Slashdot Mirror
Windows Source Code Seller Arrested
prostoalex writes "New York Times says William O. Genovese Jr., 27, of Meriden, Conn. has been arrested by the Feds for selling source code for Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems. It's not perfectly clear whether Genovese was selling the portion of the code that was leaked earlier this year or if he had access to other portions of Windows source code. The timing, though, coincides, as the code leaked in February, the same month NYT claims the entrepreneur obtained the source code."
It's not perfectly clear whether Genovese was selling the portion of the code that was leaked earlier this year
It's not perfectly clear whether Genovese was selling [the code] at all. Innocent until proven guilty, despite what our current administration would have you believe.
Do you like German cars?
Too bad he didn't have the right compiler, all he got were thousands of thousands of code errors when trying to compile it.
...is that the guy sold the source code printed on soft white double-ply. (unscented.)
If there's one thing worse than someone stealing source code and spreading it over the internet, its someone who didn't do the hard work of obtaining it that tries to profit from the actions of others. While I don't condone the original source theft, I hold far greater contempt for those that try and cash in on it.
I heard that people are now leaking the linux code all over the place ;)
Wow, virtually my neighboor. Nothing interesting happens around here. I wonder where he was working and If I can have his job? haha.
(yes, I'm looking for IT work in Connecticut)
Don't Tread on Me
He tried to use Paypal to sell it, or he sold it for only $20?? Apparently, he doesn't place a high value on MS's source code...
Commercially driven hackers?
Business rivals? (alleged code copying)
Open Source community? (alleged code stealing)
... now lets hope that in the next step we extend the arrest to sellers of Windows binary code.
I find it disgusting that /. (and other news sites) publish the arrested person's full name. This person is not yet proven guilty, and still has a right for privacy and personal integrity - when a British newspaper published the names of convicted child molesters, lynch mobs formed to try to hunt down and kill those people. This should never happen, as it is totally against the concept of a modern constitutional state.
A monkey is doing the real work for me.
That'll teach him, he should have released it under the GPL.
GETPKG - Package Management for Slackware
All Mr. Genovese needed to do was state on the website that the fee was for the bandwidth/donation. Blatantly asking for money for something that is pirated is never a good idea. Especially with a large conglomerate like Microsoft.
I would need to be paid more than $9.99 to take it off your hands.
that just by possessing source code and attempting to sell it, Mr. Genovese is labeled a hacker, in the first line of the article no less. It's a shame that hackers are the continual blacksheep of the tech world...
I wonder if he's related to this Genovese family?
Save Maine's economy: write stuff down. All comments are exclusively my own, not my employer.
Now if we can just get the person or persons responsible for wasting so much of my productive time with their crappy code....
10 LET BILL=10
20 LET STEVE=9
30 IF BILL>STEVE PRINT "HA HA STEVE IM COOL, LOVE BILL"
40 GOTO 10
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
I will sell you the sources of Linux for only $10
-Cash only of coarse. paypal is not safe as it turns out.
-anonymous here. just reply to this message with your street adress & phone.
Special price for you my friend!
It's SO easy to get the code legitimately from Microsoft. All you have to do is form a huge country and threaten to convert over to Linux from Windows for security concerns. Ballmer will probably fly out himself with a copy of any source code you desire.
Now isn't that easier than committing a felony?!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
That's more than it's worth to me.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
http://www.kernel.org/
Well, hey, he who asks money for something is not stupid... it's the one that pays who's being stupid!
Which island are we buying then? Hawaii? Cuba? Australia?
His online profile lists William P. Genovese's profession as "hacking bum" and "getting arrested" among his likes.
That is just what federal authorities did Tuesday, charging Genovese with unlawfully distributing a trade secret, a violation of the Economic Espionage Act, in connection with the alleged sale of a source code for Microsoft Windows NT 4.0 and the Windows 2000 operating systems.
According to the U.S. Attorney's Office for New York, Genovese, 27, of 1001 Old Colony Road, Apt. 7-3, Meriden, used his Web site, illmob.org, to sell the source code, which Microsoft learned in February was misappropriated and unlawfully released and distributed over the Internet.
The source code is considered the company's "crown jewels." Unauthorized access to the code can leave the operating systems open to exploitation by computer hackers.
"Microsoft has not authorized the release of this code and any use of it is illegal. As we have said since February, Microsoft will take all appropriate legal actions to protect our intellectual property," a spokesman for the software giant said. "It's illegal for third parties to post, make available to others, or download this code in question and we take such activity very seriously. Microsoft's source code is copyrighted, and it is an infringement to make an unauthorized copy of that code. Moreover, the source code is a trade secret of Microsoft."
The same day Microsoft learned that a significant portion of the code had been released, Genovese posted a message on his Web site announcing that he had a copy of the code and was offering it for sale, according to the complaint.
An investigator hired by Microsoft downloaded a copy of the code in February after submitting a $20 electronic payment to Genovese. In July, an undercover FBI agent also downloaded the code from Genovese after making an electronic payment, the complaint said.
Federal authorities arrested Genovese before 6 a.m. Tuesday. A spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office declined to say where Genovese was arrested. Genovese faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000, or twice the gross gain or loss resulting from the offense. Genovese could not be reached for comment Wednesday. The investigation into the release of the code is ongoing, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
Genovese was convicted in March 2003 of eavesdropping and was sentenced to two years probation. That charge stemmed from his gaining unauthorized access to computers in Connecticut in 2000. According to the complaint, Genovese had infected victims' computers with a virus that allowed him to remotely access them, recording their activities, taking control of the machines and sending instant messages to the victims, telling them what he was doing.
$20 seems a bit much for the windows source code. I think $9.99 would have been more accurate.
Not when you throw in the massaging showerhead from Renco.
were the comments:
// Did stuff here when drunk,
// seems to work, don't change!
// Obfusticate code and use really
// old librarys, this should annoy
// some Wine devs muhahaha
// Struck a deal with Symantec to
// leave this vunerability in, don't
// change!
So now that the Windows source code is out in the open and a market price has been set...
:D
It was too much to ask for Windows to become FOSS, but at least now it's $20OSS
"William O. Genovese Jr., 27, of Meriden, Conn. has been arrested by the Feds for selling source code for Windows NT and Windows 2000 operating systems."
So when can we arrest William H. Gates for selling the binaries?
Reckless endangerment? Wanka, wanka, wanka . . .
Sdelat' Ameriku velikoy Snova!
SCO was his first customer ..
I'm still trying to figure out what people mean by 'social skills' here.
*sigh* I wish they could convict my mother-in-law of this.
I pulled a jack move to cop this sig
"This is someone who stole and attempted to sell for profit some valuable asset of Microsoft," said Tom Rubin, the associate general counsel for Microsoft. "It is our secret recipe, our secret formula like the Coke formula."
More like the secret recipe for the nuggets my cat leaves in his litterbox. Manufactured in a similar fashion too.
"And a voice was screaming: 'Holy Jesus! What are these goddamn animals?'" - HST
Since when FBI arrests people for copyright infringement or trade secrets violation, both of which are civil offences, not even criminal and certainly not a federal crime?
What an idiot.
Got the code here for Firefox 1.0..anyone want to buy it?
When you complie it, you still get the same buggy load of crap you get now. The only difference is that you can see the millions of bugs but can't fix them because you'd be changing a variable on about 4000 lines each time.
Way to go bill, you gorged your code TO THE MAX! WOoT for u!
If I wrote something witty, you would say I stole it from somewhere.
Why would anybody want to buy it? It's has a poor immune system, suffers from paranoia and can be quite disruptive with anti-social beahaviour in public. ...
Would that be because the source has been locked up for to long?
Interesting stuff ... shopping at Ikea the day before his arrest, oblivious to the impending doom.
Alison
"It is a miracle that curiosity survives formal education." - Albert Einstein
Well, the source code that MS provides is not of much use.
You can't ask for a specific code piece, you get what they have looked over and over and over and over, so it doesn't contain anything remotely interesing.
MS giving out source code is a marketing trick, nothing more. Don't be fooled by that!
Not plowing Meriden back into the Earth and salting the land after... what a dump. Urban decay at its best and brightest. I grew up one town over from there, and I can honestly say I don't blame the kid for it at all.
Inside sources indicate there will be a fraud charge added: he was representing that this was the code of an operating system.
Can I point out how it's not stealing because nothing was actually taken away? Can I? Can I? That's always insightful and interesting.
Funny you should say that
1. Buy leaks MS sourcecode :D
2. Enter IOCCC
3. ???
4. PROFIT!
Yes! Another anti-US statement, man, these will never get old! yes, it's sarcasm you stupid wank.
Because he advertised it as a secure operating system.
Why is this modded as being Funny?
I'd rather call it the sad truth.
OK, make up your mind, which is it, a trade secret or a copyright? Because copyrighted works are intended to, eventually, become public domain, one cannot copyright a trade secret. Or, at least, that's more or less how it's written in the U.S. Constitution.
Give 'im a call and ask if he really did it...
i lliam+Genovese+meriden+ct
http://www.google.com/search?sa=X&oi=fwp&pb=f&q=W
...for distributing Microsoft Source Code.
That is one of the biggest causes of viruses and technical failures around. He is just spreading it!
You can see where this is going.
Recapping:
If you thought it was difficult doing a thorough Theo code audit for security was a formidable task, even given the open source code, then imagine the difficulty of looking through all of the source and wondering if any of it infringes on anyone's claimed "Intellectual Property". There aren't any options to diff and grep to complete such a task, AFAICT. The other half of the comparison remains under lock and key, except to those with rights to the IP.
Linus' policy of requiring signed patch contributions to the Linux source looks more and more like a good and proper defensive measure. I'd feel better if other high profile FOSS projects had systems of signing patches and an examinable web of trust between the major contributors. Go ahead and accept patches, but let each contributor sign them.
The whole issue of IP indemnification reeks of a deliberate strategy to slow the growth of free and open source deployments by sowing doubt into the minds of decision makers considering use of FOSS for their business but must consider risk in their decision (and a limited amount of time and information on which to base a decision).
Transparency should make FOSS less IP infringing quickly compared to closed source, where IP infringements can be compiled away from easy recognition by the IP owners.
"Provided by the management for your protection."
when he could have downloaded it instead for free!
(Oh wait, maybe he uses AOL Dial-Up)
how long until
How about arresting Bill Gates for giving the source code to the Chinese government?
One person's arrested by the US government for selling source code which isn't his. Another is given approval by the US government go give his code (the same code) to the Chinese government, who severely violates basic human rights and will likely become a rival superpower. The only thing keeping the Chinese animosity for the US and Japan at bay is the huge economical benefit they get from trade.
I'm not saying the guy shouldn't be arrested for selling Windows code. But things need to be put in perspective.
Developers: We can use your help.
Source code is text, a document like any other. How come the halloween documents and other internal memos can be printed, but source code cannot? Are we moving source code into a position more akin to blueprints?(Which incidently, need to be approved by planning officials before you put the building up)
I wonder what this bodes for the whole source code is free speech? (which it bloody well is!!)
May the Maths Be with you!
Well, that won't happen in this case, because nobody gives a shit about Windows source code.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
...someone was arrested for selling shit! ...oh..wait..
If they'll let Gates have some alone time with the guy in the interrogation room. Big Bill and some of his goons can kneecap him and make sure he understands just how much trouble he's in...
While it may be tacky, it is part of *public* record if one is arrested. Regardless of eventual outcome.
( that is, unless you are minor )
Would you rather have names hidden? All evidence of people being arrested and held a secret? Be careful what you wish for.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I think they have a mugshot of the real culprit!!
j pg /_40511195_micsearch-ap203.jpg
http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk/media/images/40511000/
27 years old, connecticut.
ok...
http://illmob.org/staff.html
that means it's "illwill", self-described "hacking bum". let's see what he claims to have written:
http://illmob.org/releases.html
quite a lot of malicious software he's written there... seems like selling stolen source code fits right in with his ethical standards and moral code.
The Windows Source Code seller has been caught!
http://www.mugshots.org/misc/bill-gates.html
Genovese faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in prison and a fine of $250,000
m
Something is wrong here yesterday a Judge in Ohio sentenced someone to 5 years in prison after he was convicted of killing two twins while driving drunk.
And this guy gets 10 years(max)?
So - sourcecode is worth more than someone's life?
http://www.ohio.com/mld/beaconjournal/10150180.ht
(registration required for above link)
First they burn books, then they burn people.
Bubba: What're y'in for, kid?
... *gulp* ... nah, FBI framed me. What do yo mean, it's 'sick'?
... one of the BSD's? I don't want to think about it.
Genovese: Windows.
Bubba: Breaking and entering?
Genovese: No, they said I attempted to sell some of the Windows source code. And you?
Bubba: Scouts, this time. Windows source code? You didn't really do that did ya? 'Cause man, that's sick.
Genovese: Nah
Bubba: Well, that stuff should be kept locked up. What if someone saw it and used it in Linux or
Genovese: Yeah, well, at least I'm not a child molester.
Bubba: Listen, I'm disabled. Got a condition! I wouldn't even be in here except I used one them wheelchair hang tags, and some old broad complained. I thought it looked pretty close to the real thing, myself.
sigs, as if you care.
Arafat was no less of a terrorist than Ariel Sharon is now.
Actually - like my company has done.
1. Walk up to microsoft
2. Ask to see source code for
3. Sign NDA
4. Be shown source code
Yeah, but your way isn't as funny!
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
OK, William O. Genovese, you need to take a lesson from the drug dealers--don't sell to cops. Know your customers and work your way up to big time.
Next time, don't try to sell that sh*t on eBay, you crack monkey!
I might know what I'm talkin' about, but then again, this is Slashdot...
Same goes for cheaters in video games. I get so sick and tired of cheaters being called "hackers" .
Like they actually made the cheats they're using.
Obviously someone had to make them, but I have never seen an intelligent, mature cheater (years of CS experience). Now, that goes blatantly with the territory, but the point is that the odds are better that they downloaded the cheat (and hopefully a trojan horse), than that they created it.
Argh, it's a common courtesy to say if a link isn't work safe! It's even better to warn about a goatse background.
I've been using Winamp for as long as they've existed, and I've gotta say, at least before the 3.x versions, it was a *great* program. Light, fast, simple, and relatively bug free, with tons of features that you could turn on if you wanted to and add-ons that did almost anything I could imagine, as far as audio goes. I will miss Winamp. Nonetheless, I suspect that I'm not alone in saying that I'll continue using Winamp for the forseeable future. I haven't needed to upgrade from my current version (2.8 something) for quite a while, and from what I understand, a lot of long time users stopped with 2.8. So, long live Winamp!
I don't respond to AC's.
Now why would you sell the source code of the operating system that sucks so badly?
Perhaps an even better question to pose is: why would anyone pay for that source code when you can get the source code to superior operating systems for free?
Beats me. How much was he selling it for anyway?
Simpy
So you've seen it?
Okay, so I woke up on the paranoid side of the bed.
./ header hired him to steal it as part of their "CODENAME: Embrace And Extend" project. The idea is simple. Someone "steals" the source code to the OS, then every new open-source innovation is dragged through years of costly litigation since "they obviously stole it from us". In the end, the poor little programmer is either found guilty or more likely lost in a legal labyrinth until all his Taco Bell money is spent on lawyers fees and he has to declare bankruptcy.
I say that borg dude in the
But I don't fear them. I'm afraid of marsupials... because they're fasssssst.
-- Just another unsolicited opinion... from the Peanut Gallery.
Don't blame me, I voted for Baltar.
Joe Random Public (43.5) was arrested for stealing excrement from public lavatories and selling it on as the latest New Age healing technology, a practice he claims has been practiced for thousands of years in villages just south of Peru.
Heaven only knows what the psychiatrists are going to make of this guy.
Criminal Offenses Criminal Infringement of a Copyright (Penalties)
You can do hard time (up to three years for a first offense) even if you are not into this for the money.
Theft of trade secrets is also a federal crime. Here is a useful link that demolishes many Slashdot myths: Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section: Federal Code Related to Cybercrime
It's sad, but get over it. There are tons of "niches" like that which have been molested by the medias and will never gain back their integrity in the eye of the public.
;)
For example, did you knew that real "skins" are in fact against racism, and try to fight the childish nazis who will go as far as commiting murders in their name ? Just like each time you'll hear a pirate on radio he'll label himself a hacker, they've labelled themselves skins because they think it makes them look cool.
BTW: I learned this in a documentary about the skins culture on TV, on a germano-french channel called Arte. If you happen to be able to have this channel, and understand german or french i highly encourage you to have a look at it. What those guys do in this day and time is nearly unbelievable. It's TV, with a brain. Really, the other channels we have are crap at least in france but I can't even understand how this one can exist at the same time as others.
It seems the basis of the channel is that people are intelligent, want to think and are here to enlighten their minds, or see other views on a particular problem.
And they're not especially anti US either. In fact they happened to have a long documentary on Bush and Kerry the night of the election which led me to understand why people could possibly vote Bush.
I still think they are very bad reasons, but i can understand. (If you wonder, I was shocked by the "light" you can see in bush's eyes most of the time. He seems to really believe what he's saying, and seems unstoppable. If i was a christian i'd easily say that yes, this guy has been given a mission by god, and he'll do it for the good of the humanity. But i still believe he's a very dangerous kind of fool personally
You can copyright a trade secret. You can't patent a trade secret, because patenting something necessarily means it is published, and therefore no longer secret.
This guy was not the original leaker. When discussing the SCO case on Slashdot, some posters claimed that once a trade secret is revealed it can no longer be enforced. This case proves otherwise.
Note that I'm not expressing an opinion on the validity of SCO's claims, only the incorrect belief that revealed trade secrets become public domain.
It could be worse, he could be labelled a terrorist. Quite frankly, I'm surprised that he was arrested. If he tried to sell a copy of a CD, a copy of a book, a copy of a painting, etc, he wouldn't be arrested, he would be on the wrong end of a civil suit. The next time somebody infringes upon the GPL, can the copyright holders get the feds involved, or do they just work for big companies?
...to call a thief an "entrepreneur".
and here I thought nothing exciting ever happened in my old home town of Meriden. Just think, we not only have drug dealers and guys that open fire on playgrounds with uzis, we even have our share of computer criminals. Honestly, I wouldn't have given anyone in my town the credit to operate a computer in the first place.
I can't wait to call home and tell my parents we're famous...Meriden made slashdot! Woo Hoo!
-Jay
Heck I don't buy Windows in it's compiled form. I surely wouldn't pay for a plug nickle for the source code.
-- "Life's not fair, but the root password helps."
His customers weren't recieving anything of value for their 20 dollars.... A simple fraud case.
Windows source code is worthless
He who asks for money for stolen goods on the internet is a complete MORON! I'm sorry, there is no one stupider than that.
If the war on drugs has taught us anything, you don't go after the people selling the product, you go after the producers!
Shit, bring back Janet Reno and tell her that the author is a religious cult with a lot of guns, or has some Cuban kids holed up.
... is a crime, correct? :-)
He makes a good point -- if they arrest this guy for selling Windows, then they ought to arrest the people responsible for Cherry OS and Ekush!
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
This must be the new SCO version of the word entrepreneur.
MS should put this guy on their sales staff. Anybody that can sell Windows source obviously has a gift. What was his last job, selling blueprints to houses that fall down?
Actually that has changed, copyright infringement is now a criminal offense, and you will probably be labelled as a terrorist for doing so.
Unfortunately, when everybody was voting for "morals" and "values" this last election, they forgot that "lying" is a moral/value issue.
Take the cheese to sickbay, the doctor should see it as soon as possible - B'Elanna Torres, "Learning Curve"
Most of what is in the constution defines and limits government, not people. The right to free speech is talking about the govenment not being able to make a law against it. It doesn't mean that you, as a private citizen can't censor people. You don't have to allow free speech on your website or anything.
hehe
http://shit.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/10/2 326209
If the stolen code was released on the Internet, expunging it could prove impossible. Hopefully, the code was not designed to rely on security through obscurity. The article takes the "security through obscurity" line when it talks about restricting access to the code to avoid exploitation of security vulnerabilities.
knowing the current bull shit thats been going on with people getting arrested saying "i got trojaned, it wasnt me doing all that!!" He could possibly get off, because using trojans in the lamest ways sounds like illwills specialty.
That slashdot article is stupid, i hate how they add so much uncertainty into it.. its going to get sooo hyped over the next few days since they make it seem like he got the whole kit and caboodle. illwill sounds as untalented as they come, only capable of using trojans. And that is NOT the full source, ive talked . He also probably likes selling celebrity sex tapes. (paris hilton, among others)
I want it on a tee shirt. Do you think I will get thrown in jail for buying the code printed on a shirt?
Your Average Joe
Lets get the facts strait. We have to many people commenting on something that they have no knowledge about.
Will sold the same source code archive file that can be found across the Internet and across the IRC channels. The fact that this article insinuates that the sorce code could be the original, since the timing of the original sale is around the point that it was stolen is ridiculous. Having seen that Will around at many sites his own, GSO and others I can safely say that he is no hacker and is not even an accomplished script kiddie. He is merely an idiot for publishing on his website that he would sell the software. I tend to actually believe his defence that it was a "joke" for two reasons.
1. He only charged $20, if he was the swashbuckling conspirator that the media is portraying him as don't you think that he could have charged a bit more.
2. It was not like he was hiding it, and performing some sort of cloak and dagger exchange.
Sure it was a stupid idea, but I think this is getting to a point were the government is overstepping it's bound with the severity of the charge. It should be left as the receipt and sale of stolen property. Lets not all get sucked into the media hype.