Blaster
Posted By Russ Emerson on August 29, 2003 at 5:25 pm
This is the face of tech evil?
This dirtbag, Jeffrey Lee Parson, arrested in connection with the recent virus-ish attack on computers worldwide, looks like the kind of guy who should have been out playing football. But no, he had to go and vandalize other peoples’ property. I wonder what the maximum prison term for such a crime would be?
I don’t know what the law actually says, but I recommend a speedy trial followed by an equally speedy execution… pour encourager les autres.
What? You think that’s a bit too harsh?
Look, I work in tech support – I see the havoc human debris like this can cause, the damage they do, and the lengths to which businesses and other users must go to protect themselves.
These modern vandals often claim that they’re just doing it to point out vulnerabilities in computers and networks, all to “make our systems more secure.”
My, my – how philanthropic of them.
OK, fine – if that’s the case, then they can go to work for Symantec or McAfee, or perhaps start their own consulting companies. They could deal with the producers of the systems they target, and make a pile of cash in the process, all nice and legal.
But that’s not their purpose. They do it to gain status with their fellow vandals – no more, no less.
Hanging’s too good for them.
Identity theft, virus release and spam-via-spoofed address need to be treated as felonies. This problem will get worse.
May the wife of a congressman get her identity stolen soon in order to raise the profile of this problem to necessary levels. (I hope it isn’t too bad, but enough to be REALLY REALLY annoying and Kafkaesque to resolve.)
I also think universities should be sued by the RIAA for encouraging widespread piracy of music and other media. (I think karma would justify that each and every undergraduate music downloading glutton ought to have their job at the peak of their earnings replaced with a cheaper e-Indian from New Delhi willing to do their job for 1/10 their salary.) Universities, in inculcating socialism and the notion of taxing the earners to subsidize the lazy, are the foremost trainers of future theives.
If the LA Dodgers charged $50,000 per seat to see a Dodger game, people don’t have the RIGHT to break in to see a game. If the DVD to Harry Potter cost $1000, nobody has the RIGHT to make copies to distribute it. Copying software needs to be seen as disgraceful and shameful. Parents should blush and hang their heads in shame if told their child is an e-thief or e-vandal.
Releasing the SOBIG or BLASTER virus is no less vandalism than tagging a million buildings requiring each building to pay for the paint and labor to repaint over the grafitti.
I would like to see record labels get smart, though, facilitating making
On the other hand, a simple licensing scheme would go as follows:
One and only one copy of this program, [insert name and version of program here], serial number [insert unique serial number here] may be running at any one time. Like buying a book, you can lend or give this serial number to anyone or install it on your laptop or make a copy of the disk in case one gets scratched, but the license does NOT allow for two copies of the same serial number to be run at the same time. That wouldn’t be fair and you know it.