>Isn't running into and maiming a pedestrian while driving a car at a traffic crossing a matter of actually doing nothing instead of braking? Are you deeply uncomfortable with the thought of govt jailing you for literally doing nothing?

>And to be clear... he didn’t crack it.

Attempting to commit a crime is a crime even if you failed at it.

>I’ve run password hashes through rainbow tables for shits and giggles. Should I be dragged out of an embassy next?

People shoot at the range all the time but are not prosecuted. But gun murderers are. Dont you see the difference?

Were you cracking an Administrator password of the United States Military protecting classified war logs with an intent to distribute them to the public?

What did you (intend to) do with the resulting passwords.

Luckily, intent still counts for something legally.

>many govts' attempts to ban encryption are stupid because you cannot outlaw math

Huh? You can outlaw math. It'd be a stupid idea and quite hard to successfully enforce, but you can outlaw it.

>Which is why the legality of both having and breaking encryption needs to be detached from intent.

This does not make sense at all. Otherwise there would be no legal difference between using a battering ram to break into someone's house and then claiming it was research for materials testing. It also comes down to privacy and property rights.

Case law is well settled in the physical door locks space which also applies pretty well to the digital space with a good balance between research and not breaking into others property. It's perfectly legal to crack your own NTLM hashes, and those of which you have permission to. Imagine someone going around with a saw sawing up doors and then claiming it was their right because the doors weren't properly secured and made of 12 inches of reinforced steel.