Bumped From NBC Nightly News For Hacking Them
from the what's-the-problem dept
NBC Nightly News recently filmed a story on Adrian Lamo, the well-known "good samaritan hacker" who breaks into systems and then offers to fix the holes for free - an offer some companies have taken him up on, while others are looking to throw him in jail. During the course of the interview, the producer asked Lamo if he could hack into NBC's computers... and he did. NBC's lawyers refused to run the story. They were afraid that NBC would be liable for filming a crime taking place. However, there's quite a legal debate over this. First off, NBC encouraged Lamo to break into their computers, which can certainly be seen as "permission" to do the hacking. Also, it's not a crime to witness a crime. Of course, some point out that this uproar itself might just be overhype for publicity's sake. There's clearly nothing urgent about the story, and NBC's lawyers might just be doing the proper due diligence to make sure they're not liable before running the clip.
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If I'm talking to a burglar and I tell him to try to break into my company's offices while I watch, you'd have a hard time saying that my company condoned the behavior.
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