I have to say that I'm pretty much 100% in agreement here. I kind of understand where Stallman is coming from. The morality of the situation is completely separate from the legality of it. Things that are illegal are not necessarily immoral. Things that are immoral are not necessarily illegal. Especially saying that because you travelled from one country to another, it suddenly became immoral is a pretty ridiculous statement to make (which is what he said).

I'm also pretty much 100% in agreement that Minsky ought to have known that what he was doing was wrong. However, I know literally nothing of the situation. It was stupid of Stallman to give a "for instance" because it's always going to be construed as him advocating a really bad situation. But later he literally asks people for copies of the deposition (that he can read with free software) so that he can find out what actually happened. He also had no idea what actually happened and was basically saying that he's not willing to condemn someone without understanding the circumstances. There may be mitigating details that we know nothing about. There may not.

There are people who believe that there can be no mitigating details. They may very well be correct (again, I literally don't know), however, I hate the witch hunt against people who do not wish to pillory others without understanding the situation first.

Having said that, like I said, it was stupid of Stallman to wade into this. He's got a big target on his back and there are people who will take every opportunity to lob something at him.

I suppose this extremely charitable reading is possible, but it still doesn't exonerate Minsky. Not only did he fail to confirm she was of age ("I never asked how old she was" is not a defense), he maintained professional and academic ties with someone who (as far as he supposedly knew) was sending extremely young prostitutes to him and his peers.

Given that even the Virgin Islands locals took to calling it "Pedophile Island," it's a pretty good guess that most of the people who went to the parties there had at least an inkling of their true nature. But no-strings-attached money (or worse, other "favors") were a powerful motivator to look the other way.