William Genovese - Conviction

Conviction

In 2005, Genovese was convicted of the unlawful sale of a trade secret. Genovese downloaded incomplete source code for Microsoft Paint from Limewire. The code Genovese sold was widely distributed on the Internet prior to his sale. Following an investigation, Genovese was arrested in November 2004. In January 2006, he was sentenced to two years in federal prison.

In 2005, Genovese used his website as a platform to harass his victims using the images from T-Mobile Sidekick user's phones that he obtained from a hacker, Nicolas Jacobsen. Reportedly, the images were obtained by hacking into a database, and obtaining the passwords of Sidekick-toting celebrities from the hacked database, then entering their T-Mobile accounts and downloading photos they'd taken with the cellphone's built-in camera. The images included celebrities such as Demi Moore, Ashton Kutcher, Nicole Richie, and Paris Hilton.

Genovese is also mentioned in news articles, in connection with the notorious internet leak of Paris Hilton's mobile phone address book and Fred Durst's sex tape leak.

In sentencing Genovese, the ruling Judge stated that, "Mr.Genovese is a predator who has morphed through various phases of criminal activity and in the last few years has descended into the world of the Internet and is well on his way to being a cyber-predator."