[ale] DMCA Protests]

[Alan Hightower]

On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Jonathan Rickman wrote:

> On Tue, 24 Jul 2001, Joseph A. Knapka wrote:
> 
> > Absolutely. If it's illegal to make security-defeating tools, then
> > there is no real security, only the illusion thereof. If Adobe or
> > anyone else is using the DCMA as an excuse to avoid supplying real
> > security in their products, they're idiots, because mere illegality
> > never stopped anyone. (OK, it stops some people, but not everyone.)
> 
> You just hit the nail right on the head. I enjoy computer security
> research. Thus, I am in posession of tools and exploit code that
> serves absolutely NO purpose other than circumventing / testing the
> security of a given system. Were this made illegal, I'd have to give
> up that part of my research. The bad guys, however, are already
> breaking the law. Thus, they could care less about the "tools of the
> trade" being illegal.

Next thing you know it will be illegal to posses knowledge of
vulnerabilities in existing eCommerce solutions - i.e. Win2k et. al.
Heaven forbid a smart kid might discover one and deface the FBI
web site rather than alerting CERT.  In fact lets go one step further
and make it illegal to even think about commiting a crime.  That
will make me sleep better at night.

-- 
Alan L. Hightower
Software Engineer
Phone - 404-705-2839
Fax - 404-705-2805
http://www.intec-telecom-systems.com
alan.hightower at intec-telecom-systems.com


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