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anyone interesting is a felon

2013-01-15 00:21:45.018751+00 by Dan Lyke 1 comments

Tim Wu in The New Yorker: How the Legal System Failed Aaron Swartz—And Us

... today our criminal laws are so expansive that most people of any vigor and spirit can be found to violate them in some way. Basically, under American law, anyone interesting is a felon. The prosecutors, not the law, decide who deserves punishment.

[ related topics: Invention and Design Law Government ]

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#Comment Re: made: 2013-01-15 13:34:43.561214+00 by: Larry Burton

"There's no way to rule innocent men. The only power any government has is the power to crack down on criminals. Well, when there aren't enough criminals one makes them. One declares so many things to be a crime that it becomes impossible for men to live without breaking laws. Who wants a nation of law-abiding citizens? What's there in that for anyone? But just pass the kind of laws that can neither be observed nor enforced or objectively interpreted – and you create a nation of law-breakers – and then you cash in on guilt." ~ Dr. Ferris in Ayn Rand's Atlas Shrugged.

Let a novel stay popular long enough and it starts to look like non-fiction.