Is imprisoning McKinnon a waste?

What do people here feel about the possible imprisonment of Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker who is being extradited for hacking into the goverments defence computers?

Do you consider this a bit of a waste of obvious talent? Could'nt they do a deal with McKinnon and offer him a job instead of prison?

I'm sure this must happen anyway with some hackers, and maybe not all of them accept the governments offer, but if you were faced with a possible life sentence, i know what choice i'd make.

If someone like McKinnon can make that much of a nuisance of himself on our own goverments top secret computers, imagine what he could do to an enemy combatants computer network. Do you think this sort of thing goes on behind the publics back? For example Gary McKinnon goes to prison for 60 years, everyone forgets about him and meanwhile he's slipped away to work for the government doing what he does so well?

Or at least offer him a well paid job breaking into the goverments computers to show them where they have weaknesses........because obviously no-one else bothers, and if they do they should be fired for doing such a crap job!

CX.