14 DAY TRIAL // Jeffrey Lee Parson, the teenager who was convicted two months ago for the creation of the MSBlast worm, will be forgiven a part of the punishment and won't have to pay Microsoft 500,000 dollars.
The sum represents penalties for changing the Blaster worm because of which the Microsoft site became inaccessible for a few hours. The teenager's actions caused the infection of over 50.000 computers which means nothing compared to the damages caused by the original version of MSBlast. The first worm from the Blaster family infected over 9.5 million computers.
Along with this impressive penalty, Parson was also sentenced to 18 months in a low security jail and 10 months of community service. During this time, he will be isolated from computers and Internet.
Microsoft didn't give up the idea of punishing the young hacker and requested another 225 hours of community service in exchange of the half a million dollar penalty.
Both the court and Microsoft were lenient with Parson who could have spent the next ten years behind bars. The teenager's parents were blamed for the online troublemaking because they didn't provide a favorable environment his mental maturity.
Although Parson's attacks targeted the MPAA and RIAA sites which are famous for the ferocity with which they chase and penalize even deceased persons for illegally downloading music, no measures have been taken in Jeffrey's case.