Appeals Court Overturns Conviction Of AT&T Hacker 'Weev'

Carrie Mihalcik | CNET | April 11, 2014

A federal appeals court rules that Andrew "Weev" Auernheimer was tried in the wrong state and overturns his conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act.

A federal appeals court on Friday vacated the conviction against hacker and Internet troll Andrew Auernheimer. Auernheimer, a security researcher who goes by the nickname "Weev," was found guilty of hacking in 2012 for accessing a non-password protected portion of AT&T's Web site to obtain the email addresses of more than 100,000 iPad users. Auernheimer, who was convicted under the controversial Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, was sentenced to 41 months in prison.

The US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit, however, did not overturn the conviction because it had come to some new revelation about the fraud law, but instead found that Auernheimer was tried in the wrong federal court...