To settle a lawsuit, the city of Fullerton California “has agreed to pay $350,000 and take back its accusations of criminal computer hacking” against two local bloggers, reports the Orange County Register. The settlement ends what the newspaper calls “a contentious fight over censorship and freedom of speech.”The lawsuit accused Joshua Ferguson and David Curlee of stealing computerized personnel files from a Dropbox account to which the city had mistakenly given them access. Some of the files were later published online… Attorney Kelly Aviles, representing the bloggers, said she was pleased with the settlement, but the litigation could have been avoided. “The city shouldn’t have tried to blame their mistakes on journalists trying to cover the city,” Aviles said. “It was unbelievably wrong … those kind of people should never be in public office…” Under the terms of the deal, Aviles will be paid $230,000, while Ferguson and Curlee will receive $60,000 each. Additionally, the city must publish a public apology on the home page of its website, Aviles said. While no formal charges were brought against the bloggers, the city’s accusations of criminal conduct cost them friends and family members. She said Ferguson was fired from his job. “It was really traumatic for them,” Aviles said. In turn, the bloggers must return the remaining confidential recordswhich they don’t plan on publishing anyway, Aviles said.Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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‘Revenge pornography’ cyberpunk punished to two years behind bars for swiping images – media
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – A Los Angeles-area male was sentenced to 2 years in prison on Monday for hacking into females’s email accounts to look for nude images after that marketing the images to a so-called revenge porn web site, neighborhood media reports stated.
Charles Evens, 26, pleaded guilty in July to charges of computer hacking as well as identity theft, the Los Angeles Times and City Information Solution claimed.
Evens was accused of benefiting one more The golden state guy, Hunter Moore, who ran a now-defunct website that released intimate or visuals images, primarily of ladies, in an attempt to pity an ex-spouse or lover, authorities have claimed.
Evens was punished on Monday to 25-months in prison, a $2,000 penalty, and 20 hrs of community service, a federal judge ruled, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Evens took cash money for getting into e-mail accounts to try to find endangering images of individuals, authorities said. In some cases, the stolen photos were released with the social media sites accounts of the people shown, authorities have actually said.
Retribution porn has drawn the attention of lawmakers in several states, leading to regulation planned to quit the method.
In 2013, California Governor Jerry Brown authorized the initial regulation in the country particularly targeting revenge porn. New Jacket has an older regulation that allows prosecution of revenge pornography, however it was passed as component of a broader cyber-bullying statute.