Lady GaGa, Leona Lewis hacker jailed for 18 months

An 18-year-old German hacker has been jailed for stealing and selling unreleased material from artists including Lady GaGa and Leona Lewis.

The computer whizz-kid, who called himself DJ Stolen, made over €15,000 (£13,206) from selling demos and unfinished tracks recorded by some of the world's biggest artists.

The hacker used emails and Trojan horse software to penetrate the systems of record label executives, producers or the artists themselves in order to retrieve digital copies of the tracks, reports BBC's Newsbeat.

Anti-piracy teams in the UK and Germany noticed a rise in the number of leaked songs from artists including Lady GaGa, Leona Lewis, Ke$ha, Justin Timberlake and Mariah Carey in 2009 and 2010.

The authorities finally managed to trace the source of the leaks, which led them to DJ Stolen, who was then tried in the German courts.

A judge ruled that the teenager was "driven more by a desire for recognition than by criminal intent" and that he must have therapy for an addiction to the internet.

He will also undergo an 18-month sentence in a detention centre in Germany.

Speaking to the German tabloid Daily Bild, the hacker said: "Dear Lady GaGa, I am ashamed of what I have done. I did not think about the consequences."

A fellow hacker, aged 23, has also been handed an 18-month suspended sentence for his participation in the crimes.