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Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

arstechnica.com

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Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#21

Post by jjoonathan »

ChuckMcM wrote: post #7
ryanac wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Didn't he also publicly release nude photos of her and three other women? Still maybe a bit extreme on the sentence, but it wasn't just "reading e-mail".

Yes he did. There is a strange cognitive dissonance between email and regular mail. If someone broke into an apartment lobby, picked the lock on the mailboxes, took out a set of film prints [1] from the drug store, made copies of the 'private and personal' pictures contained therein and then shared them with their friends for prurient reasons, what sort of punishment is deserved there? The "virtual" nature of email m…

"Cognitive dissonance"? Even if I were to admit that your proposed situations was analogous -- and I don't -- you're making the dubious assumption that the majority of us believe 10 years is an appropriate sentence for the physical crime but not the virtual crime. I happen to believe 10 years would be steep (understatement) in any case and I suspect I'm not alone.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#22

Post by AutoKorrect »

So now that the court agrees that the sentence for hacking email is 10 years, when do we start convicting the entire NSA, AT&T, on up to the Executive head (the President) for doing this to the entire USA? If there is no conviction for these people, then he is clearly not being treated equally under the law, and deserves to be set free.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#23

Post by wilfra »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #13
Jagat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, can't the same argument be applied to certain sociopaths?

Are you implying that sociopaths should just be thrown in prison and left to rot? Does anyone in the US pretend that prison should be rehabilitative? I'm sure that this guy serving 10 years in prison is going to be a net-positive for our society. /not

Given the amount of publicity this is getting, I would argue it will be a net positive. It will provide a strong deterrent to people hacking celebrities in the future.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#24

Post by ChrisNorstrom »

This sentence is everything wrong with the American justice system. I do NOT want my tax payer dollars to be spent keeping a hacker in jail along with with murderers and rapists.

Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton drive around coked up and drunk and get either probation or a 1 month/1 year sentence but someone hacking a phone (who doesn't endanger anyone's life) gets 10 years???

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#25

Post by ChuckMcM »

moe wrote: post #19
ChuckMcM wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes he did. There is a strange cognitive dissonance between email and regular mail. If someone broke into an apartment lobby, picked the lock on the mailboxes, took out a set of film prints [1] from the drug store, made copies of the 'private and personal' pictures contained therein and then shared them with their friends for prurient reasons, what sort of punishment is deserved there? The "virtual" nature of email m…

If someone broke into an apartment lobby Do you really face 10yrs for breaking into a hollywood apartment and releasing nude tapes you found? I can see him going to a jail for a while, but 10 years is an awful long time for a crime that very likely didn't leave permanent damage of any kind (psychological, physical or otherwise).

Guess it varies, according to this report from the Post Office in 2001 https://postalinspectors.uspis.gov/radDocs/pubs/ar01_01.pdf there are both shorter and longer sentences handed out.

I really can't speak for the judicial system of course, I do know that people I've talked to about this case see "email" as being less "real" than physical mail, and I also have spoken to people who have had their mail stolen and used against them. It is hard to be dispassionate about relative punishment in that case.

It may be that if someone stole your mail and published it you would just laugh it off. This guy took it a bit further than that I would say.

And just for context, in California at least since our prisons are over full, the most this guy would serve would be 5 years, and then he'd be eligible for parole in 18 months, less time off for good behavior. I don't know if Florida has similar issues but there are times in the California system where the goal is to have the person spend at least some time in jail and that sometimes requires a longer than expected sentence. (No idea at all if that is the case in Florida though)

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#26

Post by phaus »

moe wrote: post #19
ChuckMcM wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes he did. There is a strange cognitive dissonance between email and regular mail. If someone broke into an apartment lobby, picked the lock on the mailboxes, took out a set of film prints [1] from the drug store, made copies of the 'private and personal' pictures contained therein and then shared them with their friends for prurient reasons, what sort of punishment is deserved there? The "virtual" nature of email m…

If someone broke into an apartment lobby Do you really face 10yrs for breaking into a hollywood apartment and releasing nude tapes you found? I can see him going to a jail for a while, but 10 years is an awful long time for a crime that very likely didn't leave permanent damage of any kind (psychological, physical or otherwise).

I too think that the sentence was extremely harsh, but people can and sometimes do remain permanently traumatized after having nude pictures of themselves posted for the entire world to see.

Just because someone is a celebrity, doesn't mean that he or she wouldn't feel violated, humiliated, or degraded by such an experience. Supposedly the reason that the White Stripes stopped touring was because Meg kept having severe anxiety attacks on stage. This started happening shortly after someone released a sex tape that supposedly featured her. So basically, whether or not it was actually her in the video, the idea that everyone thought it was traumatized her so much that she couldn't even show up to work without having a panic attack. That seems pretty severe to me.

It's also important to note that there are teenagers who have attempted / succeeded in killing themselves as a result of having their private pictures being released.

I think that 10 years is too much, but I don't think for a second that it wasn't a serious crime.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#27

Post by moistgorilla »

drivebyacct2 wrote: post #13
Jagat wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, can't the same argument be applied to certain sociopaths?

Are you implying that sociopaths should just be thrown in prison and left to rot? Does anyone in the US pretend that prison should be rehabilitative? I'm sure that this guy serving 10 years in prison is going to be a net-positive for our society. /not

As a US citizen, the culture here is one of retributive justice. Most couldn't care less if the indicted person was reformed, what they care about is that they suffer. Watch any highly emotional event that takes precedence in American media like this weeks shootings. Look at how the public responded by calling the person the devil and that he should rot in hell for eternity. They don't even realize that their mentality is partly to blame for what is happening.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#28

Post by adharmad »

ChrisNorstrom wrote: post #24

This sentence is everything wrong with the American justice system. I do NOT want my tax payer dollars to be spent keeping a hacker in jail along with with murderers and rapists. Lindsey Lohan and Paris Hilton drive around coked up and drunk and get either probation or a 1 month/1 year sentence but someone hacking a phone (who doesn't endanger anyone's life) gets 10 years???

Punishments in the US are not proportional to the crime committed, nor are they deterrent. They are simply a factor of who lobbied the government at that time to pass those laws. In some sense, they are random.

Sometimes, punishments for violent crimes are lower than those for downloading songs/movies or some victimless crimes like recreational drugs.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#29

Post by javajosh »

The lesson here is clear: if you have money, there is no such thing as crime. If you don't have money, like this guy, then even if you plead guilty you get years in prison.

HSBC can aid terrorists and launder money from drug cartels and pay a fine. Goldman Sachs knowingly sells junk to their clients, minimizing their own exposure to the financial crisis, and gets a bailout.

Fuck this shit.

Re: Man who hacked Scarlett Johansson's e-mail sentenced to 10 years

#30

Post by [deleted] »

javajosh wrote: post #29

The lesson here is clear: if you have money, there is no such thing as crime. If you don't have money, like this guy, then even if you plead guilty you get years in prison. HSBC can aid terrorists and launder money from drug cartels and pay a fine. Goldman Sachs knowingly sells junk to their clients, minimizing their own exposure to the financial crisis, and gets a bailout. Fuck this shit.

[deleted]
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