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previous: SpeedRacer Re: Sony- jumping from the frying pan into the fire? -- 1132249778

Re: a good editorial, IMHO..

11/17/2005 2:38 PM
SpeedRacer	Re: a good editorial, IMHO.. Editor's Note: Payback They would've shot the guy by now. That's what I keep thinking as I read one article after another detailing Sony's hell-bent rocket flight into what will certainly be billion-dollar lawsuit territory. By "the guy," I simply mean any garden-variety sociopath who had caused this much damage to so much property, all through the use of a rootkit-spyware combo that he spirited onto victims' systems by disguising it as a music CD. Nobody uses Celine Dion as a malware carrier, pal: Blindfold. Cigarette. Boom. And then maybe bill the next of kin for the bullets used to dispatch him, just for good measure. Yet this isn't some pathetic 22 year-old holed up in his parents' basement. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of the world's largest industrial conglomerates. As a result, when it . . . --Treats millions (and it could easily be that many) of its own customers like thieving little turds, deliberately and systematically placing unambiguous malware on their systems, all without their knowledge or consent. --Hands other malware purveyors a gift in the form of a ready-to-repurpose rootkit that might as well be a hand grenade with a missing pin. --Issues a "fix" for its initial act of computing evil that, according to security experts, causes another, even more serious security gap. --Initially obstructs users' efforts to remove its garbage from their private property, and even now issues arrogant claims reserving the right to protect its content with future acts of fraud, trespass, theft by denial-of-use. . . .all of the law-and-order types who went after Kevin Mitnick as if he were the second coming of Adolf Hitler suddenly have someplace else to be. In fact, the silence from the door-kicking, gun-toting, cybecrime tough-guy contingent is overwhelming. Sony didn't make a "mistake" here -- and frankly, anyone willing to apply that term to the company's actions needs to spend some quality time with a dictionary. The person(s) within Sony who authorized this fiasco knew what they were doing and what the consequences might be -- and assumed they could ride out the aftermath if things went badly. Things did, indeed, go badly. And while the size of the ensuing class-action lawsuit might make a business peddling mail-order Thalidomide seem lucrative by comparison, a far more relevant and important idea -- that we should find the Sony decision-makers in this case and slap them with felony charges -- somehow has yet to enter the mainstream discussion. There's only one way, really, to make "don't do it" a more compelling moral to this story than "don't get caught": Identify the individual culprit(s), charge them, try them, and then leave them in peace to work out the bunk assignments with Tiny, and No-Neck, and their other new cellmates. If it's the right punishment for kids who are usually more interested in planting a virtual flag to mark a hacker "conquest," it's the ideal punishment for a bunch of well-paid rats who think they're above the law. Matt McKenzie Editor, Linux Pipeline mattcmp@sonic.net www.LinuxPipeline.com --------------------------- only 2 words I would add to this: Right On.

11/17/2005 2:38 PM

SpeedRacer

Re: a good editorial, IMHO..

Editor's Note: Payback

They would've shot the guy by now. That's what I keep thinking as I read one article after another detailing Sony's hell-bent rocket flight into what will certainly be billion-dollar lawsuit territory.

By "the guy," I simply mean any garden-variety sociopath who had caused this much damage to so much property, all through the use of a rootkit-spyware combo that he spirited onto victims' systems by disguising it as a music CD.

Nobody uses Celine Dion as a malware carrier, pal: Blindfold. Cigarette. Boom. And then maybe bill the next of kin for the bullets used to dispatch him, just for good measure.

Yet this isn't some pathetic 22 year-old holed up in his parents' basement. It's a wholly-owned subsidiary of one of the world's largest industrial conglomerates. As a result, when it . . .

--Treats millions (and it could easily be that many) of its own customers like thieving little turds, deliberately and systematically placing unambiguous malware on their systems, all without their knowledge or consent.

--Hands other malware purveyors a gift in the form of a ready-to-repurpose rootkit that might as well be a hand grenade with a missing pin.

--Issues a "fix" for its initial act of computing evil that, according to security experts, causes another, even more serious security gap.

--Initially obstructs users' efforts to remove its garbage from their private property, and even now issues arrogant claims reserving the right to protect its content with future acts of fraud, trespass, theft by denial-of-use.

. . .all of the law-and-order types who went after Kevin Mitnick as if he were the second coming of Adolf Hitler suddenly have someplace else to be. In fact, the silence from the door-kicking, gun-toting, cybecrime tough-guy contingent is overwhelming.

Sony didn't make a "mistake" here -- and frankly, anyone willing to apply that term to the company's actions needs to spend some quality time with a dictionary. The person(s) within Sony who authorized this fiasco knew what they were doing and what the consequences might be -- and assumed they could ride out the aftermath if things went badly.

Things did, indeed, go badly. And while the size of the ensuing class-action lawsuit might make a business peddling mail-order Thalidomide seem lucrative by comparison, a far more relevant and important idea -- that we should find the Sony decision-makers in this case and slap them with felony charges -- somehow has yet to enter the mainstream discussion.

There's only one way, really, to make "don't do it" a more compelling moral to this story than "don't get caught": Identify the individual culprit(s), charge them, try them, and then leave them in peace to work out the bunk assignments with Tiny, and No-Neck, and their other new cellmates. If it's the right punishment for kids who are usually more interested in planting a virtual flag to mark a hacker "conquest," it's the ideal punishment for a bunch of well-paid rats who think they're above the law.

Matt McKenzie
Editor, Linux Pipeline
mattcmp@sonic.net
www.LinuxPipeline.com

---------------------------

only 2 words I would add to this:
Right On.

Replies:

bob p i really get tired of hearing linux... -- 11/18/2005 9:28 PM
Dutch [QUOTE]only 2 words I would add to ... -- 11/21/2005 1:41 PM