HACKER PLEADS GUILTY IN AT&T iPAD BREACH

Nearly six months after his arrest, one hacker pleaded guilty to charges that he exposed the email addresses of over 100,000 AT&T iPad 3G users. It's been a year since Daniel Spitler and his compatriot, Andrew Auernheimer, coaxed Ma-Bell servers into delivering the goods, with a brute force script they lovingly named the iPad 3G Account Slurper. The hacker's plea agreement suggests a 12 to 18-month sentence, which is a lot more lenient than the 10-year maximum we hear he could face. Spitler's collaborator is apparently still in plea negotiations with the prosecutor. Both men initially claimed they were just trying to draw attention to a security hole, but maybe next time they'll think twice before embarking on such altruistic endeavors.

PIRATE BAY FOUNDERS LOSE APPEAL

The founders of Pirate Bay, a bit-torrent sharing site, have lost their appeal in Swedish court. Peter Sunde, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Carl Lundstrom were originally convicted of copyright circumvention in April 2009 after a lengthy and contentious trial. The Swedish appeals court has upheld that original conviction. The appeals court did reduce the jail time for the four members, Fredrik Neij will serve a 10 month sentence; Peter Sunde eight months and Carl Lundstrom four months, Gottfried Svartholm Warg was too ill to attend the trial and will be sentenced when he is well. With the reduced sentences the court also increased the monetary judgement from 30 million kroner to 46 million kroner (US $6.4 million).

The International Federation for the Phonographic Industry issued a statement saying:

Today's judgment confirms the illegality of The Pirate Bay and the seriousness of the crimes of those involved. It is now time for The Pirate Bay, whose operators have twice been convicted in court, to close. We now look to governments and ISPs to take note of this judgment, do the responsible thing and take the necessary steps to get The Pirate Bay shut down.

[BBC News]