back to article Tour de France winner sentenced for hack of doping lab

Floyd Landis, the disgraced US cyclist who was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France victory for doping, was handed a suspended 12-month prison sentence for his part in a hack of an anti-doping lab computer. Arnie Baker, Landis's former trainer, also received a suspended 12-month term from the same French court in Nanterre, near …

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  1. Naughtyhorse

    because nothing says 'i'm innocent' more than hacking into the lab that caught you's network.

    what a bellend - then again, he rides a fucking bike on the roads, so of course hes a bellend! all them organ donors are.

    1. DF118
      FAIL

      @Naughtyhorse

      Ha! Nice try, however you're more likely to end up an organ donor as a car driver* or pedestrian than you are as a cyclist.

      Still, never mind the facts when you want to get your bigoted oar in eh?

      * Excluding motorway miles, but then cyclists and pedestrians don't do any of those anyway.

    2. Naughtyhorse

      lol

      pointing out what a bunch of sanctimonious fuckwits cyclists are always gets a good crop of downvotes.

      tossers

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        I'm not a cyclist

        I downvoted you because you come across as a complete prong.

      2. Jared Hunt
        Facepalm

        Sanctimonious fuckwits eh?

        Pot? Kettle? Just sayin'

  2. Winkypop Silver badge
    Pint

    The pro-cycling industry

    I have my suspicions about the whole bunch.

    <-- faked urine test

    1. aThingOrTwo

      I'm far more suspicious of other sports that don't catch cheats.

      Since the introduction of the biological passport it is fairly clear in my eyes the majority of cyclists are now riding clean. Power outputs (wattage) on the big climbs have fallen dramatically since the 90s/00s.

      I don't understand why more sports don't adopt the biological passport scheme, other than it being expensive.

      1. Grease Monkey Silver badge

        Cycling is viewed as a dirty sport simply because cycling set out to catch the cheats. There are plenty of other sports that pretend doping doesn't exist. Cycling runs the most rigourous out of competition testing programme of any sport. And they also carry out more in competition tests that other sports. Were you, for example, aware that pro-cyclists must inform the authorities of their movements (no, not those sorts of movements) in advance so that samples can be taken at any time. Cyclists have been punished for failing to inform the authorities of their whereabouts or providing false information.

        Some sports have virtually no out of competition testing and in competition tests mean nothing without it. Especially in sports where top level competitions are few and far between. Swimming is a prime example of this.

        It would be a good idea if the olympic comittee set a minimum standard of dope testing (preferably using cycling as a template) for both international and national sports authorities. They should then bar any sports from the olympics which did not meet those standards and any country from a competing in a sport where their national body do not meet standards.

        The beauty of such a system would be that the olympics are so high profile that sports would have to comply because the publicity would be so damaging to a sport if they were to be barred from the games. Likewise the sports themselves would make sure that the national bodies complied since it would be damaging to the sport if major competitors were barred from the olympics.

  3. Duppo Floopery

    Isnt it illegal in the US, to be involved in any way with 'hacking', even if the target is a foreign entity?

    Now, I also understand that he is a celebrity, somewhat, and that he would be held 'accountable' under an unspoken but obvious set of laws with lesser punishments.

    Since this happened in France, and the French courts, I can understand the oddly light sentences. But somehow those files made it to another person, which says to me there was file sharing. Certainly this isn't allowed?

  4. OrsonX
    Coat

    GUILTY

    GUILTY

    mines the one with the bike pump in the pocket, & syringe in the other

  5. westlondoner

    confession

    "Alain Quiros later confessed to being the person who planted the trojan."

    He much have been desperate for work!

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    So...

    That's the going rate for an American slurping 1700 French files.

    In that case I don't think Gary McKinnon need be too worried then, it looks like the US legal system is finally being a bit more sensible with hackers. Even hackers like the cyclist chap and his friends who were deliberately going after things for material gain.

    Then again, back in the real world where it's accepted the US is a living, breathing hypocrisy...

    1. Audrey S. Thackeray

      I think they call them

      Freedom Files these days.

  7. Havin_it
    Alert

    Whoa there!

    Does anyone else find it odd that the focus of this article is the hacker-for-hire being employed by some no-mark wheelsman from half a decade ago and his bent gaffer against a drug lab, as opposed to ... I dunno ... by frickin' Big Energy against Greenpeace?

    That part seems to barely fit on as an afterthought. What are your criteria of newsworthiness?

    1. Glen Turner 666
      Mushroom

      re: Whoa there!

      That the French have got it in for Greenpeace has been news since the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985.

    2. DF118
      FAIL

      @Havin_it

      What, you mean like this?

      http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/11/11/edf_fined_for_greenpeace_hack/

      1. Havin_it
        Facepalm

        @DF118

        D'oh, not having a good week here, sorry :(

        In my defence, normally if an item had been covered in a previous article, there'd be a backlink ... OK, I'll stop digging now...

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Stop

    Ordered to pay?

    Landis is not a French citizen and does not reside there, and apparently they aren't trying to collect anyway, so what is this, exactly? Also consider that Landis did NOT perform the hack nor is it alleged that he did. His only (alledged) crime in this case was 'receiving illegally obtained data,' date which he then helped to diseminate to the public, a La Wikileaks. Is that so bad?

    Okay, Landis has admitted to doping, but why the vindictive (but laughably toothless) attempt at a public takedown over this tangental association with a rather minor and certainly harmless hack job? Who are they trying to impress? Or are they just sore that someone had the temerity to expose the sordid inner workings of their little race and that less than competent dope testing lab?

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re:

      You can drop the "alledged" (sic): He's been convicted!

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