Take your keyboard to death row
Found an interesting bit of news on rotten.com: A certain Professor Landsburg of the University of Rochester has calculated the economic value of imposing the death penalty on hackers (or, more exactly, crackers; Mr Landsburg does not bother with such fine distinctions).
There is a NY Times article (use Bugmenot if you don’t want to create an account) mentioning this. It would be decidedly more pleasant to read if the author was not suffering from such a distinct foot fetish. Quote:
Professor Landsburg, an economist at the University of Rochester, has calculated the relative value to society of executing murderers and hackers. By using studies estimating the deterrent value of capital punishment, he figures that executing one murderer yields at most $100 million in social benefits.
The benefits of executing a hacker would be greater, he argues, because the social costs of hacking are estimated to be so much higher: $50 billion per year. Deterring a mere one-fifth of 1 percent of those crimes – one in 500 hackers – would save society $100 million. And Professor Landsburg believes that a lot more than one in 500 hackers would be deterred by the sight of a colleague on death row.
Having read this, I found comfort in the joys of the empirical: An entry on Slashdot points to a CNN report that says one third of all studies are nonsense. For said third, look no further.