UK Anonymous Hacktivists Get Jail Time

twoheadedboy writes "Two members of the Anonymous hacking collective have been handed a total of 25 months in prison. Christopher Weatherhead, a 22-year-old who went under the pseudonym Nerdo, received the most severe punishment — 18 months in prison. Another member, Ashley Rhodes, was handed seven months, whilst Peter Gibson was given a six-month suspended sentence. They were convicted for hitting a variety of websites, including those belonging to PayPal and MasterCard."

Comments

Re:So what is so great about Anonymous?

[Enderandrew]

This is unfortunately flawed thinking.

The enemy of your enemy is not necessarily your friend or a good guy. Just because someone like Assange doesn't like the US government, or banks or whoever else you hate, doesn't make him a saint. Just because Anonymous decided to support WikiLeaks didn't make them saints either.

They attacked PBS for crying out loud, just because PBS aired a documentary that tried to present both sides of the Assange debate.

That isn't supporting any ideal of transparency. That is acting childish.

Re:I've seen this movie!

[Anonymous Coward]

No, we don't.

You can keep prison-rape as a predominantly US phenomenon.

I do have a question on the subject...

Rape is terrible, we all know it's a horrible crime. Why when someone convicted of a crime, especially non-violent, is it suddenly a hilarious prospect?

Re:I've seen this movie!

[HaZardman27]

Because it serves to keeping the American population docile about our terrible justice system. If you think about the (far too many) inmates in prison as people who may be serving time unjustly or at least disproportionately to their crimes, you might get upset and expect change. If you think of them as animals who are getting raped as a form of penance to society, then you can blissfully go back to living in ignorance.