It is hard to justify leniency for someone whose actions have inconvenienced tens of thousands of people around the world, but that is what is needed in the case of Jeffrey Parson.
Parson, who went by the name of T33kid (Teekid, to anyone not fluent in the l33t hax0r dialect that Parson favoured), was arrested on Friday for releasing the Blaster.B worm, which prosecutors say infected 7,000 computers. But the possible 10-year prison sentence, US$250,000 fine and certain internet ban that Parson faces does nothing more than satisfy political demands for retribution while the real author goes free.
New viruses or variants are reported every day, and few of their creators are caught. Each infection should serve as a wake-up call to computer users to start taking protection seriously. But it's a call that millions of people continue to ignore. Jailing Parson will simply be a case of shooting the messenger.
A brief search online shows Parson is a rather sad individual, unable to commit to any project for longer than it takes to dream up. He tried to start a security site and abandoned it; announced it would be relaunched as a forum, but did not follow through; tried to write an MP3 player and gave up; and as a virus writer, nobody seems to have seen the Kazaa worm he boasted of having written.
In short, as a hacker, Parson was a failure. It is only natural that his one moment of infamy should have come on someone else's coattails.
Rebellion is a natural urge for most teenagers as they break away from parental control and try to establish their own identity. Being inexperienced at doing anything alone, most will look to peer groups for their recognition, which is probably what T33kid and many thousands like him were doing.