Madonna hacker sentenced to imprisonment

Mr. Adi Lederman, who pleaded guilty to hacking Madonna’s crew’s computers, has been sentenced to 14 months in prison and a fine of 15,000 NIS (approximately US $4,000). The Magistrate Court in Tel Aviv also sentenced Mr. Lederman to an additional, but suspended, 6 month imprisonment.

In February this year, the office of the State's attorney charged Mr. Lederman with unlawful penetration to computers, unlawful wiretapping, invasion of privacy and copyright infringement - committed with hacking tools and lists of commonly used passwords. The State alleged that Mr. Lederman copied files containing musical recordings, correspondences and photos, for commercial distribution and that in some cases, Mr. Lederman sold the content for more than $1,000 per file, some of which contained unpublished song recordings.
 
Mr. Lederman was convicted and sentenced following a plea bargain. The Court also ordered the destruction of all digital content seized from Mr. Lederman and prohibited distribution of the content. The Court opined that “The ease by which these offenses can be committed by those who possess the relevant skills, like the defendant, and the difficulty in exposing the offenses and the perpetrator, command an appropriate punitive response that conveys a deterring message of zero tolerance.” Source (in Hebrew): YNet (by: Naama Cohen-Freedman).