Japanese Officials Use Copyright Law To Arrest Computer Virus Writer
from the misuses-of-copyright dept
Over in Japan, a 24-year-old grad student was arrested this week for writing a computer virus. There's just one problem. There's apparently no law in Japan against writing viruses. So, instead, officials had to twist copyright law to use it to arrest the guy. That was possible because the virus itself used popular animation clips as a means of getting people to click on it. Those animation clips violated copyrights. Now, it's nice to see officials cracking down on virus writers, but it's a shame for them to twist copyright law for that purpose. If the problem is that the law doesn't make virus writing illegal, then change the law. Using copyright law for other purposes starts you down a pretty slippery slope. Yes, it's true that the guy was also violating copyrights, but it seems pretty clear from the report that the reason officials went after him was because of the virus. Update: It turns out this story is even more bizarre. TorrentFreak reports that three people were arrested, and the virus itself threatened to kill people for using file sharing systems.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
Reader Comments
Subscribe: RSS
View by: Time | Thread
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
If vriting a virus is illegal...
Making "virus" writing illegal would likely endanger the authors of most of the crappy coded software we use today.
Still remember that old joke comparing the behavior of M$ Windows versus Joe virus ?
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
even if the laws did get passed he wouldn't get in trouble for what he did before those laws were passed.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
We wrote that
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Crooks belong in jail using whatever it takes to get them there.
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Re:
Are you gutless?
Are you really a coward?
I believe you are--
you: "Let's arrest those crooks no matter what! They might endanger my weak white pathetic ass, and hot in-shape crooks get all the chicks that pass me right by 'cause of my pathetic anonymous body."
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
that is a good point ...
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
check his paystub
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
A charge that can stick
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Japan censorship
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Japan censorship
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
Mastering own playground
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
copyright virus
Lawyers would have lots of fun with those cases!
[ link to this | view in chronology ]
cyber crime and virus research
[ link to this | view in chronology ]