Barrett Brown’s sentence is unjust, but it may become the norm for journalists

[InfoSec News <alerts () infosecnews org>]

http://boingboing.net/2015/01/26/barrett-browns-sentence-is.html

By Trevor Timm
Jan 26, 2015

Investigative journalist Barrett Brown was sentenced to an obscene 63 
months in prison on Thursday, in part for sharing a hyperlink to a stolen 
document that he did not steal, and despite the fact that he was not 
guilty of a crime for linking to it.

Maybe journalists think this is an anomaly, and some will ignore his case 
entirely since Brown also pled guilty to other charges that led to part of 
his sentence too. But be warned: if the White House passes its dramatic 
expansion of US computer law, journalists will constantly be under similar 
threat and reporting on hacked documents could become a crime.

How is this possible, you ask? Well, first it’s important to understand 
the details of Brown’s case.

[...]

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