Slashdot Mirror
Sony Rootkit may Lead to Regulation
An anonymous reader writes "Computerworld has a story about DHS officials meeting with Sony to read them the riot act, following the rootkit fiasco. From the story: 'A U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) official warned today that if software distributors continue to sell products with dangerous rootkit software, as Sony BMG Music Entertainment recently did, legislation or regulation could follow.'"
A 17 year old writing a stupid trojan that does little but spread receives a 2 year sentence in jail and is only safe from compensation since companies didn't want to have the public know their systems are insecure.
... yeahsure) receives... a recommendation not to do anything like this again or else we might have to think about creating laws banning this behaviour (hey, those laws exist, enact them!).
Read: Juvenile dick-waving without commercial interest -> 2 years prison.
A large corporation spreading a rootkit with their product to their paying customer with the intent to cripple their customer's software performance (not being able to use it as intended, by manufacturer or user) that also has the capability of spying on their behaviour (allegedly they didn't use that function, but
Read: Commercial malvolent infiltration of customer's computers -> Nada.
The world sure is changing. When I was still in school, adding "commercial" to a crime sure upped your sentence by some magnitude. Nowadays it seems to be your "get out of jail" card if you commit a crime with financial interest.
Al Capone simply died too early. He'd love these times.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I'm sure good things will come of this. :/
No, that just makes it good business, according to the reprehensible predatory practices that are currently deemed as acceptable business behavior. Corporate execs and shareholders alike love nothing better than to externalize expenses, and they really don't give a damn who has to bear that burden, as long as it's not them.
Corporation: An organization created in order to generate individual profit without individual responsibility.
That is why no on is in jail, it goes against the very idea of corporations.
"If you can't live without me, why aren't you already dead?"