Does the law is it more resilient for hackers who have a cause?
This was a recurring question throughout 2013, as many of the so-called hackers, faced sentences that would keep them in jail for years. All the calls for leniency, which were based on having breached networks for the common good, showed not to be heard by the judges.
"I did it because I believe that people have a right to know what governments are doing and the Companies behind closed doors,” Jeremy Hammond told the judge, defending himself and other hackers whose motivations were ideological rather than financial. "I did what I thought was right."
But the courts did not show that 2013 was touched by such arguments, a time that the hackers and the government had repeatedly clashed in an escalation of the struggle to control information.
Peter Ludlow, a professor of philosophy at Northwestern University, wrote in The Nation that the persecution of the hackers was part of a "war on knowledge" that extends beyond hackers to include Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, who exposed government secrets. THE Manning is currently serving a 35-year sentence for breaches of espionage law. Snowden has been granted temporary asylum in Russia, and has been charged with espionage and theft of state records.
"On the whole, the lesson seems to show that hacking into computers for social reasons and cyber piracy to uncover secret governments will not be tolerated," Ludlow said.
In November, Hammond, 28 of years, whose hacking in a private information company revealed that the government was watching all members of the Occupy Wall Street movement, was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment.
In March, Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, 27, who said he tried to protect consumers from identity theft when he shared a security hole he discovered on AT&T servers with a journalist, was sentenced to three years in prison. .
In January, Aaron Swartz, 26 of years, who was responsible for a hacking that brought him millions of science articles from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology servers, committed suicide because he was facing a felony.
Gabriella Coleman, a professor at McGill University who studies the culture of hackers, said that the work of hacktivists "produces tangible results."
"The courts are reluctant to recognize this activity as politically motivated and for the common good," Coleman said.
Ο Michael Sussman, a former prosecutor, said hackers who say they deserve leniency because their motivations are not financial are unlikely to see leniency from the government.
"I do not think a Robin Hood profile will have much of an impact on prosecutors," Sussman said. "I do not think there will be anyone in the federal government who will say, 'Well, these people consider themselves hacktivists, so I have to be lenient.'
In fact, prosecutors point to hacktivists as a source of significant harm. Hammond, who also stole credit card details belonging to about 1 million people, caused "personal and financial chaos to their owners," Manhattan District Attorney Preet Bharara said when Hammond pleaded guilty.
But 2013 was not just the year when law hit hackers. It was also the year when the law itself was challenged and re-controlled.
In June, legislation was introduced in Congress to amend it Desktop Fraud and Abuse Act, which was responsible for the convictions of Swartz, Auernheimer and Hammond. Critics say the law is highly punitive and stiff in prison terms for some crimes that are now considered relatively innocuous.
Zoe Lofgren (D-Calif.) Said in an interview that he introduced the bill, called "Aaron Law" because he felt Swartz had been "intimidated" by prosecutors for an act of political disobedience that certainly did not take much. years in federal prison. ”
Lofgren continued to report that 1986's law to combat hacking of government, military and banking computers has become obsolete.
"Things have changed," he told HuffPost Lofgren. "There is a law that was created when the Internet was not in commercial use and that is a big mistake."
But with so many conflicting priorities in Congress, Lofgren said internet legislation "was not a major topic of discussion" for this year.
"There was no outbreak," he said. "It does not seem that my colleagues in Parliament feel pressure" for the reform of this law.
