Japan Successfully Misuses Copyright Law To Convict Virus Author
from the good-outcome,-bad-reason? dept
Back in January, we noted that due to a lack of any kind of anti-virus law in Japan, officials there had twisted copyright law to charge a guy who had embedded a virus in a graphic -- where the graphic used was infringing. While it's nice to see the government go after malicious virus writers, it's troublesome to stretch a different law for that purpose. However, it appears the Japanese courts didn't agree and have now convicted the guy. It's always troubling when governments twist laws to serve a different purpose.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.
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Well, at least..
Too many of these judges are getting on in years and have never been tested for Mad Cow or Alzheimers.
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Re:
And yeah, some viruses do really not-nice things, but more often than not you're talking about a minor to moderate inconvenience. Viruses very rarely lead to deaths, or even to ruining someone's life. They can steal your information, destroy your computer, or turn you into a zombie in a botnet, but that's hardly sufficient reason to put someone to death.
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Good Outcome, Bad Reason?
Besides, if I was the copyright holder of whatever image was used to propagate the virus - I don't think I would have been too pleased. Fair copy, Guv...
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Re: Good Outcome, Bad Reason?
You're right, if we don't bend the rules someone is going to "get away" with something every now and again. To defend my freedoms, I'm OK with that. if you want to *make* something illegal, enact a new law, but if it isn't illegal when the crime is committed you shouldn't be able to get the guy on it. Unless we can trust it's codified in the laws as written and intended, there's no way for the average citizen to protect themselves from a powerful opponent -- be it a rich man and his lawyers, a corporation, or the government itself.
It seems OK now because the laws were abused to get a 'bad guy.' But what happens when someone decides that what you've done as a hobby makes you a bad mad, despite not actually being illegal?
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Japan, laws, enforcement
--Glenn
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