criminal-law internet child-abuse sentencing
Are vigilantes actions on DDoSing child porn sites illegal?
<p>There still exist many illegitimate child porn sites on the web.</p>

<p>Some vigilantes organized and DDoS those child porn sites, typically because they think the government is inadequate to seize the child porn site owners, are these vigilantes themselves committing a crime?</p>

<p>This would be illegal in Australia (<a href="https://www.legislation.gov.au/Details/C2012C00776/Html/Text" rel="noreferrer">Criminal Code Act 1995 part 10.7</a>: any unauthorised impairment of electronic communication to or from a computer), the US <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/1030" rel="noreferrer">(Computer Fraud and Abuse Act)</a> and any other jurisdiction that I can think of. There is no exception allowing vigilante action in case a person has a reasonable belief that the material on a website is offensive or illegal. In general, the law does not allow immunization against criminal prosecution in case the victim of an attack is himself a criminal. Only the government has the right to punish criminals.</p>
