Barrett Brown, a journalist and activist who used crowdsourcing to investigate leaked information about private security firm Stratfor, has taken a plea deal with prosecutors, Wired reports: In a court document superseding two of Brown's previous three indictments, "the government charges Brown with two crimes: allegedly assisting the person who hacked Stratfor after the fact, and obstructing the execution of a search warrant targeting Brown. The first charge is a new one and relates to assistance Brown allegedly gave the person who hacked Stratfor 'in order to hinder and prevent ... apprehension, trial and punishment.'" Prosecutors previously dropped 11 charges against Brown in which he was charged with identity theft. Brown copied a hyperlink, connecting "to a file containing [Stratfor] data stolen in 2011," from one public chatroom and reposted it to another, Wired reports.
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