Bitcoin Forum

"The notorious troll and hacker known as Andrew 'weev' Auernheimer spent 13 months in jail for exposing an AT&T security flaw. He was recently released when a federal court overturned the conviction on grounds of improper venue. Now, Auernheimer has penned an open letter to the Department of Justice in which he demands reparations for acts of 'fraud' and 'violence' carried out against him over the past three years. Those reparations must be paid in Bitcoin, he says — 28,296, to be exact. At current market value, that comes out to $13.7 million. The bombastic letter is titled 'Open letter to federal scum,' and was allegedly bcc'd to 'a few hundred journalists.' In it, 28-year-old Auernheimer writes that he calculated the sum owed to him based on his market value:"

http://yro.slashdot.org/story/14/05/21/1548256/att-hacker-weev-demands-one-bitcoin-for-each-hour-he-spent-in-jail

i could never be a hacker, even if i had the skills for it. it's just too fucking scary to fuck with groups that have so much money that they can get the full backing of the "government."

Guy is a nut job.


It's called being arrested - not kidnapped.   ::)  At the time they were within their legal rights to make the arrest.

What an idiot.  Lets assume the courts did decide that his wrongful incarceration was worth $12,000 per day, it is dubious but possible the courts could agree to that.  The courts have no power to order payment for damages in anything but legal tender.  That is the very basis for legal tender.  It is payable for all debts public and private.  The courts award a judgement which isn't a big bag of cash or gold right there on the court floor.  A judgement is a legal obligation for the damaging party to make payment to the damaged party.  In other words a judgement is a debt and what is legal tender payable for?  Oh yeah all debts (including judgements awarded by the court) public and private.  So the demand has about as much legal authority as demanding repayment in the form of 13 house parties at the white house, getting to destroy 13 pieces of art of his choice from the national archives, or having a date with the wife of AT&T's CEO.

I'm going to go way out on a limb here and suggest his goal wasn't to actually get 28kBTC in restitution, and I'd be shocked if he gave a quarter damn about what the courts think is "legal."

I'm sympathetic, honestly. Mostly amused, though. Would love to see this fellow get a radio show. There aren't many people who'd come out and say someone like Stack or McVeigh were heroes they want to dedicate a "memorial grove" to, whether they were nutty enough to believe it or not.

The amount amount wasn't the point.  The courts couldn't order (even if they wanted to) that he be paid a single satoshi (or gram of gold).  Demanding someone do something they can't makes you either ignorant (if you don't know) or just stupid (if you do).

Oh - that just adds to the story's appeal for news agencies to run. ;D

Maybe it's not as fantastic as demanding twelve magic gold-producing octopi which he considers equal in market value, but then nobody would take his other points seriously (as opposed to now, where almost nobody takes his other points seriously).