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Windows Source Code Seller Arrested

Posted by samzenpus on from the stealing-is-futile dept.

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."

7 of 275 comments (clear)

  1. United States by Scoria · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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?
    1. Re:United States by Scoria · · Score: 4, Insightful

      More accurate (and perhaps more timeless)

      Innocent until proven guilty, despite what our newspaper editors or television reporters would have you believe.

      Sensational sells...

      You make an excellent point; however, it is becoming increasingly difficult to distinguish government propaganda from that which is created by our popular media. Our "free press" no longer questions, and our independent media is often suppressed by the prodigious corporate entities.

      In fact, one might compare our popular media to an "objective review service" that publishes only corporate press releases. Everything else, such as excessive coverage of the Laci Peterson case, is merely a diversion. But, as your statement implies, it is much more profitable than practicing objective journalism.

      --
      Do you like German cars?
  2. Disgusting by quigonn · · Score: 5, Insightful

    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.
    1. Re:Disgusting by jmcmunn · · Score: 4, Insightful


      Why is this guy special? They can give your name and say you were the "alleged" murderer. Or you were "allegedly" invloved in some sort of crime.

      Lets think about it, the terrorist watch list is nothing more than some "alleged" terrorists for the most part. Not all of them have actually been found guilty of anything. Some have of course, but not all.

      So, no. You don't have to be proved guilty. He can of course sue the pants off everyone who ruins his reputation by filing a civil lawsuit or something if he turns out innocent and people have dragged him through the mud.

      But if they released his full name you can bet they are pretty sure about this one.

    2. Re:Disgusting by Lord+Byron+II · · Score: 5, Insightful

      But if they released his full name you can bet they are pretty sure about this one. But that attitude is precisely the problem. First, our system is about "guilt beyond a reasonable doubt", not "they are pretty sure" and second, that assumption is already tainting potential jurers in to believing the man is guilty long before the trial even begins.

  3. re: notice that... by Silvercloud · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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...

  4. Re:Who can really gain from this code though? by Stevyn · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Extortionists.

    You get the code, look for flaws, write a program that exploits the flaws, and say "Hey Microsoft, give us $50,000 or we'll release this new virus that will wipe out every computer running Windows 2000 that's connected to the Internet."

    Now that's assuming such a security flaw could exist...and at this point wouldn't surprise a lot of people around here.

    I doubt business rivals would care much because their only competition right now (wrt Windows 2000) seems to be from people in the open source community. You DO NOT want leaked code appearing in OSS.