Kournikova virus writer loses his appeal

NEWS The virus writer who unleashed the Kournikova worm last year has lost an appeal against his conviction. Jan de Wit was sentenced to 150 hours of community service, or 75 hours behind bars by a court in the Netherlands last September. But despite the relatively lenient sentence, he went ahead with an appeal, claiming he didn't mean any harm when writing the virus, which affected hundreds of thousands of computer users worldwide (see http://www.silicon.com/a53148 for more). He also complained that a conviction might not look too good on his CV and would hamper his career. Under Dutch law, de Wit could have been sentenced to as much as four years in prison for his crimes (see http://www.silicon.com/a42712 for more). De Wit will now have to start his community service order, which was suspended pending the outcome of the appeal.