Michael W. Stone

http://www.cantonrep.com/index.php?ID=261925&Category=15&fromSearch=yes

The above website tells the story of Michael W. Stone, a high-school senior, who was arrested and charged with a "felony criminal charge of disrupting public services" by Canton City Prosecutor Frank Forchione. However, all Michael Stone did was to jokingly tell visitors to his site to press F5 to see what effect it would have on his school server. Those visitors did so, and by reloading the page, school officials noted that the "computer system was slowing down". Upon discovering the source of this problem, they contacted Uniontown police, who contacted Forchione. Forchione then, showing all signs of recklessness, irresponsibility, appalling misjudgement, and pure ignorance regarding Information Technology, charged young Mr Stone with a felony.

This new technology has created a whole wave of crimes, and were just trying to find ways to solve them, said Mr Forchione. By simply calling the Internet "new technology", despite its existence for over 10 years, he has simply displayed his unfamiliarity with IT. In itself, this is not necessarily a bad thing, but Forchione's failure to consult with anybody knowledgeable about technology shows his utter lack of competence and sound judgement.

Further, this has severely tainted the reputation of a boy who, at the very worst, has made a joke in slightly poor taste. In absolutely no way can he be accused of attempting a denial of service (DoS) attack on the school's server. In fact, the publicity gained by this issue has probably brought about greater bandwidth problems than Michael Stone's joke; would all the oft-frequented websites that published the news and linked to the school's site then be guilty of attempted DoS attacks as well? Mr Stone did not setup any bots, did not coordinate any attack, and did not even mention any potential weaknesses in his school's server - what, then, is his crime? Worse still, Forchione noted that in 2005 students were charged with misdemeanors for changing grades on the school computer system. Has Michael Stone done something worse than that, to be charged with a felony?

If Mr Stone is convicted of this senseless charge, then it will not only have severe repercussions for him, but will also have implications for the world online. Will it become a felony to spread the word about a popular site? How about refreshing a page to check for new content?

We feel that Mr Michael W Stone should be acquitted of all charges. Instead, we would like Mr Frank Forchione to be removed from his post for his lack of competence, and be replaced by somebody who can perform his duties with proper consideration and responsibility.