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LulzSec Hackers Sentenced To Short Prison Terms

mask.of.sanity writes with news of the jail sentences for three members of LulzSec. From the article: "Three members of the hacktivist group LulzSec have been sentenced to a total of six years in prison. Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis and Mustafa al-Bassam were charged with attacks on the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Sony, Nintendo, 20th Century Fox and governments and police forces in a 50-day spree in the summer of 2011. Davis was sentenced to 24 months in a young offender's institution and he will serve half of the sentence. Al-Bassam received a 20-month sentence, suspended for two years and 300 hours unpaid work. Ackroyd was given a 30-month sentence; he will serve half. Cleary also pleaded guilty to possession of child abuse images following a second arrest on October 4, 2012. He will be sentenced at separate hearing." The Guardian has a short article on the remaining loose ends in the story of LulzSec.

8 of 104 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Six years is not a short term by halfEvilTech · · Score: 5, Insightful

    at least they didn't download some music or a movie while they were doing this. They may have had to pay millions in restitution as well...

  2. Re:Six years is not a short term by 228e2 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Next time, read more than the first sentence in your quest to get first post.

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  3. Re:Cleary who? by Minwee · · Score: 4, Funny

    Right. "Ryan Ackroyd, Jake Davis and Mustafa al-Bassam were charged" and as a result of this "Cleary also pleaded guilty to possession [...]"

    So the missing detail here is "Who's Cleary"? Everyone else gets to have a full name while Cleary is just the fourth crewmember who beams down wearing a red shirt and gets eaten by a monster.

  4. Re:Six years is not a short term by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Which is exactly what the criminals were hoping you'd say. Rather than say "each received sentences of 15-24 months," it packs more punch to word it ambiguously, and leave people feeling sorry for these punk kids who "got sentenced to up to 6 years in prison! For minor crimes!"

    "24 months in a young offender's institution and he will serve half of the sentence" = 12 months in juvie. Poor kid, he'll have to leave his mom's basement for a year.

    "20 month sentence, suspended for 2 years and 300 hours unpaid work" = keep out of trouble, and do 300 hours of community service over the next 2 years, and he doesn't go to prison at all.

    "30 month sentence, he will serve half" = 15 months in prison. The harshest of the penalties, and still a pretty fucking light sentence.

    Rape can get you imprisoned up to and including a life sentence in the UK, Not sure where you get that there's a "maximum of 5 years" for rape. In fact, the most lenient of the "starting points" and "typical ranges" list 5 years at the LOW end of the punishment, before aggravating/mitigating factors are considered.

    tl;dr: fuck your idiotic ignorance of the law.

  5. Short prison terms? by Shimbo · · Score: 5, Interesting

    These aren't short prison terms by UK standards. It's uncommon to get sentenced to more than two years for computer crime. Ryan Cleary, who got the longest sentence, apparently ran a large botnet for hire, when he wasn't doing it for the lulz. Bot herders tend to get treated relatively severely (rightly so IMHO).

    1. Re:Short prison terms? by golodh · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Agreed. I consider the sentences just about right and very fair.

      Only in the US could this be considered a "light" sentence, but then this is where we (collectively) are into "lets-always-mete-out-totally-disproportionate-punishment-to-individuals-hoping-that-it-might-make-others-think-twice".

      Not every country shares US values of callously destroying individuals to give the Law a veneer of menace.

  6. Re:Six years is not a short term by BasilBrush · · Score: 4, Informative

    This is England. There's no such distinction.

  7. Re:Six years is not a short term by Hatta · · Score: 4, Insightful

    The 2008 financial crisis caused the destruction of far, far more wealth than *ALL PROPERTY CRIME PUT TOGETHER*. If we chose to do "only one thing and suspend everything else", that is prosecute the criminals behind the 2008 financial crisis, and ignore all other property crimes, we'd still be ahead of where we are now.

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