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The ex-Microsoft employee who pleaded guilty to theft of trade secrets will spend three months in prison.
A U.S. District Court judge also fined Alex Kibkalo $100 for his crime.
Kibkalo was arrested in March after he leaked early copies of Windows 8 to a French blogger. The seven-year Microsoft employee—first in Russia, then in Lebanon—provided documents to the blogger in 2012, just ahead of the OS launch.
In early April, Kibkalo pleaded guilty to the crime, which included sharing Windows 8 RT software updates, which were distributed only to manufacturing partners, as well as the Activation Server software development kit (SDK).
Microsoft pinpointed the leaker after searching the Hotmail account of the unnamed French blogger. Redmond initially defended the move, but later said that it would change its policy surrounding email snooping.
Microsoft did not immediately respond to PCMag's request for comment.
The Seattle Times published a hand-written letter that Kibkalo wrote to the judge, in which he apologized for leaking the Microsoft docs. 'As of now, I deeply regret that I have shared that information,' he wrote.
Kibkalo did not elaborate on why he leaked the data, saying only that he made a 'wrong decision.' He did reveal, however, that he might write a book about the incident, 'which might make more people think on this topic.'
Meanwhile, the software giant this week updated its Services Agreement and privacy statement, eliminating much of the legal jargon in an effort to make its policies more transparent. The changes also include a more definitive stand against targeted advertising.
The new agreement will take effect July 31; anyone using Microsoft's services after that date will automatically agree to abide by the new terms. If you don't agree, you'll need to stop using Redmond's services, the company said.
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