A couple of weeks ago, someone leaked the trailer for the long-awaited Rockstar Games’ sixth edition of its Grand Theft Auto video game series on TikTok. It was later leaked again on Twitter (“X”). It’s believed that the trailer was leaked by the son of one of the game’s developers. The next day, Rockstar appeared to throw in the towel and just released it themselves on their YouTube channel. It rang up more than 90 million views in 24 hours and is now well over 150 million.

But that wasn’t the first hack or leak in the years-long development cycle of GTA 6. Last year, someone hacked into Rockstar’s Slack channel and downloaded more than an hour’s worth of video that was later leaked online. The culprit turned out to be an 18-year-old hacker named Arion Kurtaj, a member of a hacking group named Lapsus$. He was taken to trial, so you may be wondering what sort of sentence someone might receive just for hacking into a company’s system and downloading some videos. Well, by the time the judge got done with him, it now appears that he may remain “in custody” for the rest of his life or until he is considered “no longer a danger.” We’ll explain why in a moment. (Polygon)

Arion Kurtaj, the 18-year-old hacker responsible for the infamous Grand Theft Auto 6 leak from last year, was sentenced to indefinite custody at a “secure hospital,” according to the BBC. Kurtaj was deemed unfit to stand trial due to what BBC called “acute autism,” and will spend the rest of his life at the hospital unless doctors find him “no longer a danger.” He was found guilty on 12 charges that include fraud and blackmail.

Kurtaj is said to be a member of an international hacking group called Lapsus$, which has claimed responsibility for hacks at Uber, Nvidia, and Rockstar Games. All together, the companies said the damage caused by the hack cost them “nearly $10 million,” according to the BBC.

So they couldn’t simply convict Kurtaj and imprison him. He was determined to be acutely autistic and appears to have many problems. Officials said he committed multiple instances of physical assault and causing damage in custody. The Rockstar breach also wasn’t his first trip to the well when it came to hacking and getting in trouble with the law. At the time, he was already on bail after hacking into gaming giant Nvidia and others. Rockstar claims that it cost them more than $5 million to recover after the hack and the additional damages caused to other companies is believed to add up to more than $10 million.

But even for all he’s allegedly done, is it justifiable to lock a teenager up for the rest of their life for hacking into some video games? I would argue that it clearly isn’t, but that’s not what appears to be happening here. If Arion Kurtaj truly is severely autistic and has a propensity toward violence, he could easily wind up doing a lot more damage than some leaks at a major gaming and entertainment company. Perhaps he does require strict mental health care and restrictions on his movement.

However, I will also play devil’s advocate for a moment and argue that these hacks and leaks, rather than sinking Rockstar, have only added to the legend of its next release and the wider spread of interest in it. It’s not that they needed it, of course. When GTA 5 first came out in 2013, it immediately became the biggest-selling video game of all time. Rockstar made billions off of it and they continue to derive significant revenue from the multiplayer online version, which is still going strong. GTA 6 is expected to shatter all of those records yet again, and watching the trailer and all of the excitement surrounding it, it’s easy to see why.

Just in case you’re one of those people who lives entirely outside of this world and has no idea what I’m talking about, I’ll embed the trailer below. What the developers have done with this technology is nothing short of incredible. By way of full disclosure, I’ve taken more of an interest in these recent developments than other hacker stories because I probably fall into the GTA “super fan” category. I’ve played every Grand Theft Auto game from beginning to end, some of them more than once. And yes, I’ll be in line to purchase GTA 6 and a new Playstation 5 when the game is released, assuming the world lasts that long and I do as well. Here’s the trailer. You’ll want to have the sound on for this.