Jeremy Hammond from Chicago is now incarcerated in federal prison for illegally accessing the Web site of a conservative political activist group and downloading the credit-card numbers of thousands of its members.
Hammond plotted to use the credit cards to make donations to humanitarian and charity groups opposed by the Protest Warrior Web site into which he hacked. Or so he claimed. The Judge said “Go straight to Jail”…Federal Prison in fact.
Careful with that soap Jeremy.
[quote]12/16/06, Hacker Sentenced
n a victory for free speech and property rights, Jeremy Hammond was sentenced to two years in federal prison to begin in January 2007. He must also pay $5,250 in fines and restitution and is barred from consorting with other “hacktivists” for three years following his sentence. Despite the light sentence, Hammond’s imprisonment will undoubtedly send a message to would-be hackers that property rights and rule of law still apply.
The light sentence may be explained by unusual statements of fact and character that were made by Judge James B. Zagel during the sentencing hearing. As reported in the Chicago Tribune, Zagel brushed aside Hammond’s plans to rob victims out of millions of dollars as a lapse in judgment rather than willful and malicious credit card fraud, saying, “all 19-year-olds are idiots.” He also characterized the theft itself as “countering speech [Hammond] found wrong .” Considering Hammond’s history of violence and crime, Zagel’s bizarrely euphemistic characterization of Hammond’s actions reveals a misplaced compassion.
Before Hammond’s trial, he used the now-defunct website freejeremy – archived here – to plead with the Internet community for support. In his pathetic attempt to sway public opinion, he denied the allegations and claimed that he was “being targetted [sic] by law enforcement for his political activism.” Hammond even went so far as to accuse ProtestWarrior of fabricating the entire story. Fortunately, the evidence against him was so strong that even the most “compassionate” judge couldn’t save him from a conviction.
During the course of the investigation, ProtestWarrior intercepted a number of chat logs between Hammond and his anarchist cohorts. The logs include detailed plots to charge millions of dollars in fraudulent transactions, to publish personal and financial details of political activists, and to execute similar attacks on other conservative websites. Now that the trial is over and Hammond is about to be thrown in prison, ProtestWarrior is preparing these logs for release to the public.
The ProtestWarrior organization is currently being revamped, both online and on the streets. And a new PW project is in the works, so stay tuned.
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Ouch! 2 years in a Federal slammer…thats gonna leave a mark!