Software Theft a Problem For Actual Thieves, Too

Velcroman1 writes "Pity the criminal mastermind. After all, he's a victim too, reports FoxNews.com. Despite the sophisticated DRM baked into the ZeuS bot to protect it from theft, that's exactly what has happened. 'ZeuS is actually being pirated, so you can get all the versions for free,' said Roel Schouwenberg, senior anti-virus researcher with security software firm Kaspersky Labs. 'They introduced a hardware-based activation process similar to Windows activation, to make sure only one purchased copy of the ZeuS kit — the kit that produces malware — can run on one computer,' said Sergei Shevchenko, senior malware analyst for security software company PC Tools."

Comments

If You Can Produce ...

[foobsr]

... you can copy.

As simple as that.

CC.

Yeah, right

[CarpetShark]

a) Sharing duplicates is not theft of the original
b) There are no canons on ships involved.

Re:Yeah, right

[chichilalescu]

more to the point. for some reason, society keeps paying teachers to copy books into kids' brains, but lawmakers keep saying it's bad to copy stuff.
it's somehow interesting.
it's also scary that this story is presented as if infringing copyrights is the same as writing malware.

Re:Yeah, right

[Anonymous Coward]

Copyright infringement, theft of intellectual property, theft of service, piracy - and even theft - are all similar names for something that is still a criminal activity.

Not quite. They are all similar types of criminal activity. They are not the same activity.

Unless you're trying to say that taking a picture of something is the same as taking the thing itself, in which case I'll be over to your place later to take pictures of all your stuff.

Re:Yeah, right

[FuckingNickName]

I recently read a good counter argument to yours: throwing a cream pie in your face may be illegal, but it doesn't mean I raped you.

And even if special interest groups succeed in getting people to call cream pieing (see what I did there?) someone "rape", it still won't actually be rape.

Finally, copying software without authorisation is often not criminal.

Re:Yeah, right

[Anonymous Coward]

Corruption, lies and greed have been around even longer than that. That does not mean that we shouldn't fight it whenever we see it.
There is one correct description for the crime, the other descriptions that are used are used for propaganda reasons. I don't like when people tell me lies to make me think in a specific way and when they call copyright infringement for piracy or theft that is exactly what they do.

Re:Yeah, right

[the_womble]

These are not "popular" names. The only reason anyone uses the term "theft" for copyright infringement is because they are spinning to try and manipulate people into associating something that most people think deeply wrong(theft) with something most people think is fine (copying stuff).

Re:Yeah, right

[jvin248]

Great points! Especially for taxpayers paying for Windows Licenses! I'd add that several foreign governments are waking up and exclaiming "Hey, do we REALLY want just ONE corporation from the US to run the operating system of our WHOLE GOVERNMENT? We like those US guys and all, but isn't that a bit DANGEROUS?" And so they start putting in their own operating system built on a Linux Open Source code base they can and do go through line by line to ensure no funny code hides in there. And, by the way, that OS is FREE? .

Simple solution

[Anonymous Coward]

Join the BSA.

Surprised?

[jojoba_oil]

I'm not surprised at all. This tool is for people who have no regard for others' computer hardware, so why should they care about computer software either?

Re:Surprised?

[Paradise Pete]

if an industrial spy took a copy of some paper blueprints, it was called stealing not infringing.

If you can't see the flaw in your example then it's no wonder that copyright law is as screwed up as it is. Stealing a secret is very different from copyright infringement.

Re:This is a common business shortfall

[Sulphur]

Nothing astonishes people so much as common sense and plain dealing.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Confusing Headline

[zAPPzAPP]

So I read the headline, then I read the text snippet. Now I'm confused. What about those actual thieves mentioned in the headline? Who are they? The developers of ZeuS? Or the ones "pirating" the bot? Who is stealing what here? Have infected computers illegally changed hands?

Interesting attitude

[SigmundFloyd]

When it's about software, it's theft. When it's about music or movies, it's sharing, or - at most - infringement.

Good job at building your credibility, Slashdot.

Re:Interesting attitude

[drinkypoo]

When it's about software, it's theft. When it's about music or movies, it's sharing, or - at most - infringement.

Well, I see the copyright shills are out moderating today. Theft requires that someone be deprived of something. If copyright violation were theft, it would fall under theft in the code. It does not; we have a whole separate body of law to prevent the copying of intellectual properties specifically because it is not theft. The parent comment is not the troll, the submission's title is, and Soulskill should be embarrassed to have promoted it to the front page. It does, indeed, cost Slashdot credibility among geeks, the people who make this site worth visiting (for the discussions.)

Re:Interesting attitude

[drinkypoo]

They are being deprived of something. Obviously, they're being deprived of profit (not just any money, but the pirates own money) that only exists in the future of an alternate dimension where the artist/business made more money (which is potential profit). Understand, now?

I understand the bullshit lengths that copyright trolls will go to in order to attempt to appear to have an argument. When you have to start talking about alternate realities to explain your position, you're full of shit. It has been shown time and again that piracy does not equal lost sales; indeed, it has been repeatedly demonstrated that those who download purchase more media than those who do not. Until you can somehow show that piracy results in lost sales, which has never successfully been done, perhaps you should shut your cakehole — because the cake is a lie. And so is your bullshit about piracy being equal to theft. Lawyers understand, judges understand, lawmakers understand, you don't understand. One of these things is not like the others.

Another article about "stealing ideas"

[janwedekind]

Today's modern criminal needs protection, just as a legitimate franchise like ... Without such protection, all the crook's best ideas would simply be stolen, the entire business would be replicated as a cheaper alternative, and the original business would be destroyed.

Am I hearing Rupert Murdoch's voice here?

Re:Oh! I know!

[dangitman]

Yeah, but you know that people are just going to distribute bootleg tapes of the live cracking sessions anyway.

Re:You know this sound?

[Truekaiser]

i know your trying to be funny, but thats what some people in the riaa and mpaa want to happen. it's just that the technology is not there yet.

Re:Theft?

[John Hasler]

No they haven't. They have the right to sue anyone they catch making infringing copies. That is what copyright is. There is no property which they possessed before the infringement that they do not still possess afterward, therefor there cannot have been any theft.