[luau] Info: HP Uses DMCA To Quash Vulnerability Publication

[yuser at hi.net]

This was posted on /.

Very scary article..

Aside from the DMCA flap, this part in the article caught my eye and is equally scary.

"SecurityFocus.com, which is in the process of being acquired by Symantec, said it had already deleted a copy of the C source code from its Web site at the request of 
SnoSoft." 

At least it was at the request of SnoSoft the author, and not just HP.

Slashdot link:
http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=02/07/31/0030239&mode=thread&tid=153

Full CNet Article:
http://news.com.com/2100-1023-947325.html

HP Uses DMCA To Quash Vulnerability Publication

Security warning draws DMCA threat 
By Declan McCullagh 
Staff Writer, CNET News.com
July 30, 2002, 4:48 PM PT

WASHINGTON--Hewlett Packard has found a new club to use to pound researchers who unearth flaws in the company's software: the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. 

Invoking both the controversial 1998 DMCA and computer crime laws, HP has threatened to sue a team of researchers who publicized a vulnerability in the company's 
Tru64 Unix operating system. 

In a letter sent on Monday, an HP vice president warned SnoSoft, a loosely organized research collective, that it "could be fined up to $500,000 and imprisoned for up to five 
years" for its role in publishing information on a bug that lets an intruder take over a Tru64 Unix system.