There was the case of a network admin who installed, without authorisation, some piece of distributed computing software on all the machines at his place of work.

This significantly raised the electricity bills, so he was caught and prosecuted for it.

Ridiculous maximum sentences for computer misuse are not a new thing. :-(

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/300

> A college computer technician who offered his school's unused computer processing power for an encryption research project will be tried next month in Georgia for computer theft and trespassing charges that carry a potential total of 120 years in jail.

> David McOwen was working as a PC specialist at the state-run DeKalb Technical Institute in 1998, when he learned about a project by the non-profit organization distributed.net that allowed computer users to donate their unused processing power to test the RC5 encryption algorithm. Noticing that many of the machines he maintained on the seven DeKalb campuses sat idle for long periods, McOwen installed distributed.net clients at several of those locations while performing a Y2K upgrade on the machines in 1999.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/1782050.stm

> But the case never went to court as earlier this month Mr McOwen accepted a plea agreement to end his two-year legal nightmare.

> Under the terms of the deal, he walked away with probation, a small fine and community service.