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Re: [dvd-discuss] Dion's new CD crashing party for some users



At 7:27 PM -0700 4/8/02, microlenz@earthlink.net wrote:
>The danger here is thinking that the court will NOT extend the law down to the
>personal computer not that the law as written allows it..
>

I don't think there is any danger that the courts would exempt 
personal computers from coverage. Virus writers are a principal 
target of this law. These is also language that exempts calculators 
and electronic typewriters. PCs are not mentioned there. I have no 
doubt that there is legislative history to back coverage of PCs under 
1030. The difficulties I see are proving damages. Below is a report 
of a recent decision on that subject. Note that it reports Congress 
has further extended the definition of what counts as damages.

Also, Reuters is reporting a story about upcoming tests of anti-copy 
CD technology:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20020408/tc_nm/media 
_bmg_cds_dc_7&cid=581
They plan to use it on pre-release "giveaways" disks to prevent the 
appearance of music on the Internet before it's even released.  But 
it is also a way to test several technologies for eventual consumer 
use.

"None of the major labels have committed to a full-scale roll-out of 
protected CDs, in part because of backlash in Europe after altered 
discs did not play on some CD players. BMG's release of Natalie 
Imbruglia's "White Lilies" in the United Kingdom last year, for 
example, prompted numerous returns of the disc to retailers. And 
Sony's Celene Dion CD released in Europe last month, "A New Day Has 
Come," reportedly caused some computers to crash."

So maybe they already got the message that causing crashes is unacceptable.


Arnold Reinhold



===============================================
Status:  U
Date: Wed, 3 Apr 2002 02:43:57 -0600 (CST)
From: InfoSec News <isn@c4i.org>
To: isn@attrition.org
Subject: [ISN] Miami Judge Drops Hacker Conviction
Sender: owner-isn@attrition.org
Reply-To: InfoSec News <isn@c4i.org>

http://www.siliconvalley.com/mld/siliconvalley/news/2985214.htm

CATHERINE WILSON
AP Business Writer
Apr. 02, 2002

MIAMI - One of the first convictions obtained under a federal law
intended to crack down on computer hacking has been erased by a
federal judge based on a financial assessment of the damage.

Computer technician Herbert Pierre-Louis was convicted of knowingly
transmitting a computer virus to his employer. But his jury decided
the loss, not including lost profits, was less than $5,000, the
minimum required for a conviction.

"The law is the law, and the government didn't have sufficient
evidence to meet all the elements of the crime," defense attorney
Manuel Casabielle said Tuesday.

Prosecutors did not immediately return a call for comment, but have
told Casabielle they intend to appeal.

Federal prosecutors wanted U.S. District Judge Alan Gold to factor in
lost profits caused by a two-day shutdown when the virus infected
computers at Purity Wholesale Grocers work sites in Buffalo, N.Y., and
Hopkins, Minn., in June 1998.

The defense argued that the only loss allowed under the law was repair
costs, which didn't meet the $5,000 threshold.

Calls to the Boca Raton-based company for comment were not immediately
returned. Purity has $1.5 billion in annual sales through 12
affiliated companies.

Congress amended the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act last year to expand
the concept of loss to cover lost revenue, repair costs and related
damage from interrupted service.

In examining the old and new laws, Gold said the latest version is
more than a simple clarification or technical change.

With the amendment, Pierre-Louis may be the only defendant who can
take advantage of the narrower definition of the cost of hacking.

If an appeals court sides with prosecutors and allows lost profits to
be considered, Gold said Pierre-Louis would still be acquitted because
prosecutors didn't work hard enough to prove the $5,000 loss.

The conviction was greeted in the computer industry as a sign of
things to come for hackers.

Pierre-Louis' trial was only the second nationally under the
anti-hacking law. The other case ended in the conviction of a
California dot-com systems administrator who infected his old
company's computers after quitting.