Weev's Conviction Is Overturned

[ionbasa]

A federal appeals court on Friday overturned the conviction of Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, reversing a verdict that was viewed as having a chilling effect on the work of researchers who help keep the Internet safe.

 

Prosecutors said Auernheimer, 28, is a publicity-hungry hacker who broke the law when he found a security flaw in an AT&T website three years ago that allowed him to collect 114,000 email addresses belonging to iPad 3G users. Auernheimer turned over that information to the gossip site Gawker, which posted some partially redacted addresses, prompting an FBI investigation.

 

Auernheimer's attorneys have argued that he did not commit a crime because AT&T's security was so lax that those email addresses were publicly available.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/04/11/hacker-weev_n_5133590.html?utm_hp_ref=technology

 

Weev essentially had the support from groups like the EFF, Mozilla Foundation, and other security analysts and scientists. It is good to see that he wont be charged with discovering a flaw in the system. 

 

Although I will say the actions he took in publicizing the exploit wasn't proper in my opinion, he should have go to AT&T first, let them patch the security hole, then he should have let the media take its course. That is my only real complaint and critique on Weev. At least this can pave the way for better treatment of 'security analysts' and hackers alike.

[Askew]

"AT&T's security was so lax that those email addresses were publicly available."

 

So he did something that he now claims was easy, and then wanted everybody to know about it?

[StingBull]

"AT&T's security was so lax that those email addresses were publicly available."

Goes back to the thinking that if something is unprotected its free game to take it. You would think laws would be there to prevent that from happening not promote it. What the hell America?