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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

#41

Post by Udo »

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???

While I'm pretty sure that the length of his sentence is first and foremost a function of his victims' high profiles, a bit of background on his MO changed my mind about the importance of removing this guy from society:

http://news.yahoo.com/hollywood-hacker-honed-skills-years-07...

He really had this coming.

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

#42

Post by ahallock »

AutoKorrect wrote: post #22

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.

Because States do not universalize their own rules & laws. The exempt themselves, and are above the moral obligation that the rest of us are expected to follow. They also control the language and will create a vast set of euphemisms to excuse their contradictory behavior.

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

#43

Post by m0nastic »

Here's a thought experiment:

Many people here seem to be okay with the idea of this being a punishable offense, but take issue with the length of the sentence (which I'll admit, seems excessive on first blush).

But what would an acceptable sentence be for hacking someone's email and then distributing their personal information? Maybe a year? That doesn't sound outrageous.

So if he did that, and was sentenced to a year in prison, and then got out and did it again, presumably another year in prison isn't unreasonable (you could argue for a harsher sentence because it was a repeat crime, but we'll ignore that).

So he did this to 50 different accounts. That's 50 separate crimes. He took a plea (which resulted in being found guilty of a lesser number of charges), and that got him 10 years.

I still think 10 years seems like a lot of time to spend in jail for a nonviolent crime, but shouldn't the number of crimes be used somehow in calculating a sentence?

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

#44

Post by MichaelGG »

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???

Do they go in with murderers and rapists? I was under the impression that hacking was a "white collar crime", and you'd most likely end up in prison camp. Or does the federal system not differentiate?

Anyways, this is not a case of some guy just accessing email. He "stole" identities, photographs and other stuff. According to the FBI site, he even continued to do so after his computers were raided.

Instead of thinking about the hacking, think about the actual damage of identity theft, invading privacy by leaking personal documents, and so on.

(Not that 10 years is a perfect sentence, and not that other sentencing makes sense.)

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

#45

Post by boboblong »

daeken wrote: post #40
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.

> Goldman Sachs knowingly sells junk to their clients, minimizing their own exposure to the financial crisis, and gets a bailout. GS never got a bailout. They were paid by AIG using bailout money, for what they were owed, but never received a bailout by the US government at all.

How is that any different?

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

#46

Post by garyrichardson »

rpm4321 wrote: post #31
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???

Yes and no. I believe 10 years is obviously a bit much in this case, but if you tweak the variables a bit, this sort of thing can be tantamount to a sexual assault. Imagine it's your sister or girlfriend involved, and the pictures are splashed across Facebook by an ex-boyfriend. In this case, the victims are certainly less sympathetic, but the principle is basically the same. It reminds me a bit of this Hunter Moore…

Which is exactly why this is so stupid. If someone stole my identity and/or posted nude pics of myself it would be next to impossible for me bring the person to court and get a conviction, let alone put them in jail for 10 years.

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

#47

Post by daeken »

boboblong wrote: post #45
daeken wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Goldman Sachs knowingly sells junk to their clients, minimizing their own exposure to the financial crisis, and gets a bailout. GS never got a bailout. They were paid by AIG using bailout money, for what they were owed, but never received a bailout by the US government at all.

How is that any different?

If they were bailed out, that would mean the company was in a risky financial position and needed assistance from the government. What happened with GS was that AIG owed them money (legitimately), and AIG was bailed out. The reason AIG needed to be bailed out (in part) was that they owed a lot of money to a lot of people; when that went through, they paid their creditors.

Claiming that GS was bailed out is like claiming that Microsoft was bailed out -- AIG gave them money after the bailout too, I'm sure.

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

#48

Post by vacri »

rpm4321 wrote: post #31
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???

Yes and no. I believe 10 years is obviously a bit much in this case, but if you tweak the variables a bit, this sort of thing can be tantamount to a sexual assault. Imagine it's your sister or girlfriend involved, and the pictures are splashed across Facebook by an ex-boyfriend. In this case, the victims are certainly less sympathetic, but the principle is basically the same. It reminds me a bit of this Hunter Moore…

Why do we have to imagine a sister or girlfriend, instead of ourselves?

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

#49

Post by sesqu »

wilfra wrote: post #23
drivebyacct2 wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Harsh sentences don't "set an example" and deter crime.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deterrence_(legal)#Effectivene...

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

#50

Post by sesqu »

m0nastic wrote: post #43

Here's a thought experiment: Many people here seem to be okay with the idea of this being a punishable offense, but take issue with the length of the sentence (which I'll admit, seems excessive on first blush). But what would an acceptable sentence be for hacking someone's email and then distributing their personal information? Maybe a year? That doesn't sound outrageous. So if he did that, and was sentenced to a yea…

Yes, but not as a multiplier. After all, the threshold for a fifth crime is not equal to the threshold for the first.
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