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Comment by ball_of_lint | Hacker News Reader

Liability doesn't fix the damage that is already done. We can punish all the people involved in this, and it will still be the case that your drivers license is available for purchase and identity theft against anyone is now much easier. They don't have enough enough to repair the damage they've caused, even if we take everything from them.

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The damage can't be undone, but you can learn from it and prevent these things from happening again and again. If every CEO truly believes that his personal wealth and freedom is at stake with the safety of his customers' personal data, they will see that ITsec becomes a cornerstone of the company instead of an annoying compliance sheet checkbox.

> Liability doesn't fix the damage that is already done.

Neither does imprisoning murderers for life, but it's one heck of a deterrent.

The only time it's worked is in El Salvador and it was because they arrested the 2% of the population who had the potential to be murderers and have so far thrown away they key. I imagine before too long they will also have a final solution to the problem of feeding them for the next 50 years.

There are quite a few people who murder despite the risk of incarceration. I would love a system that approaches it more like: "you've lost trust of this civilization to act in good faith, and now you will be contained in a way that can rebuild that trust, and you will not be allowed to re-enter this civilization until you have indeed rebuilt that trust."

We'll probably never get there.

There are quite a few people who murder despite the risk of incarceration.

I hate to think how many people would kill if it were not illegal. Think about that. Then tell me its not a deterrent.

I have no doubt that it can be a deterrent for some. The question is more about whether this is the optimal strategy for addressing the problem.

The greater deterrent is knowing you will be caught.

Not a lot of people, because if you went and murdered someone, their family (if they have any) would presumably just murder you in turn.

That would make it a lot of people, then. Because now your family murders their family and their family murders your family.

Yep, and the understandable fear/worry/expectation/knowledge of that possibility happening, is part of the reason that (usually) stops that cycle from starting in the first place.

Easy to figure out when looking back into history and past times where that was accepted even as means to sort out honour issues or bar fights.

No, but it changes the cost-benefit analysis for managers deciding to cut corners in future.

Liability can be a strong incentive to improve the system in the future.

The alternative now is the damage not being fixed and there being no ramifications/punishment

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