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Kiddie Porn - The Virus Did It

Posted by michael on from the control-issues dept.

The New York Times reports on a British man who was accused of downloading child pornography, and who successfully convinced the court that a virus did it. This is at least the second time this has happened. These cases are extremely interesting since they bring together all sorts of issues of computerized agents - who is actually responsible when your computer does something?

6 of 610 comments (clear)

  1. Consider this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    does it run on linuxs?

  2. Okay.. by CausticWindow · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Hands up if you don't own a couple of random window boxes on the net..

    That's what I thought.. it's very nice to have an anon proxy or two if you ever need it.

    But storing child pron on them is kinda lame. The elite 0wnerz like myself would never do something like that (except if it's maybe a non personal server or anything, so that nobody would get the blame).

    --
    How small a thought it takes to fill a whole life
  3. I swear by jeffkjo1 · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I swear RIAA/SCO/MPAA I didn't do it, my outdated virus definitions/14 year old son/next door neighbor are to blame!!!

  4. Re:Only One Conclusion by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    Therefore you cannot afford to be running any OS with a dubious security record.

    That would be GNU/Linux, right?

  5. Spelling Carnage Free Version by Alan+Partridge · · Score: -1, Redundant

    I would think that whoever caused the computer to act would be ultimately responsible. If that someone wrote the OS with malicious code, then whoever wrote the OS. If that someone was a malicious remote user, then the remote user, and if that someone is the PC's owner, then the owner.

    The trick is proving who caused the effect. It's not as simple as proving who was behind the wheel of a car.

    --
    That was classic intercourse!
  6. Shit happens by mikeswi · · Score: 0, Redundant

    http://www.spywareinfo.com/articles/hijacked/

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    Only on /.