"Mitnick served five years in prison — four and a half years pre-trial and eight months in solitary confinement — because, according to Mitnick, law enforcement officials convinced a judge that he had the ability to "start a nuclear war by whistling into a pay phone".[12] He was released on January 21, 2000. During his supervised release, which ended on January 21, 2003, he was initially forbidden to use any communications technology other than a landline telephone. Mitnick fought this decision in court, eventually winning a ruling in his favor, allowing him to access the Internet."
I don't know if it's an urban legend or not, but I heard that they put a special cover on the light in his retaining cell because they were afraid he would find some way to "hack" his way out with the wires.
That would be an entertaining plot device in a spy movie: spy gets captured, finds that power fluctuations occasionally flip a bit in the memory of the security system, uses the light in his/her cell to flip all the bits corresponding to the door locks...
Conditions of bail are to protect the public and prevent the actions of the accused jeopardizing the case. He is accused of running massive piracy operation remotely via the internet - naturally the conditions of bail should preclude him continuing to commit the offence.
You can't, after all, set the bail condition of "don't continue committing the crime for which you are accused".
Also, would everyone please remember this is a New Zealand court, where things tend to move a little swifter (and, dare I say it, a little saner) than the US justice system.
