There are lot of details that don't make it into most press reports of the Childs case, but that are very important. Many of these are covered in this:<p><a href="http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/042910-terry-childs-juror-explains-why.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/042910-terry-childs-ju...</a><p>which is an interview with juror #4, who in addition to having heard all of those details, also happens to be a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and is a senior network engineer at ADP (the giant payroll company).
<i>who locked San Francisco out of its main computer network for 12 days<p>Childs claimed he never intended any harm, but did not trust his superiors with the passwords. He eventually gave the passwords to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in a jail cell visit</i><p>This doesn't really pass the smell test as just some silly misunderstanding. Twelve days to hand over the information?
$1.5MM sounds overly vindictive, but <i>"He said he was first asked for the passwords by people who weren’t authorized to have them."</i>? For twelve days?<p>Everything about this stinks.
Not knowing the details, it becomes difficult to analyze fully and fairly.<p>Still, if you get a request in writing, from a superior, which would exculpate you from possible negligence for allegedly improperly divulging information, if that's what he truly believed, that should have alleviated the issue.<p>Instead, from the outside, at least, it seemed as if he was unreasonably steadfast in his stance, despite pleas from the mayor (pre-jailhouse visit). It was as though he thought his interpretation of policy superseded the authority of the people or office who/which set out the policy.<p>As I recall the events, it was almost as though he became a prisoner of his own doing. Once he made a stance, it become very difficult for him to back down. As if saving face was a very important aspect of the ordeal. Of course, that's just my personal projection, perhaps.<p>Four years and 1.5 million is too harsh, in my view. Yet, he did deserve some punishment for his actions.
"what would have happened if Childs had been hit by a bus?"<p>I call for the EFF, the ACLU and the FSF to create a "Programmer's Hit By A Bus" fund. We would all contribute, according to the degree of bus-danger we put ourselves in to. For instance, I actually ride Denver RTD buses, so I would contribute the maximum amount. Some programmer living in a municipality without buses would pay only a nominal amount.<p>We could build up a large fund to take care of the estates, widows and orphans left behind by the heinous plague of Programmers getting Hit By A Bus.