A 23-year-old Australian man has pleaded guilty to a series of hacks involving League of Legends. However, after being sentenced, he was granted parole immediately.
Shane Stephen Duffy pleaded guilty to computer hacking and fraud that led to Riot Games, League of Legends' developer, losing money in the hundred thousands. His offenses were committed between May 2013 and March 2014 and was deemed "very serious" by the court.
Riot Games was also hacked in 2011, where the personal details of more than 5 million players were compromised, but the prosecution said that Duffy had nothing to do with the incident. Rather, he obtained a copy of the hacked data online and used that to make a profit.
The offenses that Duffy was found guilty of include: operating a business to sell account details from hacked players, where he made 194 transactions and earned almost $24,000; hacking the Twitter account of Riot Games president and founder Marc Merrill and sending Riot Games threatening emails.
Duffy was sentenced to two and a half years in prison (on top of an 18-month suspended sentence), but was immediately let go on parole. The court may have decided on this after hearing the defense say that Duffy has autism, and so doesn't fully understand the consequences of his actions.
Additionally, Duffy's defense team laid out that he is not properly socialized, having been home-schooled since he was in fourth grade, and that he is not taking any type of drug for his condition as his mother was afraid of having him medicated.
"He is an offender who has less moral culpability," also said Patrick Wilson, his defense lawyer.
Duffy's family was with him during the sentencing and have put him on medication since his arrest. He is also socializing in more appropriate ways after the incident.
League of Legends has been fairly popular over the years but that popularity appears to be waning in the face of newer games entering the market. For instance, the game had been the top video game played in Korean internet cafes for nearly four years before Overwatch came and ended that reign.
According to Gametrics charts, which used data from more than 4,000 South Korean internet cafes, Overwatch now has a 30 percent share of the market while League of Legends has a 27.8 percent share in the country. It's a slim margin but a win is a win.
Overwatch was just released in May but now has more than 10 million players registered. However, League of Legends still has a drastically bigger player base, with 27 million playing each day.
