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Comment by dbbolton | Hacker News Reader

The title is misleading. He wasn't actually expelled for finding the flaw; he was expelled because, after reporting the flaw, he ran an exploit program on the school's server without permission, allegedly to see if it had been fixed. Had he only reported it, he would not have been subject to any disciplinary action.

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Well the article is basically written by the student union, so they try to get people on their side I imagine.

"Ethan Cox is a 28-year-old political organizer and writer from Montreal. He cut his political teeth accrediting the Dawson Student Union against ferocious opposition from the college administration and has worked as a union organizer for the Public Service Alliance of Canada."

Stupid, but hardly deserving of expulsion. Especially given prior evidence of his character in reporting the flaw.

He ran an exploit FINDER. He did not put exploit programs on the server.

You think that's not against the law?

ie: http://security.stackexchange.com/questions/14978/is-scannin...

We're talking about morals and ethics, not what the law says.

So the fact that the submission title is misleading makes the university's heavy-handedness easier to swallow?

It just means that whole article can contain more misleadings and be one-sided. Journalists... you know.

The article could contain that regardless of whether the title is misleading.

I didn't say anything about whether the decision was justified. I only elaborated on the reason behind it.

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