Hewlett-Packard threatens BugTraq exploit researcher

"Hewlett Packard has found a new club to use to pound researchers who unearth flaws in the company's software: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's Tru64 Unix operating system. In a letter sent on Monday, an HP vice president warned SnoSoft, a loosely organized research collective, that it "could be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to five years" for its role in publishing information on a bug that lets an intruder take over a Tru64 Unix system."

Rest of article here: http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947325.html

 

Give corporations enough rope and they will hang the innocent. Is there no justice without fee anymore? I can't adequately express my sense of outrage here. Has truth no value anymore? Did these corporate SOBs not have mothers and fathers to teach them honest, human values? I despair.

 

A neighbor on my right side came over last month and told me my car was unlocked.

I thank him and asked no question.


Last week my neighbor on the left side came over and told me his car was broken into. I told him to check with our other neighbor and come to find out he had been telling everyone in the whole neighbor how easy it was to break into our stuff.


They caught the guy who did it and now my neighbor on the left is sueing my neighbor on the right...



The question I should have asked my neighbor on the right is "How in the h-ll did you know MY car was unlocked in the first place"? ?


I did not of course because I already knew what he would say.

He was just trying to be a good neighbor checking everyone's cars out each night to protect all of us.


He is moving next month..none of us are going to miss him.

He has not told us where he is going to move next..if you see him..say howdy

Nice guy..when you get to know him...but he has this thing for cars..can't stop talking about them...but you will get used to it.

 

HP withdraws DMCA threat - http://www.theregus.com/content/55/25813.html .

 

You're always walking on thin ice when you point out other people's mistakes and weaknesses, even if doing so "for their own good." It's similar to reading postings the "wrong" way. Are there no neutral organizations on the Internet? Ones that can do what our moderators and Admins do? When being first with "the scoop" outweighs common sense and basic decency, there will be flamings and a lot of trouble. SnoSoft did tell HP about it before a "renegade" published the details. It would have been better for SnoSoft to also tell a neutral third party about it and have them approach HP again, with concern. This is called "Covering your butt!" The reason this is a problem now is because it was all handled badly. Similar to what was said by MyNethingyman, if you see that your neighbor's car has been broken into, who do you call first? The cops, right? They are the third party in this example. The cops will tell your neighbor. What do you think will happen if you tell your neighbor first, and he has no reason to trust you? He could call the cops and accuse you of doing it! Even if untrue, it would be a major hassle wouldn't it? Be these things as they may, it leaves me suspicious about the real issues here.