KillerMuffin
Seraphically Disinclined
- Joined
- Jul 29, 2000
- Posts
- 25,603
Link: http://www.reuters.com/news_article.jhtml?type=internetnews&StoryID=917087
FREEHOLD, N.J. (Reuters) - David Smith, whose "Melissa" computer virus caused $1.2 billion in damage, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a New Jersey state court on Friday but will serve only a 20-month federal term he was given previously.
According to a plea agreement accepted by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson, Smith can not do more time in jail on state charges than he will under the federal sentence he was given on Wednesday. But Lawson said he still meted out the maximum term as a deterrent to other would-be virus creators.
Smith pleaded guilty in 1999 to one count of disrupting public communications, a charge falling under the state's Computer Theft statute. He is the first person in New Jersey convicted under the law for spreading a virus, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General's office said.
"I can't take back what I did, but I'm not a criminal," said Smith, who named the virus for a Florida stripper he knew, at his sentencing.
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So? Do you think MelissaMan is right? Is he a criminal? Why or why not?
FREEHOLD, N.J. (Reuters) - David Smith, whose "Melissa" computer virus caused $1.2 billion in damage, was sentenced to 10 years in prison in a New Jersey state court on Friday but will serve only a 20-month federal term he was given previously.
According to a plea agreement accepted by Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Lawrence Lawson, Smith can not do more time in jail on state charges than he will under the federal sentence he was given on Wednesday. But Lawson said he still meted out the maximum term as a deterrent to other would-be virus creators.
Smith pleaded guilty in 1999 to one count of disrupting public communications, a charge falling under the state's Computer Theft statute. He is the first person in New Jersey convicted under the law for spreading a virus, a spokesman for the New Jersey Attorney General's office said.
"I can't take back what I did, but I'm not a criminal," said Smith, who named the virus for a Florida stripper he knew, at his sentencing.
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So? Do you think MelissaMan is right? Is he a criminal? Why or why not?
