Re: [Patents] patented hacking

[PILCH Hartmut <phm@a2e.de>]

> This method sucks. One example: violating copyrights is punishable by
> 6 months in prison, while hacking can be punished for upto 4 years in
> prison.

Can the mere fact of intruding another system be punished with 4 years?
Or only when it is combined with other offenses, such as transferring
money to one's bank account?  Are there already cases of people imprisoned
for playful intrusion of other people's computers?

What about patent infringement?
Penal law can be used against wilful infringers.
To how many years in prison can this lead?

There could now be a situation when, according to Rep. Berman's new law
proposals, intruding and compromising another computer is legitimated as a
kind of "self-help" of copyright holders, but the intruder can
nevertheless be sued for patent infringement.

There is something tempting in the "self-help" argumentation: the Achilles
heel of P2P networks is their vulnerability to all kinds of hacking: the
very means that people use for dodging copyright prosecution are causes of
insecurity for them.  "Self-help" has been authorised in the US before in
cases where the law for some reason is unlikely to fulfill its function.

If this argumentation by Rep. Berman is accepted, then maybe some of the
anti-hacking laws can also be repealed.  The playful activity of hacking
is after all part of a game that leads to security bugs being detected.
Hacking seems to have a role in a kind of virtuous equilibrium.  It would
be quite inconsistent to allow intrusion for copyright self-help but not
not for other purposes.

In a few years, P2P systems may become the underground into which
perfectly legitimate activities (such as original software) are driven by
censorship, software patents and other forms of tyranny.  At that point,
the copyright industry will suffer even more, because P2P will enjoy broad
moral support and Berman will have an even harder time promoting his law
proposals.

Just another example of how software patents undermine intellectual
property.

-- 
Hartmut Pilch, FFII & Eurolinux Alliance              tel. +49-89-12789608
Protecting Innovation against Patent Inflation       http://swpat.ffii.org/
120,000 signatures against software patents      http://www.noepatents.org/