back to article Crackas With Attitude troll gets five years in prison for harassment

A member of the short-lived Crackas With Attitude hacking troupe has received five years in prison, despite the fact that he hadn't actually hacked any accounts himself and had accepted a plea deal. Justin Liverman was sentenced to 60 months inside by Judge Gerald Bruce Lee in the Federal Court of the Eastern District of …

  1. jake Silver badge

    So being a dumbshit ...

    ... will get you 5 years and a $145,000 fine?

    Strangely enough, I'm cool with that. IF applied evenly across the board. And we all know that won't happen, alas.

    1. Voland's right hand Silver badge

      Re: So being a dumbshit ...

      I am not.

      Looking at what he specifically did, it had nothing to do with hacking. All I see is plain harassment and should have gone under completely different paragraph of the penal code. Like it or not, that paragraph fetches considerably less.

      The appeals court will have a field day with this one.

      1. Dan 55 Silver badge

        Re: So being a dumbshit ...

        Harassment, scary name, and transferring files from a public directory.

        If he appeals and gets it all thrown out, that would be equally stupid of the justice system too.

      2. jake Silver badge

        Re: So being a dumbshit ...

        Re-read mine, Lefty. Did I disagree with you?

      3. Jtom

        Re: So being a dumbshit ...

        Appeal is highly unlikely. He was originally charged with multiple felonies and agreed to a plea deal admitting guilty to this one with the understanding that he could be give a five-year sentence, in exchange for not being charged with other felonies.

      4. Aodhhan

        Re: So being a dumbshit ...

        Threatening someone isn't "harassment".

        I doubt you'd be incline to think differently, if he sent you texts threatening you and your family. Blackmail exposure, etc.

        No, appeals court will not have a field day with this... because HE ACCEPTED A PLEA DEAL.

        Apparently there is a reading comprehension problem.

  2. The Nazz

    Well done Judge

    The guy deserves everything he got, stiff sentence and fine.

    I wonder though, just how many years did the provider of the phone spamming service get? 10 years?

    I'm also mindful of that lying twat of a slimy politician who used the phrase "Education, Education, Education". Something has gone terribly wrong of late, say a round two decades.

    Mind you, he hardly set any good examples to follow, if at all, despite his supposedly being well educated.

  3. Big-nosed Pengie

    Who or what is a crackas?

    1. J 3
      Coat

      >Who or what is a crackas?

      Isn't that one of those things that get released? I remember hearing: "Release the Cracka!" or something...

      1. hplasm
        Flame

        Re: >Who or what is a crackas?

        " I remember hearing: "Release the Cracka!" or something..."

        Released from asscrack, perhaps?

        Icon...

    2. frank ly

      Straight Inta Jail

      It's a word that imitates a particular pronounciation of the word 'crackers', i.e. people who perform the art/act of cracking. The entire title is inspired by, but not an exact copy of, the N.W.A who were a musical performance ensemble, active during the late 80s.

      (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/N.W.A)

      1. Jtom

        Re: Straight Inta Jail

        It's also a derogatory word for whites in the South. Supposedly, what slaves called overseers who cracked whips on them to keep them in line and working. Of course, some groups now apply the term universally to all whites (just as some groups of whites call all members of the other group, spear-chuckers).

    3. MyffyW Silver badge

      A "cracker" is a somewhat dry biscuit commonly eaten with cheese.

      Not to be confused with a craker - a genetically engineered variant of homo sapiens from the Margaret Atwood novel Oryx and Crake.

      Under His eye.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Every hour on the hour

    The guards should wake him in his cell every hour....

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    American justice in action

    With a judge called Bruce Lee, he was lucky to get out of the courtroom alive.

    Seriously though, this is just another example of the "justice" system bent on revenve and retribution, with no regard for the overall outcome for the society. How is it in the society's interest to pay for incarceration of a non-violent offender for a few years, and then make the person effectively unemployable for life due to the criminal record - so that he'll have to either become a career criminal or be a burden for the rest of the society?

    For us non-USAians, the lesson is clear: regardless of whether you have done anything wrong, stay as far away from the US justicd system as humanly possible.

    1. Florida1920

      Re: American justice in action

      effectively unemployable for life due to the criminal record

      He'll be eminently qualified to work in a call center selling time shares over the phone.

    2. ratfox

      Re: American justice in action

      How is it in the society's interest to pay for incarceration of a non-violent offender for a few years, and then make the person effectively unemployable for life due to the criminal record

      Same as most punishments: deter others from following his footsteps. Unfortunately, what he did is both easy, and terribly costly to society. There is a high risk that many other "activists" would find it a very "funny" way to fight the system. A bit like swatting.

      So it's very important to send a clear message that doing this will absolutely ruin your life.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: American justice in action

        So it's very important to send a clear message that doing this will absolutely ruin your life.

        I am glad to see that you agree with me that this has nothing to do with justice. Rather, it is about instilling compliance through fear.

        There are two problems with this approach. Firstly, people breaking the law do not expect to be caught. They may believe they are smarter than the law-breakers before them (which is usually wrong), or they simply may know the criminal clearance statistics, and deliberately choose crimes which pay well but are rarely solved. For this reason, tightening criminal penalties only deters people who are very unlikely to break the law in the first place. If you need an example close to home, look at the effect of the ever-increasing penalties for drug offences in the US. Beyond keeping the jails bursting with inmates, it was and remain nil. Why do you expect hacking offences to be any different?

        The second problem is that you can only ruin somebody's life once. Once you have done so, the society has effectively lost all non-violent ways to influence and control that person's behavior. That is simply not a very smart or effective way of running your affairs - it requires an ever-growing security machinery, creating the risk that this machinery will eventually consume the entire society. Not terribly unlike that happened in the DDR, the USSR, or that is happening in DPRK now.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          @AC

          "There are two problems with this approach."

          You sum up the problems and how it's all wrong, fair enough, but I'm missing your suggestions on how to make things better.

          The system may not be perfect, but it does seem to do its job. You yourself shared some proof of that with your comment about "stay as far away from the US justicd system as humanly possible.". Wouldn't you agree that one way to achieve that is not doing the crime (or get associated with one) in the first place?

          1. Anonymous Coward
            Anonymous Coward

            Re: @AC

            The system may not be perfect, but it does seem to do its job. You yourself shared some proof of that with your comment about "stay as far away from the US justicd system as humanly possible.". Wouldn't you agree that one way to achieve that is not doing the crime (or get associated with one) in the first place?

            How would keeping me, or any other law-abiding citizen alien as far away as possible from the US and its justice system help deter crime in that country? The only effect it will have is that you won't get my tourist or business travel dollars/euros/rubles/yuans.

        2. TheElder

          Firstly, people breaking the law do not expect to be caught.

          Especially if they become President.

        3. Jtom

          Re: American justice in action

          If you think deterrence does not work in a relatively free country, then you have never been to Singapore. Deterrence most certainly works except for those who do not care if they are imprisoned.

    3. hplasm
      Happy

      Re: American justice in action

      "...revenve and retribution,..."

      Surely you mean Rewenge?

    4. Aodhhan

      Re: American justice in action

      First.. it was his choice to break the law.

      Second... If he threatened you and your wife and kids, I bet you'd want him to spend a long time in a small box.

      Third... The majority of crimes are non-violent.

      Fourth... HE ACCEPTED A PLEA DEAL.

      Fifth.. sure, go to another country and compare it to the US legal system. Ignorance isn't bliss in this case.

      Sixth.. Don't like the USA, don't go. Hundreds of millions of people manage to live/visit the USA without having to deal with the justice system.. why you ask? Because they aren't criminals; g-grief.

      Seven... Well, we can keep people in jail indefinitely. If you're worried about their employment. All honesty though, In the USA there are a lot of jobs for those who have served time in prison. It's a matter of the ex-con to take advantage of them.

      Have you ever sat back and imagined what life would be like if we didn't punish non-violent offenders?

      Unless you're a genius and/or well educated... it's likely you'd be taken advantage of quite a bit. Yeah, thanks for your credit card and other things stolen from your house while you're at work.

  6. itzman
    Alert

    The mosty frightening thing in the whole article...

    ...is that the head of the CIA has, or had, an AOL account.

    1. Sir Runcible Spoon

      Re: The mosty frightening thing in the whole article...

      "revenve"

      Revenge or revenue?

      This is like the one the other day - dedious (devious or tedious?)

  7. Blotto Silver badge

    In hindsight...........

    Funny how he has changed his mind after the act.

    Youngsters need to know the consequences of their actions, not by fud like making an example of people, but the damage and harm caused to the victims.

    He effectively got jailed fir 5 years for cyber bullying, yet real world bullies will not be put off following in a similar vein.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon