A group of prominent legal experts have appealed the conviction of Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer, a 27-year-old security researcher from Arkansas who was found guilty of violating the 1986 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) in March. SiliconANGLE Contributing Editor John Casaretto shared his perspective on the case in a recent interview on NewsDesk.

John tells NewsDesk host Kristin Feledy that Auernheimer was fined and sentenced to 41 months in prison for harvesting the email addresses of 114,000 iPad users from AT&T’s website. His defenders have asked the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit to overturn the conviction on the grounds that the prosecution abused grey areas of the CFAA to secure an “unjust” verdict.

John agrees with the lawyers. He believes that Auernheimer was wrongly convicted of identity theft and conspiracy to gain unauthorized access to computers because he obtained the email addresses through a public website. The fact that he leaked the addresses to the media suggests that he wasn’t trying to steal anyone’s identify either. These are important technicalities that must be to taken into account.

Did the government set out to make an example out of Auernheimer? John says that may very well be the case. In his view, Auernheimer was punished too harshly for an act that is only considered illegal under one interpretation of an arguably outdated law.

The recent string of controversies involving data privacy have not gone unnoticed by lawmakers. Congress will soon vote on “Aaron’s Law,” a proposal that aims to reform the CFAA and enact a legal distinction between internet users and hackers with malicious intent.

Click on the video below for the full analysis.