Precisely that. Sure, he made a mistake, but so did AT&T, and now because of it he's potentially going to spend 41 months of his life in jail. Life is too short as it is.
I can see where you're coming from saying something like that... But it is a mistake in my eyes. It was an unwise decision that he probably would not have made had he known he faced 3+ years in prison.
That being said, this guy is obviously not a saint. I don't want to sound like I'm defending his affiliation with GNAA or the fact that he went to Gawker with it.
If it had been someone who gives to community, is polite, and respectful, and instead had gone to the NYT or another publication, they still could lose 3+ years of their life. To a mistake.
Yeah, he banged on the keyboard and made a typo and accidentally fell into a 100K of AT&T user records, and then he turned and these records stuck to him and then when he was trying to get rid of them they accidentally fell on Gawker. That's how it happened, judge, and if you don't believe it you must be bought by AT&T.