Duo’s MySpace extortion plan
p2pnet.net news:- Shaun Harrison, 19, and Saverio Mondelli, 20, were accused of trying to extort $150,000 from MySpace as a “consulting fee,” facing up to nearly four years in prison.
But, says Associated Press, two counts of attempted extortion and another illegal computer access count have been dropped. Instead, Harrison and Mondelli, from Long Island, will each be on probation for three years.
MySpace is supposed to offer anonymity, “but Harrison and Mondelli were offering a means to acquire e-mail addresses and Internet protocol addresses of users, the prosecution said,” states AP.
They were selling the code “as a service on their own Web site for $29.95 and claimed to be developing an unbreakable version,” says the story.
The plea bargain probation deal, “severely restricts their access to computers, limits them to one e-mail address each and requires they do 160 hours of community service and pay MySpace $13,500 in restitution,” says AP.
Harrison and Mondelli, “extremely proficient in Macromedia Flash technology,” were sent a cease and desist order by e-mail but they replied they’d neither
cease nor desist and, “announced on their Web site that they were developing an even more sophisticated system that would soon be for sale, prosecutors said,” says AP.
Also See:
Associated Press – Youths make plea deal in MySpace case, February 26, 2007
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Tired of being treated like a criminal? They depend on you, not the other way around. Don’t buy their ‘product’. Do bug your local politicians. Use emails, snail-mail, phone calls, faxes, IM, stop them in the street, blog. And if you’re into organizing, organize petitions, organize demonstrations and then turn up on your local political rep’s doorstep, making sure you’ve contacted your local tv/radio station/newspaper in advance. Don’t just complain. Do something!
February 27th, 2007 at 6:12 pm
“MySpace is supposed to offer anonymity”
Supposed to? Maybe. But does it really? I don’t think so. While it’s true that most choose not to use the privacy settings, said settings are fare from ideal, let alone provide anonymity.