Calacanis speaks a little more on his support for Schiefer by e-mail:

There are some who think that Schiefer probably got what was coming for his actions. Why was John deserving of a lighter sentence? Without knowing John, I think I would agree that he got what he deserved and, sure, it could have another year or two. After getting to know him I can tell you -- and in fact he would tell you -- that his behavior was based on a lack of guidance, immaturity and anger. Getting to know him, I've watched him not only grow but flourish while working with a team of intelligent technologists.

You said in your blog that you would have never hired John (or people like him) if you had known of his background during the hiring process. Has this experience changed that outlook? In the past, I would have probably never considered hiring a felon for my startup. In fact, they would have probably never made it in for an interview. After this experience, I think I've learned something about rehabilitation and the role private industry can play in it.

After this, I would certainly consider someone convicted of computer crimes. However, I think you have to look at each case and person individually. Not all hackers are cut from the same cloth.

What was John's role in your company? John is a systems engineer, which means he works on Web servers. However, it is important to note that he does not have access to our database servers, that all of our password data is encrypted so no one on the development team can access it, and his work is supervised. Also, we are a content site and we don't deal in sensitive data. He can, in fact, only do harm to us ... not our users. If John wanted to, he could turn off Mahalo, but we're willing to take that risk -- we trust him.