http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20000315/tc/internet_decency_hackers_1.html
Tech Headlines
Wednesday March 15 7:55 PM ET
Software Co. Sues Hackers
By TED BRIDIS, AP Technology Writer
WASHINGTON (AP) - A company that makes popular software to block children
from pornographic Internet sites filed an unusual lawsuit late Wednesday
against two computer experts who developed a method for kids to deduce
their parents' password and access those Web sites.
Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, Mass., which sells the widely
used Cyber Patrol, asked U.S. District Judge Edward F. Harrington for a
temporary restraining order requiring Eddy L. O. Jansson and Matthew Skala
to stop distributing their ``cphack'' program immediately.
Skala, a Canadian graduate student in computer science, and Jansson,
believed to be living in Sweden, published over the weekend on the
Internet and in e-mail details about how to circumvent the filter
technology in Cyber Patrol, which sells for about $30 and is widely used
in many of the nation's elementary schools and libraries.
They also offered a small ``cphack'' utility for ``people oppressed by
Cyber Patrol'' that, when run on a parent's computer, reveals the password
that blocks questionable Web sites - and also discloses the product's
entire list of more than 100,000 Internet sites deemed unsuitable for
children.
``I oppose the use of Internet filtering software on philosophical
grounds,'' Skala said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
``The issue here was to see what does Cyber Patrol actually block. Parents
have a right to know what they're getting and without our work they
wouldn't know.''
In its legal filings, Microsystems said it suffered ``irreparable harm''
from the publication of the bypassing software, which it said sought to
destroy the market for its product by rendering it ineffective.
``The practical effect is that ... children may bypass their parents
efforts to screen out inappropriate materials on the Internet,'' the
lawsuit said.
Skala, a cryptography buff who attends the University of Victoria in
British Columbia, said he spent about six weeks analyzing Cyber Patrol
with Jansson's help via e-mail from Sweden.
``One could well question how much force of law (the legal filings) have
in Sweden or in Canada,'' Skala said.
In an unusual legal strategy, Microsystems alleged that Skala and Jansson
violated U.S. copyright law when they reverse-engineered Cyber Patrol to
analyze it, which the company said is expressly prohibited in its license
agreements.
Skala, who learned about the legal filings in Massachusetts from the AP,
said he planned to speak with a lawyer but suggested that his work may be
protected under a ``fair use'' clause of copyright law.
Microsystems also asked the judge to order the Swedish Internet company
where the bypass utility is published to turn over records identifying
everyone who visited the Web site or downloaded the program.
The company's lawyer, Irwin Schwartz, said damage to its product is ``at
least at a minimum'' now because relatively few people were believed to
have downloaded the bypass software.
-
On the Net: http://www.cyberpatrol.com
AND
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 13:16:17 -0500 (EST)
From: Lenny Foner <foner@media.mit.edu>
To: egerck@nma.com
CC: declan@well.com, cryptography@c2.net, cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: CyberPatrol sues cryptanalysts who revealed flaws in it's software
Date: Thu, 16 Mar 2000 07:40:23 -0800
From: Ed Gerck <egerck@nma.com>
List:
If you can't cope, sue. The reverse-engineering
argument, that it trespasses on property, was already
used by Microsoft many years ago (ca. 1993) against Stacker.
In short, Stacker (the then market leader for on-the-fly
disk compression software) found out that Microsoft had
pirated its code for disk compression in Doublespace, and sued
Micrsoft -- but Microsoft countersued saying that Stacker
could not have reverse engineered Microsoft's code without
a court order. The argument is the same as if you think that
your stolen property is within a certain house -- you can't
trespass or invade the house in order to verify it, you
need to get a court order. Stacker won in part, but lost
a lot. As an aside, the then market leader (Stacker), now
is no longer even a player.
Thus, what happened here is not new and those that want to
effectively combat "hidden" features, pirated code or covert
weaknesses by decompiling code should be aware of it. The
end, however merit it may have, cannot justify the means.
Your point here is muddy; I'm not exactly sure what you're saying.
However, it sure sounds like you're saying that reverse-engineeering
is equivalent to an unwarranted search of a person and their home, a
violation of the US Fourth Amendment. This is the wrong analogy, for
at least two reasons, the first being, of course, that the people who
did the reverse-engineering are -not- government actors.
The second reason is that this is truly the wrong analogy. A closer
analogy for the Stacker case would be to consider a case in which your
copyrighted book was translated without your permission into a foreign
language (clearly, a derivative work). Is it then illegal for you to
buy a copy of the book and have it translated back into its original
language in order to see if infringement has occurred? What about if
the book jacket has language on it claiming that you have no right to
do this?
The take-home conclusion, of course, is that prohibitions against
reverse-engineering are evil and that any existing law to support it
is a bad idea akin to eating our seed corn.
###
Other sites:
The Censorware Project - http://censorware.org
Peacefire.org http://www.peacefire.org
Regards, Matt-
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