monline

If you took the time to watch the movie Takedown, then the least you can do is to listen to the other side of the story too and watch Freedom Downtime as well. I do not agree with the approach that a hacker should "be allowed" to break into any system just because he can do it. There're many people who's job is to maintain servers/websites/etc. and clean up the mess hackers leave behind. You shouldn't make their lives more difficult, than it already is. If you cannot help it, then do ethical hacking. Eg. leave a funny message and/or instructions on how to close the holes that you used to get in. But under no circumstances should you do any harm.
On the other hand I do not agree with the ways hackers are treated either. I cannot tell just by watching these movies whether Kevin Mitnick did or did not what he was accused of. But one thing is for sure: he was treated more harshly than a lot of serious criminals (killers, rapers, etc.). I find it outrageous that offenders having commited violent crimes can just walk away freely if they have the money for a good lawyer ... while people like Mitnick must rotten in a high security prison if they stepped on the toe of somebody in power. But unfortunately that's how the world happens to work. Everybody knows it, but Kevin thought he would be smart enough to get away with it. Obviously he was not and I doubt that any single person could be. The "bad guys" are too many.

I totally agree with one of the messages of Freedom Downtime:
"The justice system isn't about what you did or what you didn't do. It's about either the government is going to win the case or you'll win the case. That's all that matters in the case. It isn't all that matters morally. I'm just saying in the court system, that's all that matters. The prosecution will do whatever they can do, spend whatever money they can to win a case and you have to do the same thing or you will loose.
(...)
You know, this is no longer about what the law allows or doesn't allow. This is about how do you make it as difficult as possible for the defendants to get them to roll over or cop a plea. It has nothing to do with justice anymore.
(...)
God help you if you get stuck in that system, because it's very easy to get in and it's almost impossible to get out unscathed ... because you're up against an adversary that has everything going for it except maybe the truth. And unfortunately that doesn't count for much."

And in the end here's a funny picture from the closing sequence of the movie ...