weev is not being charged with blackmail. As far as I know, he didn't do anything to accomplish that goal. He talked a little bit about it on IRC. Instead he we

weev is not being charged with blackmail. As far as I know, he didn't do anything to accomplish that goal. He talked a little bit about it on IRC. Instead he went to a journalist, perhaps to increase his infamy. It's become part of the trial to establish that he didn't have good intentions and is a generally obnoxious person. I have to say I agree with that - after discovering the issue, he downloaded lots of people's personal data, which wasn't admirable behavior. You might download 10, 20, 100, just to see what happens. After that, the right thing is to disclose it to the company (anonymously if you have to), and then publicly if they do nothing about it. But if what he did is a crime, there should be a more tightly worded law about it. He didn't misrepresent his identity; it was AT&T's fault for not checking. He didn't access a computer without authorization; AT&T did the equivalent of emptying a box of private documents on their front lawn.