Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

After Threatening Hacker With up to 440 Years Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor

posted by martyb on Sunday November 30 2014, @04:57AM   Printer-friendly
from the shades-of-"Weev"-and-Aaron-Swartz dept.

AnonTechie writes:

Thanks in part to America’s ill-defined hacking laws, prosecutors have enormous discretion to determine a hacker defendant’s fate. But in one young Texan’s case in particular, the Department of Justice stretched prosecutorial overreach to a new extreme: about 440 years too far.

Last week, prosecutors in the Southern District of Texas reached a plea agreement with 28-year-old Fidel Salinas, in which the young hacker with alleged ties to members of Anonymous consented to plead guilty to a misdemeanor count of computer fraud and abuse and pay $10,000 in restitution. The U.S. attorney’s office omitted one fact from its press release about that plea ( http://www.justice.gov/usao/txs/1News/Releases/2014%20November/141120%20-%20Salinas.html ), however: Just months ago, Salinas had been charged with not one, but 44 felony counts of computer fraud and cyberstalking—crimes that each carry a 10-year maximum sentence; adding up to an absurd total of nearly a half a millennium of prison time.

http://www.wired.com/2014/11/from-440-years-to-misdemeanor/

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
After Threatening Hacker With up to 440 Years Prosecutors Settle for a Misdemeanor | Log In/Create an Account | Top | 20 comments | Search Discussion
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.

  • (Score: 2) by Whoever on Sunday November 30 2014, @05:17PM

    by Whoever (4524) on Sunday November 30 2014, @05:17PM (#121296) Journal

    I have no idea why you got insightful mods.

    Second MSFT didn't "allow" Sony to do squat, the Sony rootkit used the same procedure to install their rootkit that OEMs use to install graphics driver and it said plainly what it was doing in the EULA. Its not MSFT's fault if you can't read or even ask WTF when a fricking CD wants to install shit just to play.

    In that era (XP) most systems had autorun enabled. Combined with this: [wikipedia.org]

    One of the programs installed even if the user refused its EULA,

    Summary: insert the CD and the software installs, irrespective of how the user responds. And that's somehow not Microsoft's problem?

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  
    Total Score:   2