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> ... manipulating the URL, that presumably counts as a crime. "Manipulating the URL" -- "?id=1", "?id=2", "?id=3", in effect -- was enough to get Andrew Auern
by jlgaddis 7y ago
> ... manipulating the URL, that presumably counts as a crime.
"Manipulating the URL" -- "?id=1", "?id=2", "?id=3", in effect -- was enough to get Andrew Auernheimer (a.k.a. "weev") convicted and sentenced to ~3.5 years in prison [0].
Yes, his conviction was later vacated -- albeit due to a "technicality" ("improper venue"). Regardless, he still spent more than two years locked up for what really does seem like some completely exaggerated bullshit!
> "... [the Third Circuit judges] were skeptical of the original conviction, noting that no circumvention of passwords had occurred and that only publicly accessible information was obtained."
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(Note: I've never met the guy, nor would I ever want to. Everything I've heard and read indicates that he's a pretty shitty human being -- and I suspect that didn't help him very much at trial. He almost certainly was deserving of some "bad karma" but that's not for the "justice system" to dish out.)
TL;DR: If you're in the U.S., you might want to think long and hard before taking that chance!
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[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#AT&T_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#AT&T_data_breach