Security Researchers Submit Brief For Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer

USSJoin writes "Andrew Auernheimer (or Weev, as he's often better known) is serving a 41-month sentence under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The case is currently on appeal to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals; his lawyer filed the appellate brief last week. Now, a group of 13 security researchers, led by Meredith Patterson, and including include Peiter "Mudge" Zatko, Space Rogue, Jericho, Shane MacDougall, and Dan Kaminsky, are making their own thoughts heard by the court. They are submitting a brief to the Third Circuit Court of Appeals that argues that not only is Weev's conviction bad law, but if upheld, it will destroy independent security research, and perhaps the rest of consumer safety research as well."

Comments

What Weev did

[wonkey_monkey]

It may have been pertinent to briefly explain what he actually did in the summary - he was the guy who got hold of 114,000 AT&T customer email addresses. Beyond that I don't know much, except that there is some argument over whether what he did was any kind of "hack" - he may have just navigated some exposed folders. Either way, you still probably get less than 41 months for kicking a puppy to death.

Re:What Weev did

[Trepidity]

He was also convicted of conspiracy to distribute those addresses for criminal purposes based on the fact that he... sold them to Russian fraudsters? No: disclosed them to a journalist. I guess the criminal purpose was embarrassing AT&T?