In June of 2010 I was accused to conspire to access a public API for the iPad 3G exposed by AT&T and Apple that fed user data to the whole internet via an unauthenticated integer that you could simply increment, and the government claimed I violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act as well as engaged in identity theft for sending a sample of this data to a journalist while outlining to the public exactly how this data impacted them. I insisted that accessing a public webserver was not a crime, and the court agreed in the dicta of my appeals ruling (though they vacated my sentence and freed me early on the basis of Article II venue). The incredibly funny thing is that AT&T, the alleged “victim”, did not think my access was unlawful, and lobbied in private for the case to be dropped. Their witness at trial was on record writing in internal emails “no security was bypassed. I don’t think they [the feds] have a case.” They were actually mystified that I was prosecuted, but the false, malicious, and capricious indictment was just a proxy punishment. I’d been hunted and harassed by the FBI for years. They even tried to frame me for threats to a synagogue (which their own informant called in, and they subsequently published my name as “potentially responsible” for) as well as once trying to frame me for bioterrorism. They just wanted to arbitrarily put me in prison and torture me for my political statements. For more information on how the government is a bunch of scheming, lying criminals that clearly justify Timothy McVeigh and Andrew Stack’s heroism, if you are truly interested in understanding the case at hand, the various amicus and appellate briefs are still available via the EFF website, and quite illuminating:

Electronic Frontier Foundation

United States v. Andrew Auernheimer

Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer was convicted of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act ("CFAA") in New Jersey federal court and sentenced to 41 ...

For an layman’s explanation you can watch “The Hacker Wars” and “Troll Inc”, available on various streaming services and I imagine also via piracy. Hacker Wars is available freely on YouTube, though Troll Inc is the superior film.