David Cameron's "V for Vendetta" Britain

[starroute]

7. Add in that business about life sentences for hackers

http://www.forbes.com/sites/thomasbrewster/2015/05/13/death-penalty-or-life-for-hackers/

With little fanfare or fuss, on 3 May, life sentences for the most egregious digital crimes – ones that cause significant damage to people’s lives or national security – became a reality in the UK. . . .

Announced last year during the Queen’s Speech, the update to the UK Computer Misuse Act via the Serious Crime Act 2015 has caused consternation for two reasons. First, it’s terms are broad. For someone to have deserved a life in prison, they must have committed an “unauthorised act” and known that it was unauthorised, and will have either intended to have caused “serious damage” to “human welfare or to national security” or had been “reckless as to whether such harm was caused”. As noted by Professor Peter Sommer, who holds posts at de Montfort and the Open Universities and has been expert witness in numerous computer crimes trials, this leaves much open to interpretation by British judges, some of whom may not have even moderate technical understanding of the issues, whilst juries could be convinced fallacious information was factual. “The practical problem is that there are no definitions of ‘serious damage’ or ‘national security’. So it will be up to a judge to try and guide the jury – who will presumably have already heard from some serious sounding bloke speaking from behind a curtain.”