There are lot of details that don't make it into most press reports of the Childs case, but that are very important. Many of these are covered in this:

http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/042910-terry-childs-ju...

which is an interview with juror #4, who in addition to having heard all of those details, also happens to be a Cisco Certified Internetwork Expert (CCIE) and is a senior network engineer at ADP (the giant payroll company).

who locked San Francisco out of its main computer network for 12 days

Childs claimed he never intended any harm, but did not trust his superiors with the passwords. He eventually gave the passwords to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom in a jail cell visit

This doesn't really pass the smell test as just some silly misunderstanding. Twelve days to hand over the information?

$1.5MM sounds overly vindictive, but "He said he was first asked for the passwords by people who weren’t authorized to have them."? For twelve days?

Everything about this stinks.

Not knowing the details, it becomes difficult to analyze fully and fairly.

Still, if you get a request in writing, from a superior, which would exculpate you from possible negligence for allegedly improperly divulging information, if that's what he truly believed, that should have alleviated the issue.

Instead, from the outside, at least, it seemed as if he was unreasonably steadfast in his stance, despite pleas from the mayor (pre-jailhouse visit). It was as though he thought his interpretation of policy superseded the authority of the people or office who/which set out the policy.

As I recall the events, it was almost as though he became a prisoner of his own doing. Once he made a stance, it become very difficult for him to back down. As if saving face was a very important aspect of the ordeal. Of course, that's just my personal projection, perhaps.

Four years and 1.5 million is too harsh, in my view. Yet, he did deserve some punishment for his actions.

"what would have happened if Childs had been hit by a bus?"

I call for the EFF, the ACLU and the FSF to create a "Programmer's Hit By A Bus" fund. We would all contribute, according to the degree of bus-danger we put ourselves in to. For instance, I actually ride Denver RTD buses, so I would contribute the maximum amount. Some programmer living in a municipality without buses would pay only a nominal amount.

We could build up a large fund to take care of the estates, widows and orphans left behind by the heinous plague of Programmers getting Hit By A Bus.