14 DAY TRIAL // On Monday, we learned that Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer, the activist accused of leaking the details of around 120,000 AT&T customers, was sentenced to 41 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
Shortly after the verdict came in, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) revealed that it was joining Auernheimer’s legal team for the appeal before the Third Circuit Court of Appeals.
The EFF believes that there are fundamental problems with the computer crime legislation which result in “unfair prison sentences” such as this one.
“Weev is facing more than three years in prison because he pointed out that a company failed to protect its users' data, even though his actions didn't harm anyone. The punishments for computer crimes are seriously off-kilter, and Congress needs to fix them,” said EFF Senior Staff Attorney Marcia Hofmann.
The organization has criticized the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) on numerous occasions for its penalties, vague language and broad sweep. However, since the death of Aaron Swartz, the EFF has started focusing its efforts even more on reforming the law.
EFF Staff Attorney Hanni Fakhoury believes Congress should amend the CFAA to make sure cases such as these are avoided.