A man from Ohio was recently sentenced to 15 months in prison after being convicted of "hacking" for using his work computer to look at pornography and upload nude photos of himself to adult websites.


In the span of 5 months, Richard Wolf spent approximately 100 work hours using his work computer for personal use, which included looking at—and uploading—nude photos, none of which were actually of people engaging in sexual acts. His superiors said during that time, Wolf's job performance never suffered and he always managed to complete all of his duties on time. However, after it was discovered that Wolf was accessing inappropriate content at work, he was investigated by the police and later charged for hacking his work computer.

The current Ohio hacking law states that "No person, in any manner and by any means, including, but not limited to, computer hacking, shall knowingly gain access ... to any computer ... without the consent of, or beyond the scope of the express or implied consent of, the owner of the computer ... or other person authorized to give consent." Although he was given consent to use the computer, the court believes that Wolf's personal activities constituted as "beyond the scope of the express or implied consent," thus being able to prosecute him with a hacking conviction.


Wolf's lawyer pointed out that a major reason why Wolf's situation was handled so severely was because of the content he was looking at his computer. If Wolf had been looking at videos of cats riding on Roombas, for instance, he would not be in the predicament he is in now. However, due to the sexual nature of the content, the court is treating it somewhat like they would a sex offense. As of now, Wolf has been sentenced to 15 months in jail and has been fined $5,000 among other restitutions. [Wired]