On Thursday, the Tel Aviv Magistrate’s court sentenced an Israeli man named Adi Lederman to 14 months in prison for hacking Madonna’s computers last year, and selling demo tracks from her then unreleased album, Rebel Heart. Lederman, 39, a former contestant Kokhav Nolad (כוכב נולד), or “A Star Is Born,” was arrested in January. He confessed to computer trespassing and infringement of privacy and property rights under a plea bargain, reported Reuters. In addition to jail time, Lederman was also fined 15,000 Shekels, or about $3981. YNet reported:
According to court papers, Lederman sold demo tracks from Madonna’s album “Rebel Heart” to two buyers at $300 each, having copied the files from cloud accounts whose passwords he obtained after hacking email servers used by her musical director Kevin Antunes, talent manager Guy Oseary and two other people. Lederman also obtained parts of Madonna’s work diary.
According to TIME, Madonna called these crime “artistic rape.”
After Lederman was detained in January, Madonna said in a statement: “I am profoundly grateful to the FBI, the Israeli Police investigators and anyone else who helped lead to the arrest of this hacker.”
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Jonathan Zalman is a writer and teacher based in Brooklyn.
