Re: @Ratfox...
@"The crime was committed against the US"....
*NO* crime was committed against the US, discussing something is not doing something. They are not alleging he DID it, they are alleging HE DISCUSSED doing it. But that means they can't actually link his boast to an actual crime because they're not saying he hacked server X at time Y, they're saying HE CLAIMED TO HAVE.
"Making the case for extraditing Love, the Crown Prosecution Service's representative alleged that a confidential FBI informant with access to a restricted IRC channel had provided US authorities with chat logs in which a person going by handles including “nsh” had discussed accessing the government sites."
"confidential FBI informant" is just a cover phrase used for Parallel Construction. The FBI didn't wait around for someone with access to an IRC channel to hand them logs of that channel FFS. Can you imagine how silly that would be "Oh I'm in charge of spying on these IRC channels where hackers are, I'll just wait around and hope someone logs a useful chat and leaks it to me!". Ridiculous.
What it means it they had the IRC server under bulk surveillance, (presumably warrantless since they're claiming a confidential informant, rather than citing a proper warrant). So they logged all the IRC channels, had a look through, deciding this boast could be prosecuted as a crime, then faked a "confidential informant" who had handed them the info.
They obviously didn't have a warrant, and would have struggled to get a warrant to spy on everyones IRC conversations without a crime to investigate. They obviously didn't wait around for some random informant to randomly contact a random FBI agent who happened to know which FBI agent was assigned to prosecuting it!
"Bottom line if you can't do the time, don't do the crime."
Bottom line, watch what you say, because warrantless mass surveillance of IRC channels means, if it can be used as a confession, even if you can't match a corresponding crime to it, then it will be used as a confession. e.g. "I took drugs when I was a teenager" is now the crime of "taking drugs" and not an idle boast of someone pretending to be hard.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
