Do Technology Lawsuits Lead To The Chewbacca Defense?
from the this-does-not-make-sense dept
The "trojan horse" defense is becoming popular in computer crime cases. We've recently mentioned how it's been used to get people off who were accused of attacking servers, child porn and tax fraud. A reporter who was at the case last week that dealt with a hack attack on servers in the Port of Houston said that the jury was clearly bored out of their skulls during all the technical testimony, and it was unlikely they really understood what was going on. Last week, when the decision came out, we asked whether or not it still made sense to have non-technical people on such a jury. This reporter is suggesting that because juries don't understand technical jargon, we're getting closer and closer to situations where lawyers are going to employ the Chewbacca Defense, as created for South Park. Already, Slashdot has suggested that SCO is using a Chewbacca Defense in their case. Basically, you just have a convincing lawyer make up a bunch of technical stuff, make connections that don't have anything to do with one another, point out that it does not make sense, and therefore, the case should get thrown out. The legal strategy of the twenty-first century: trojan horses and Chewbacca.
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The Chewbacca defense draws a parallel where no parallel exists, or goes of on a tangent to apply similar logic to a completely unrelated topic, and then argue that that logic applies to the the subject in question.
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Plausable denability vs. Reasonable Doubt vs The T
The whole amicus curi and LE "computer forensic expert" is sooo much about resume filler/oh by the way I just did this/what better way to serve the pulic by provide with with my limited knowledge of a subject I'm good a talking about. It's frightening to think of what actually hangs in the ballence.
But then I remember the supply side theory of Law Enforcement and it all becomes crystal clear why the courts are inhabited and run and judged by such clueless folk.
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Chewbacca
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