<http://schema.org/articleBody>
" This one rings the WTF? bell very loudly. Among the millions of Stratfor files were data containing credit cards and security codes, part of the vast trove of internal company documents. The credit card data was of no interest or use to Mr. Brown, but it was of great interest to the government. In December 2012 he was charged with 12 counts related to identity theft. Over all he faces 17 charges - including three related to the purported threat of the F.B.I. officer and two obstruction of justice counts - that carry a possible sentence of 105 years, and he awaits trial in a jail in Mansfield, Tex. According to one of the indictments, by linking to the files, Mr. Brown &amp;quot;provided access to data stolen from company Stratfor Global Intelligence to include in excess of 5,000 credit card account numbers,, the card holders&amp;#039; identification information, and the authentication features for the credit cards.&amp;quot; So this guy is facing a century&amp;#039;s worth of federal institutional dining, not because he stole the data, but because he posted links to the data. This, I fear, is what we legal scholars call a bullshit prosecution, and I don&amp;#039;t care who tells me what, and how much of a dickhead this guy actually is, this is happening because he got crossways with the FBI, and nobody ever will convince me otherwise. By trying to criminalize linking, the federal authorities in the Northern District of Texas - Mr. Brown lives in Dallas - are suggesting that to share information online is the same as possessing it or even stealing it. In the news release announcing the indictment, the United States attorney&amp;#039;s office explained, &amp;quot;By transferring and posting the hyperlink, Brown caused the data to be made available to other persons online, without the knowledge and authorization of Stratfor and the card holders.&amp;quot; And the magnitude of the charges is confounding. Jeremy Hammond, a Chicago man who pleaded guilty to participating in the actual hacking of Stratfor in the first place, is facing a sentence of 10 years. Confounding? Hell, no. This guy tangled with the FBI, and the U.S. Attorney for the Northern Texas wants to make a splash, and the federal government, in the institution of the Department Of Justice, has been repeatedly wrong-footed by the new information culture, and its brute response has been to try to smash the whole thing away. When you have an A-bomb, everything looks like Hiroshima. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19451/journalist-agitator-faces-prison-091013/>