On Tuesday 29 May 2007 00:27, M Harris wrote:
> 2. Creating, procuring for themselves or others, selling,
> distributing, handing over or in any other manner making available to
> others
> computer programs the purpose of which is the commission of such a
> criminal offense will be punished with a prison term of up to one
> year or with a fine.
http://www.heise.de/english/newsticker/news/79230
Following the logic of 202c to its ultimate conclusion results in
making the
entire distribution of openSUSE (or any other distro) illegal--- because a
computer system (kernel, ip stack, and utilities) all constitute the standard
tools through which a cyber crime is committed. The ludicrous hyper
interpretation of this section of the German penal code (StGB) must
necessarily lead to the conclusion that the distribution of entire operating
systems and utilities ( not just port scanners like nmap ) are dangerous
because they can be used in the commission of a cyber crime.
This is just about as silly as the judge who shocked the Woolwich Crown
Court
in the UK for not knowing what a "web-site" was.
http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2007220614,00.html
Clearly technology has presented legal western culture with a serious problem
for aging ( judicial and legislative ) dogs who are apparently not able to
learn new tricks.
Obviously education is needed; however, another thing that the
community can
do is to "re-market" certain tools in a positive light... perhaps even
repackaging tools like nmap... giving nmap a new name like health-map, and
packaging it with network security tools to be used for the expressed purpose
of protecting local infrastructures, etc.
On the other hand, nmap has been in the community for so long that to
outlaw
its distribution is very analogous to outlawing the distribution of firearms.
If we outlaw the distribution of firearms only criminals will have firearms.
If we outlaw the distribution of security tools like nmap, only crackers will
have nmap. (well, along with the millions of other folks like myself who
already have it)
<sigh>
--
Kind regards,
M Harris <><
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