UK Law May Criminalize IT Pros

An anonymous reader writes "More worrying news from the UK. This time, a bill meant to fight cybercrime may make it illegal to use or make available network security tools available, just because they could be used by hackers." From the article: "Clayton cited the Perl scripting language, created by Larry Wall in 1987, as an example of a useful technology that could fall foul of the law. 'Perl is almost universally used on a daily basis to permit the Internet to function,' said Clayton. 'I doubt if there is a sysadmin on the planet who hasn't written a Perl program at some time or another. Equally, almost every hacker who commits an offense under section 1 or section 3 of the CMA will use Perl as part of their toolkit. Unless Larry is especially stupid, and there is very little evidence for that, he will form the opinion that hackers are likely to use his Perl system. Locking Larry up is surely not desirable.'" A note that this is equally confusing but separate from yesterday's story about the UK government wanting private encryption keys.

Comments

Do I see a pattern?

[alx5000]

From the country that criminalized privacy:

Let's convict Perl users.

I also heard that something called TPC or TCP is widely used by hax0rs to pwn remote servers. Wait till the UK Government can get their hands on it...

Re:Do I see a pattern?

[Tackhead]

> From the country that criminalized privacy:
>
>Let's convict Perl users.

First they came for the COBOL programmers, and I was silent,
Because ADD KEYSTROKES TO SYNTAX GIVING OBFUSCATION was always lame.
They they came for the BASIC programmers, and I was silent,
Because I considered GOTO harmful,
Then they came for the C++ programmers, and I was silent,
Because I could still write FORTRAN in any language,
Then they came for the Perl programmers, and now the only way I can win an obfuscated programming contest is to write it in APL.

(First they ignore you, then they fight you, then they mock you, then they come for the Brainf*ck programmers and their heads explode.)

Using Perl Should Be A Crime

[Geldon]

... Or at least forcing someone to debug it should

Re:Using Perl Should Be A Crime

[Darby]

Come on now, that joke is getting really stale.

Seriously, who can't tell at a glance what this does just isn't paying attention:

#!/usr/bin/perl
                        +
                       @A=
                      (25,0
                     );@B=(0
                    ,24   +0)
                   ;@C=( 49,24
                  );@X=($")x(40
                 +9)         ;@_
                =(@X,       $/)x(
               25);$_[     $A[1*1]
              *50   +$A   [0]   ]=q
             /./;+ $_[$B [1*1] *1*50
            +$B[0]]=qq/./;$_[$C[1]*50
           +$C                     [0]
          ]="."                   ;@X=(
         $C[0*0]                 ,$C [1]
        );1   *1*               1*1   *1;
       while (394>             (join $",@_
      )=~y/.//){do{           $R=3*rand;@X=
     (((         int         (($         {(A
    ,B,C)       [$R]}       [0*0]       +$X[0
   ])/2+.5     )),int(     (${(A,B     ,C)[$R]
  }[1   *1]   +$X   [1]   )/2   +.5   +0)   ))}
while $_[$Z =$X[1 ]*50+ $X[0] +0]=~ /\./; $_[$Z
]=".";+system$^O=~/[wW]in/?"cls":"clear";pr int@_}

Re:Well then...

[dr_dank]

Then the criminals will use other languages

Hey Senor Bob, Let's robbo el banko!

Re:it's the nature of these tools

[Jazzer_Techie]

I think the issue is that Perl code can be classified as a form of encryption.

Re:Make computers illegal!

[saboola]

That will only stop the sloppy hackers. The good ones will pick up a telephone and start making the necessary modem tones with their mouths.

Re:Bits are TEH EVAL!

[Rob T Firefly]

We can't get rid of all the bits! Are you mad??

I say we just outlaw those hideously dangerous 1's, and let us keep the safe, agreeable, non-pointy 0's.

Re:it's the nature of these tools

[lukas84]

Oh, they are quite familiar with listening.

Re:Make computers illegal!

[9mm Censor]

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&lr=&client=safa ri&rls=en&q=define%3A+inherently&btnG=Search Ok, I cant spell. Gas me.

Yay

[Rorian]

This makes me feel so much better about moving to the UK as an IT professional..

Why must they always pick on the good, honest guys while the criminals just dodge by their "preventative measures" every time?

WHEN PERL IS OUTLAWED.

[atarione]

Only outlaws will have

#!usr/bin/perl

tshirts http://andrewhitchcock.org/index.pl?page=perl

Re:Doesn't make sense...

[Anonymous Coward]

The express purpose of guns, with the exception of hunting rifles, is to shoot people.

So? Some nails need hammering, some people need shooting.

that's stupid.

[Anonymous Coward]

And I thought it was getting bad here in the U.S.

Well, that's your first problem right there. That's a completely stupid thing to say, not to mention FUD. It's not bad in the US; the problem is there are a few people that THINK it is, when it reality it's not.

In fact, I would say that that most people's lives have improved. (MOST, not all... You can never have *all*, no matter what you come up with).

Yeah, there are some people running around like chickens with the heads cut off saying things are bad, but *SAYING* things are bad, and things really being bad are two different things.

Oh....and I'm sure the counter example you'll give is it's all Bush's fault. It's all the Republican's fault.

Well, that's crap. Clinton was in office for eight years, the Democrats controlled congress for part of that time and they didn't do jack. It took the Republicans to get ahold of congress to bring the debt under control.

The debt? Republicans caused that? Uh, no, sorry...that was a Clinton area dot-com bust after math, coupled with 9/11.

Yeah, uncontrolled spending by BOTH parties is a problem, but the tax cuts are getting us out of that, plus things like what happened today in the Senate (Cutting about 15 billion in pork from the latest round of funding).

There's been more tax revenue in the last two years because of that, and we're currently exceeding the goals of bringing the debt back under control.

Getting bad in the US.....that's a load of FUD.

Now, if we had Pelosi running the House, and Reid running the Senate, and Howard Dean....well, figuring out where the hell he stands on marriage, or whatever the hell he does when he's not screaming.... ....Well, then you'd see Jimmy-Carter-Era REALLY bad things happening. Spending COMPLETELY out of control, Candian style health care where NO one gets ANY decent health care, immediate pull outs of troops in Iraq leaving the fledgling government to the hands of foreign terrorists, trying to make nice with Iran (Jimmy Carter was SO good at that...NOT),

and much much worse things.

Yeah, just keep thinking things are bad. What a moron.

Re:Bits are TEH EVAL!

[shawb]

But small children will choke on 0's.

Won't someone PLEASE think of the CHILDREN????!!??

Re:"President" Bush?

[Anonymous Coward]

Presidential Aide: Great news, Mr President!
President George Bush: I get to play Dumbledore in the next Larry Potter movie?
Presidential Aide: Ah, no, Sir, no, not from Warner Brothers; we still haven't heard back from them yet, Sir, no. It's from the U.N. Our weapons inspectors are going in.
President George Bush: And why should I be interestificated in that?
Presidential Aide: Because we need a report, Sir, before we invade Iraq.
President George Bush: No we don't! Besides, we're not invading Iraq. We're invading Tiraq. Take a look at the survalence pictures.
Presidential Aide: Sir... Sir, that's not 'Tiraq', that's 'Tie Rack'; it's a store in Britain that sells ties.
President George Bush: That's just what they want you to think. You see, they're called 'Tie Rack', but they also sell cufflinks and underpants. And are we meant to acceptify that it's mere coincidenecification that they lurk in every airport and rail station.
Presidential Aide: Sir, if we invade Tie Rack, you're going to be a laughing stock.
President George Bush: You mean I have a choice?