Forwarded from: Russell Coker <russell@private> On Wed, 18 Feb 2004 20:56, InfoSec News <isn@private> wrote: > Besides the illegal receipt of copyrighted materials, persons > downloading the source code-especially developers-could face other > problems,, legal experts said. Individuals examining the Windows code > could face charges of trade-secret violations and infringement of > software patents. What country has such trade-secret laws? Every trade-secret law I have heard of only applies to people who legally receive secret material and then disclose it. If someone else gives you trade-secret material then they are permitted to have then they are breaking the law and you aren't. Or are these "legal experts" the same ones who think that you can trade-mark words that have been in use for hundreds of years? -- http://www.coker.com.au/selinux/ My NSA Security Enhanced Linux packages http://www.coker.com.au/bonnie++/ Bonnie++ hard drive benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/postal/ Postal SMTP/POP benchmark http://www.coker.com.au/~russell/ My home page -=- Forwarded from: "Bernie, CTA" <cta@private> InfoSec sleuths beware, Microsoft's attorneys may be knocking at your door I see that in a recent article published by eWeek claim legal experts say individuals examining the leaked Windows code could face charges of trade-secret violations and infringement of software patents. http://www.eweek.com/print_article/0,3048,a=119396,00.asp Could Microsoft's attorneys go after sleuths who are disclosing vulnerabilities in Microsoft's software and allege that the individual had discovered the vulnerability because they downloaded the code and examined it? Good tactic to impede pen testing, security research, or disclosure of security threats, which in the past have cast an ominous shadow on MS, is it not? It may be wise for security sleuths to fully document their vulnerability / exploit discovery process, when, how, what, why. I'm sure Microsoft's attorneys will be serving production of documents request upon a select group. Note that under US Federal law, limited discovery to perpetuate testimony regarding any matter can be performed before a lawsuit is actually filed. On 18 Feb 2004 at 3:56, InfoSec News wrote: > Forwarded from: William Knowles <wk@private> > > http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,4149,1528843,00.asp > > By David Morgenstern > February 17, 2004 > > Microsoft Corp. is warning the online community to keep its hands > off purloined Windows source code. > > The company on Tuesday confirmed it had sent legal warnings to > some persons who it said had downloaded the stolen code from the > Internet... snip>>> > Besides the illegal receipt of copyrighted materials, persons > downloading the source code^×especially developers^×could face > other problems,, legal experts said. Individuals examining the > Windows code could face charges of trade-secret violations and > infringement of software patents. > > eWEEK.com reporter Matt Hicks contributed to this report. - ISN is currently hosted by Attrition.org To unsubscribe email majordomo@private with 'unsubscribe isn' in the BODY of the mail.
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