Looks like I mixed up two different cases the cause of one, and the duration of another- weev (who aparently turned out to be a giant asshole) was the one who got sent to jail for accessing a completely public URL AT&T wished he didn’t in 2010. The EFF took up his case. His sentence was later vacated because another court went ‘yeah no that’s bullshit,’ so he only served a year or two.

As for the CFAA being used to slap people with damages that are WAY too big, there’s too many examples to know which one I was mixing it up with. Aaron Swartz is the classic example.