ( 16835 )
    I'm not sure I understand what the Randroids have to do with it, (aren't libretarians pro-freedom?) but that was very funny

    Randians don't like Libertarians (big-L, and small-l). They consider them anarchists. Check out http://www.aynrand.com/objectivism/Q5.html

    -jon (Not an objectivist, almost a libertarian)

  • Well... that was certainly random.

    Perhaps the only saving grace of the post was that the author actually had a point.
  • Computer criminals are being treated worse because the things that they can destroy are considered more important in this society. Face it, a life or someones sanity/dignity (only things I can think of for rapists) is not considered as important today as money or the systems that control it. A wealthy mans credit report means more to this society than a good percentage of lives that he controls. Welcome to the 21st Century.
  • Gee what will 2600 do with all those lovely Free Kevin stickers?
  • Mitnick kept firing his lawyers before his trial date. Can you say "martyr"?
  • Hear hear! Nice to hear some logic amid all this "Free Kevin" crap!
  • No my friend, the point is that Mitnick is a martyr.

    The reason he's still in jail is his own -- he waived the right to a speedy trail and fired his lawyers everytime his trial came up.

    I'm all for the libertarian-style thinking, but in this case it is unjustified.

    Its all in the marketing: 2600 did a great job pushing those bumper stickers....
  • 4 years.. I thought it was "Innocent till proven guilty......
  • Ok.. Back in the 80's Hackers were the underground guys that could break into unix systems and program them to do what ever.. Now if I remeber correctly that websters definds it as a person that has great skill.. IE Guitar hacker would be one that could play the guitar, also able to tweak it to get diffrent sounds.. Now in the 80's and early 90's "hacking" as you call "cracking" was a bitch and a half and took real skill to doing.. So if advanced programming is not hacking, wtf is is it? In my eye's crackers are only the ones that can crack passwords, but cracking password by finding out algorythms and programming something to crack it would have to be a form of hacking.... So there for crackers would only be the ones that use a program to crack passwd files and do nothing else.. Hackers would be the ones that would crack the password and be able to use the system to it's fullest.... Just my own 2 cents.. And damn, I only have a $10 bill.
  • Yup.. But it's like a war on what a hacker is.. It's now like, nukers are calling them selfs hackers.. Someone that can put a pc in a wooden case is calling them self a hacker.. It's an over used word.. I think i'm going to find a new term for us underground 'hackers'.
  • He would have been there for 22 months after his guilty plea. Not sure when this latest round of charges were filed, but 4 years is over twice as long as 22 months.

    The fact he's guilty of something else doesn't excuse holding him without a bail hearing and without a trial after that sentence expires.
  • Once and for all, the word Hacker IS good!

    We know that. Most of us object to it being used to describe malicious activities, though. See the following statements.

    When you hack a system you break into it.

    Not necessarily. Strictly speaking, a hack is any feat of technological prowess. Breaking into systems is a subset of the activities that can be lumped under the category "hack."

    Man.. hacking was already used for breaking in when none of you could even afford computers, so cut the "cracker" bullshit!

    I guess that I'm supposed to be quaking in the face of your obviously superior knowledge. What you may be referring to is one of the original (ca. late 1950s) uses of the word "hack"--describing lockpicking (e.g. "hacking a lock" or "lock hacking").

    Times have changed a bit. There are people who break into systems simply to satisfy curiosity or because they like the challenge; those who do so and do no damage (or who point out holes in security to the sysadmins) are generally thought of as hackers.

    People who break into systems for malicious purposes (a category that describes probably 99.44% of the "hackers" that J. Random Citizen has heard about) are usually referred to as "crackers" to distinguish them from people who break into systems for non-malicious reasons.

  • Comment removed based on user account deletion
  • Not a hacker!!!

    For the LOVE of GOD!!! I wish they'd get it fucking STRAIGHT!!!!

    -- A wealthy eccentric who marches to the beat of a different drum. But you may call me "Noodle Noggin."

  • Only in Hollywood.

    "Adding to his notoriety is an upcoming feature film of "Takedown," which is expected to open later this year. The film, which is being produced by a division of Disney's Miramax Films, will star Skeet Ulrich as Mitnick."

    "Among the untruths: During the pursuit, Mitnick clubs Shimomura with a garbage can lid, gashing his head (they never met until after Mitnick's arrest); he obtains free phone calls by whistling into the phone a la legendary phone phreaker Captain Crunch; he rigs a radio call-in contest to win a TV, a stunt performed in real life by fellow hacker Kevin Poulsen; near the end of the movie he vows to escape during a jail conversation with Shimomura, saying, "I'll be seeing you. All I need is a dime and a phone. Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I don't even need the dime."
  • I'd like to latch on to Kevin for other reasons!
    MM-Hey!
  • Mitnick is a cracker first of all and yes he did do some pretty stupid things like Getting Caught.. ,But Its the government Im concerned about. considering the fact that now they are stating Things that make the NSA seem like the new US baby sitters club. No Privacy, Freedom to learn, Ability to even go to the Restroom at your own will.

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