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by dramatica_una 1635 days ago
As someone who was thoroughly and intimately familiar with both the person weev was/is and the details surrounding the AT&T disclosure case, there is absolutely NO question that weev deserved to be incarcerated and for far longer than he ended serving. Multiple people are in federal prison on his account, multiple lives have been stained and essentially ruined on account of weev surrendering ("snitching") information, sometimes true and sometimes false, about other criminal events.

Don't believe what you have heard, I know it seems very hacker-y and noble, and he tried to do the right thing and disclose, so we should just cut him a break, blah blah blah. There's MILES of evidence against him seeing free life. He's been involved in financial fraud, harassment cases against minors, illegal pornography against minors, threats of harms against strangers on the internet, there's even (unfounded, though somewhat plausible) claims that he's developed spyware for profit. I don't want to be doxxed, so I'll leave it at that. I've known weev for a long time, and I'm sure glad he doesn't know me.

To clarify, I am in favor of laws defending those who receive data from a sender having immunity. It seems common-sense. If you give me a ten dollar bill, and ask for it back, I can just decline, and walk away. It's rude and wrong, but it's legal, and it ought to be. CFAA has put a lot of bright, young minds in jail, and they are subsequently extorted and abused by multiple state agencies in the name of "cyber defense." It's grotesque.

But don't make weev a hero. He's not.

1 comments

I feel dumb for even having to make this argument, but people can be bad and guilty of other crimes and that doesn't mean they should be found guilty for things unrelated to those other crimes. Everything you listed in this comment is unrelated to the weev v. at&t case, which was (imo) a sham of a lawsuit, irrespective of whatever other heinous things he did.