Huffington Magazine Issue 55-56 | Page 80

PHOTO OR ILLUSTRATION CREDIT TK VIRTUAL DISOBEDIENCE just sitting there firing requests with a piece of software from their computers,” she said. “It doesn’t feel all that criminal. It doesn’t feel like you’re causing harm.” But Mark Rasch, a former federal cybercrime prosecutor, said the Anonymous attack on PayPal should be considered a serious crime. He compared it to chaining a lock to the entrance of a store to prevent customers from entering. “If you do something illegal, the essence of civil disobedience is you run the risk of arrest and prosecution,” he said. Still, Rasch said the 14 PayPal defendants should be considered individually. “You need to look at the nature of their participation. Were they leaders or not?” he said. “It may be appropriate for some of these people to not be prosecuted or be given probation.” In interviews with The Huffington Post, defendants in the PayPal case said they have spent the past two years burdened by pre-trial conditions that restricted their Internet usage. Many also struggled to secure employment. “When you’re applying for a job and someone Googles you, you have a lot of explaining to do when you want to point out that you HUFFINGTON 06.30-07.07.13 “I ran out of money fast and have been living on almost nothing or from the generosity of my family.” were standing up for free speech and a worthy cause and the government says you’re a cyber terrorist,” said Graham E. Archer, an attorney who represents Ethan Miles, one of the defendants. Archer said being on pre-trial release has been “extraordinarily stressful” for Miles. Court records note that he spent time at a mental health facility. “You have a pre-trial services officer who is in your life constantly,” Archer said. “It’s a form of out-of-custody incarceration for a lot of people.” Covelli, who went by the online aliases “Absolem” and “Toxic,” said a brief stretch in which he was barred from using the Internet was “like a muzzle.” A courtappointed officer routinely inspects his computer to ensure he is complying with pre-trial conditions that bar him from Internet