[Free-sklyarov-uk] Legalized Hacking

[Julian T J Midgley]

On Thu, 18 Jul 2002, Angie Ahl wrote:

> A fellow web developer friend just sent me this...
>
> I'm still way too angry to pass an actual opinion. Just god help
> these companies if they use my web software and break a single little
> licence rule.
>
> http://www.computerworld.com/securitytopics/security/story/0,10801,72519,00.html
>
> Excerpt from article:
>
> "What kind of "self-help" would be legalized? Spoofs, redirection,
> file blocking, decoys, interdiction and, oh yeah, actually breaking
> into servers to plant malicious code."

It seems that the Computerworld people are overreacting a little on this
one - breaking into servers to plant malicious code is most certainly not
in any of the proposals I've seen, and indeed, Howard Berman (the
congressman sponsoring the legislation) has explicitly stated that such
measures will not be permitted.  His draft bill isn't yet available, but
I'm keeping an eye out for it, and will publish a link here as soon as it
is.

For more details see:

http://www.house.gov/berman/p2p062502.html

"Such legislation should not allow a copyright owner to damage the
property of a P2P file trader or any intermediaries, including ISPs.  For
instance, a copyright owner shouldnt be allowed to introduce a virus that
disables the computer from which infringing works are being made available
to a decentralized, P2P network. "

And:

http://www.house.gov/berman/pr062502.htm

Julian

-- 
Julian T. J. Midgley                      http://www.xenoclast.org/
Cambridge, England.                          PGP Key ID: 0xBCC7863F