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Comment by DeathArrow | Hacker News Reader

If they catch you using an illegal browser will you go to jail?

And then there are always the good ol' pals that go by names of telnet and netcat:

  telnet www.example.com 80
  GET /article.html

Instant felony charges, huh?

No, but you will be a criminal.

Don't they already consider you a criminal if you use an ad-blocker or Linux?

Or especially Signal and Tor. But only if you're a leftist! Because leftists must of course be using those things to plot terrorism. Being a leftist while using privacy tech was a core part of the reasoning for the cops arresting those people.

considering they're the same people who tortured my family i don't really put any weight in who they consider a 'criminal'

So nothing new. To the state all hackers (in the original meaning of this word) have been criminals since forever. Knowledge and skill are very dangerous traits, you know?

In Germany we have even dedicated anti-hacker legislation. Hacking stuff is indeed illegal. You may end up in jail for "hacking"…

That's likely "the freedom" they are always talking here about in the west. /s

> In Germany we have even dedicated anti-hacker legislation.

Where can I read it (I grok German)

https://netzpolitik.org/2014/hackertools-im-it-sicherheitsge...

https://netzpolitik.org/2013/angriffe-auf-informationssystem...

(Also the links there.)

Or a more "official" statement (as the German Wikipedia is mostly in the hands of state authorities), with some groundless relativization:

https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vorbereiten_des_Aussp%C3%A4hen...

All "dual use" tools (like a simple port scanner!) can bring you into jail. That's a fact. The law doesn't have any exceptions for "friendly use"… (No matter what some "experts" cited on Wikipedia may say. That's just the usual German Wikipedia blow smoke…)

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