Hacker Weev Gets Sentence Thrown Out

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Andrew Auernheimer leaves the Martin Luther King, Jr. Courthouse after posting bail, on Feb. 28, 2011, in Newark, N.J.

Image: Julio Cortez/Associated Press

By Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai2014-04-12 03:00:52 UTC

Infamous Internet troll and "iPad hacker" Andrew "

More than a year ago, Auernheimer was found guilty and sentenced to 3 and half years in prison for accessing an AT&T public server in 2010, and obtaining 114,000 email addresses of iPad owners.

Auernheimer then shared the database with Gawker , and the feds charged him with identity theft and hacking crimes.

See also: Inside the Syrian Electronic Army Hack on CNN

The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia threw out his sentence, arguing that prosecutors were wrong to charge him in New Jersey. Auernheimer accessed the AT&T server while living in Arkansas, his alleged accomplice was living in San Francisco, and the servers they accessed were located in Dallas and Atlanta. But prosecutors charged him in New Jersey — and it has never been clear why.

The court ruled that this was an improper venue, and vacated the sentence. Technically, the feds could still charge him for the crimes in another state, but at this point it's unclear if they will.

In the meantime, Auernheimer's lawyer Tor Ekeland successfully filed a motion to have him released immediately, and will drive from New York City to Pennsylvania to pick him up on Friday night.

The court vacated Auernheimer sentence based on the venue, but his lawyers had also appealed his conviction on the merits of the case, arguing that Auernheimer didn't break the much-maligned Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (the same law used against Internet freedom activist and coder Aaron Swartz).

His lawyers argued that the information Auernheimer accessed was publicly available and thus there was no unauthorized access to AT&T's servers. But the three judges of the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, during the appeals hearing, focused instead on the venue issue.

While in prison, Auernheimer maintained an online presence. He sent incendiary tweets and posted messages to his SoundCloud account.

These online feats allegedly put Weev in solitary confinement.

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Topics: computer fraud and abuse act, hacker, hacking, U.S., US & World, weev