sorry Hal, nothing personal.
Posted on 02/02/2007 12:32:07 AM PST by HAL9000
Excerpts -
...1. Make ISPs (and all organizations providing computer access to more than 100 people) responsible for filtering scan and attack traffic across their networks.
...
2. Make ISPs (and all organizations providing computer access to more than 100 people) responsible for knocking customer PCs off their network if they become bots.
...
3. Make end users liable if losses are incurred because of outdated security software.
...
4. Write some kind of law concerning efficient security software.
...
(Excerpt) Read more at computerworld.com ...
Still, I would not rule out the theory that someone who owned a virus-spreading computer may have some liability for negligence if they failed to prevent it. Of course, we already have laws on the books to prosecute people who intentionally spread viruses, worms and other malware.
Why not just pass a law outlawing connections to the Internet? That would be safe.
It's surely too much of a chore to go after the criminals, so why not just punish normal people. Also the spyware most users acquire on their PCs from companies for either marketing purposes, advertising etc, that, for some reason, is OK, the fact that it's a form of hacking is just ignored - there's some corporate money involved here, so why legislate? Also considerable amount of junk mail, but you can call it spam is produced by marketing divisions of various perfectly legitimate companies.
Their highway safety argument doesn't make sense either: if someone breaks into your vehicle to sabotage it and make it unsafe, it is not your fault to start with, and the perpertrator is a criminal.
Typical statist drivel: let's legislate, make lots of laws, hire lots of police to enforce them, create special bureaucratic bodies to assist and control the enforcement, etc. Commie bastards.
I've seen instances of infected computers spreading their disease, and the owner was alerted but they failed to do anything about it. They just didn't care. Should they share some of the liability?
They should, but it cannot be solved by writing up the law that would criminalize millions users. This could be handled by entering some form of a contract between an ISP and a user, in which case there needs to be made a regulation for Service Providers - who have enough expertise and resources to address the issue - rather then individual users, many of whom are totally unprepared to deal with these issues.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.