A federal judgejust sentenced diary keeper Barrett Brown to 63 months in prisonand ordered him to pay nigh $ 890,000 in restitution for charge related to the 2011 hack of Stratfor Global Intelligence . Brown ’s supporters maintain that the new writer and militant was “ but linking to hacked fabric . ” Either way , he ’ll spend about five years behind bars . That sucks .
You probably know Brownas the unofficial representative of Anonymous , a title he ’s shrug off again and again . You probably do n’t bonk Brown as a hacker . After all , he ’s not the one who actually cut up into Stratfor . A little over a twelvemonth ago , another federal judgesentenced Anonymous appendage Jeremy Hammond to 10 years in prisonfor that offense . Hammond is the one who ’s said that Brown simply linked to the hack datain a December column for The Guardian .
Clarification : While Brown faced a figure of charges , he was not convict just for sharing a link . In fact , the government ’s case against Brown treat the radio link deal more aggressively until last spring , when the Department of Justicedropped many of the chargesrelated to his sharing a tie to the hacked textile . Brownwas left witha armorial bearing for appurtenance after the fact for helping a Stratfor hacker evade authorities and one for obstructing a lookup , as well as charges in a freestanding case for threatening a Union officer .
While the tutelage Brown faced evolved over the course of his prolonged visitation , the criminal prosecution ultimately slay the commission related to yoke to chop material . Meanwhile , a massive campaign to free the 33 - year - old ensued . Brown has already served 31 months in prison , though activists maintain that a evaluator has dress a “ dangerous case law ” by slapping Brown with an aggressive sentence and a massive amercement . really , Brown only has to pay $ 225 in genuine fine . The remain $ 890,250 will go like a shot to Stratfor and its clients as , ummm , pay back .
Want to hear something even more insane ? in the first place , Brown faced 105 years in prison for “ linking to hack material ” and his various other offenses . Now , nobody is really saying that Brown did n’t do anything wrong . But the government ’s progressively belligerent posture against hacker — or rather , anybody that it decide is a hack — is fairly scary .
The United States government ’s definition of hacking is jolly broad , and the penalty are pretty severe , as the world learnedafter Aaron Swartz ’s suicide . Just recently , however , President Obamaput forth a set of cybersecurity proposalsthat would actuallybroaden the government ’s definition of hack on and increase the penalties , which would make matters spoiled .
https://gizmodo.com/obamas-war-on-hackers-is-turning-everyone-into-a-suspec-1680727178
This sucks because it ’s more clear than ever that the government is o.k. interpret hacking laws that were written in the eighties however it want . If this continues , it ’s potential that the average citizen could get discombobulate in jailby simply clicking or retweeting a link to hack stuff . Does this voice like a country you want to use a figurer in ? cerebrate about that pretty severely as Congress considers Obama ’s new cybersecurity proposals . Barrett Brown surely will , as he ’s sitting in prison house for the next few years . [ The Guardian ]
look-alike viaFreeBarrettBrown.org
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