[IP] more on Perl guru Chip Salzenberg sued, home raided [priv]
Begin forwarded message:
From: Glenn Fleishman <glenn@xxxxxxxxxx>
Date: July 1, 2005 11:25:19 AM EDT
To: dave@xxxxxxxxxx
Subject: Re: [IP] Perl guru Chip Salzenberg sued, home raided [priv]
I haven't seen it mentioned here, but 12 years ago, perl guru Randal
Schwartz
had a similar experience and was found guilty 10 years ago. In trying
to bring
it to the attention of his then-contract employer Intel that they had
incredibly
weak security that jeopardized his business, he was made an example
of. There
was no evidence at trial that his intent was anything but to improve
Intel's
security. Nonetheless, he was found guilty under Oregon law, paid
hundreds of
thousands in legal fees and recompense (for Intel to fix their broken
systems,
apparently), and is an ex-felon.
John S. Quarterman wrote this summary back in 1995 as part of Matrix
News:
<http://www.cs.uidaho.edu/~frincke/research/security/articles/
schwartz2.txt>
Randal never served a day in jail: he received five years of
probation with 90
days to be served at the end, but, as many of us know, he's an
exemplary citizen
and the jail time was waived. I and a number of other folks wrote
letters to the
outgoing governor of Oregon a few years ago asking him to pardon
Randal for a
non-crime -- a crime of good intentions with bad documentation and
permission,
let's say -- but the governor demurred.
Chip's experience should remind white hats and gray hats that it's
very easy to
cry "computer crime" and have local, state, and federal authorities
go a little
crazy. Chip probably should have consulted or retained an attorney
before
sending the whistle-blower letter, although it's easy to see that he
thought
forthright truth would win.
--
Glenn Fleishman
seattle, washington
work and home: glennf.com
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