[sf-lug] Black hats declare war on Scientology

[Asheesh Laroia]

On Fri, 25 Jan 2008, Christian Einfeldt wrote:

> I would like to see Scientology be exposed for the murders and fraud 
> they have perpetrated.  And a small part of myself likes to see 
> Anonymous stick it to them.  But illegal means are still illegal means, 
> even if deployed against bad guys, and so I try to not take joy in 
> seeing Scientology's servers get hammered by Anonymous.  Some things are 
> just wrong, even if done for the right reasons.

I'd like to just point out that morality ("some things are just wrong") 
and legality ("illegal means are still illegal means") are very different 
things.  This country has had many laws, and some of those laws were 
considered immoral over time and repealed.  Some of those laws are 
considered immoral and never repealed.

Legality can have something to do with fairness, of course; using only 
legal means against an opponent can be an indication that you want a fair 
fight with them.  But let's not confuse the legality of the means of 
Anonymous with the "wrongness" (morality) of the means of Anonymous.

Judge him based on your personal moral compass if you want to call his 
actions "wrong", and on the law if you want to call his actions "illegal". 
I know someone who wrote a haiku about how to decode DVDs; combined with a 
compiler for the poem into C, this action is illegal, but I don't think 
the action is wrong.

-- Asheesh.

-- 
Innovation is hard to schedule.
 		-- Dan Fylstra