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Is Weev Still In Jail Because the Government Doesn't Understand What Hacking Is?

Daniel_Stuckey writes "Last March, weev, the notorious internet troll who seems to be equally celebrated and reviled, was convicted of accessing a computer without authorization and identity fraud, and sentenced to serve 41 months in prison.'He had to decrypt and decode, and do all of these things I don't even understand,' Assistant US Attorney Glenn Moramarco argued. Here, on a Wednesday morning in Philadelphia, before a packed courtroom, the federal prosecution argued that a hacker should spend three and a half years in prison for committing a crime it couldn't fully comprehend. Previously, Orin Kerr, a law professor at George Washington University and weev's defense attorney, had argued first and foremost that there was no criminal hacking to speak of. According to Kerr, what weev and Daniel Spitler (who pleaded guilty to avoid jail time) had done while working as an outfit called Goatse Security was entirely legal, even though it embarrassed public officials and some of the country's biggest corporations."

6 of 246 comments (clear)

  1. Goatse Security??? by wisnoskij · · Score: 5, Funny

    They totally sound trustworthy.

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    Troll is not a replacement for I disagree.
    1. Re:Goatse Security??? by ATMAvatar · · Score: 5, Funny

      Why not? They know all about gaping holes... in security, among other things.

      --
      "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
    2. Re:Goatse Security??? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      They totally sound trustworthy.

      Some use security-by-obscurity
      Others prefer security-by-scarity

    3. Re:Goatse Security??? by killkillkill · · Score: 5, Funny

      Maybe they are, but I'll never find out. There's no way I'm clicking that link to learn more about them... Then again, it still might be easier on the eyes than Beta.

    4. Re:Goatse Security??? by artfulshrapnel · · Score: 5, Funny

      And backdoors.

  2. Re:So if you forget to lock your front door by bunratty · · Score: 3, Funny

    Joshua called me!

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    What a fool believes, he sees, no wise man has the power to reason away.