Trojan Defense Works Again
from the it's-happening-every-where dept
That's it. If you ever get arrested for any type of crime that involves a computer, your defense is clear: "it wasn't me, it was a secret trojan horse that got installed on my computer." It's worked for someone accused of child porn and for someone accused of tax fraud. And, now, it's worked for the kid accused of the kid accused of doing a denial of service attack on the Port of Houston. The defense worked, despite the prosecution bringing up an expert who claimed there was no evidence anyone had hacked into the guy's computer. In all of these cases, who knows who's right. The law clearly says they're innocent, and perhaps they really are innocent (the tax one is particularly questionable - since the guy was a tax preparer, and the supposed trojan only messed around with his own taxes). However, you know that from now on, this is the standard defense anyone charged with a computer crime will use - guilty or innocent. Update: Interesting opinion piece on the verdict asking if a typical jury trial still makes sense for technology related cases, as the jury is unlikely to understand the finer points of the technology in question.
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No jury trials for hard to understand crimes?
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Technical Juries
On the other hand, if I HAD commited some crime, I would want a jury of people ignorant of the technical details involved. A jury that could be easily confused or deceived.
Both scenarios are really arguments in favor of 'expert juries', from a standpoint of getting justice done.
If the current trend of professional specialization continues, our society may begin to segment into seperate cultures formed around large isolated bodies of knowledge with less and less in common with each other and with the general population. In this scenario it might become necessary to convene juries from the knowledge domain in which the crime was committed.
I'm unsure if I find this a plausible future or not.
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If the RIAA were to bust me for file-sharing (which, of course, I would never do), I'd simply point out "Hey, I have an open WiFi node. Sure, it was on my IP address, but it wasn't me, it was a neighbor. Or some guy with a laptop in his car."
And then I'd run over to Fry's and get a WiFi node, pronto.
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