Japanese Man Arrested For Storing Malware

Orome1 writes "38-year-old Yasuhiro Kawaguchi is the first person in Japan to get arrested for storing malware on his computer after the upper house's Judicial Affairs Committee has confirmed the new anti-malware law passed by the Japanese parliament. The law considers the creation, distribution and storage of malware a crime punishable with up to three years in prison and a fine that could reach the sum of 500,000 yen ($6,200)."

Comments

Symantec? McAfee?

[XanC]

Surely any "white hat" working against malware needs to store malware someplace, right? What a dumb law.

From the article: "without a legitimate reason"

[tepples]

The article says the charge was "storing a computer virus without a legitimate reason". In this case, the suspect "told the MPD that he did it to punish people who use file-sharing software"; do you consider that "a legitimate reason"?