Slashdot Log In
Pirate Banned From Using Linux
Posted by
samzenpus
on Thu Aug 23, 2007 04:24 PM
from the take-that dept.
from the take-that dept.
dsinc writes "A guy who uploaded the latest Star Wars movie got arrested, pleaded guilty to 'conspiracy to commit copyright infringement' and 'criminal copyright infringement' and got jail and home confinement. As part of his home confinement, he agreed to install some tracking software on his computer. The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user and the gov't doesn't have any tracking software for Linux. So he's been told that he must use Windows for the term of his confinement. Looks like a case of cruel and unusual punishment to me"
This discussion has been archived.
No new comments can be posted.
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
Full
Abbreviated
Hidden
Loading... please wait.
So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
A better solution (Score:5, Informative)
It shouldn't be too hard to put together a 'loader' for this monitoring program to make it turn a blind eye to certain classes of network access. That is, if such a loader hasn't already been written. But if not, that'd be a good assignment for the various 1337 cR4ck1ng Cr3\/\/z out there.
Of course, the shim would need to heavily disguise its own existence. If the guy got caught using it, he'd better order a healthy supply of KY Gel ready for a holiday in Club Fed.
Parent
Re:A better solution (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:A better solution (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Interesting)
He could probably get away with VMWare or the like running Linux under Windows, but that would just run the risk of landing him in jail.
His best bet is Cygwin [cygwin.com], the suite of open source tools for Windows that includes everything you need to essentially subvert a Windows desktop and make it think it's a Unix-like OS. It's not 100% perfect, but it's a far cry better than pure Windows. I regularly use a Windows laptop with X running under it, ssh to my office with X-forwarding and several gnome-terminals running on my work desktop.
Other than that, the only native Windows apps I use are Firefox and Thunderbird, so it's often hard to tell what OS it actually is.
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
Um, They can really punish him by making him * try* to run windows ME.
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
"how do you run windows me?"
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
but wait, there's more . . . (Score:4, Funny)
hawk
Parent
Re:but wait, there's more . . . (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:4, Funny)
This is assuming Win3.x still runs on relatively recent hardware... but IIRC, the Win3.11 installer crashed on my P3 last time I tried it just for the heck of it.
Parent
Obligatory... (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Informative)
A live CD also works wonders, but without the hard evidence of virtualization. Again, if they had a way to monitor his traffic from the upstream, it would be bad. If they rely on the monitoring software as the only monitor, than use a live CD for checking e-mail and other places where you don't want to compromise your online passwords. Monitoring online activity is one thing. Harvesting his login info for his online accounts is another. That over-reaches monitoring online activity and opens doors to stuff beyond the current monitoring.
I I had mandatory online monitoring, I would not log in to any online account. I would not accidentally give that info to them.
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Informative)
There. I fixed that for you.
The same law really does apply to people who use Macintoshes, no matter what you may think.
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:5, Funny)
There, fixed it for ya.
Parent
Re:So? Can't he use a Windows box to route? (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Wow (Score:4, Funny)
Transcript from Court Case (Score:5, Funny)
Marc Hoaglin: No change in lifestyle there.
Judge Carla Woehrle:
Marc Hoaglin: Sure, why not? I'll get a chance to lift some weights.
Judge Carla Woehrle:
Marc Hoaglin: I guess that's only fair.
Judge Carla Woehrle:
Marc Hoaglin: DO NOT WANT!!!
Re:Transcript from Court Case (Score:5, Funny)
Parent
Damn them! (Score:5, Funny)
Jail for movie piracy? WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Jail for movie piracy? WTF? (Score:5, Informative)
Parent
Re:Jail for movie piracy? WTF? (Score:4, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Jail for movie piracy? WTF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Sorry, jail time is appropriate for some economic crimes. Maybe not in this case, no, but your blanket statement just doesn't work in all blanket cases.
Parent
And on the seventh day, he recompiled from source (Score:5, Funny)
The problem is He's an Ubuntu Linux user
And here I was hoping God used Mac OS X (yes, I'm sure there's a "daemon" joke in there, but I'll leave it at one bad joke per post).
Good to know (Score:5, Funny)
The utlimate penalty (Score:4, Funny)
Why can he use a computer at all? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Why can he use a computer at all? (Score:5, Insightful)
I mean nowdays Internet access is *essential*. It is like having a phone or a car. Imagine you have a job and do DUI. You will be only allowed to use car like 8-9am and 4-5pm (so you can go to work). Without your car you wouldn't be able to work and thus you will loose your job and become a citizen that parasites on others. I don't think that law system is built to punish citizens this way that they loose their jobs and became parasites on others. That would be stupid.
So with that in mind the judge allowed the man to use Internet (maybe for working from home - quite usual) but he wishes to monitor his activity.
I don't see anything wrong here.
But I don't know why don't they force him (if he wishes to use the Internet) to just use a special broadband service for convicts which is monitored server-side. Such setup would not require any client side software.
Parent
Feisty Fawn not so innocent (Score:5, Funny)
Best reason of all to swtich (Score:5, Funny)
"Linux: The only operating system the NSA doesn't 0wn."
--
Toro
Linux is my life man (Score:5, Interesting)
In jail for 5 months and he thinks changing Operating System needs more of a life restructuring.
Perhaps, this sentence will give him the perfect opportunity to finally find a life outside of his linux box.
So can he use a pirated version of Windows? (Score:5, Funny)
The happy ending (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Why... (Score:5, Insightful)
They probably offered him a deal to spend home time versus all jail time if he agreed to certain terms. They are not FORCING him to use windows, they are saying that if he wants the easy path of punishment, he has to abide by certain rules.
Also the requirement would only be for if he uses a computer at all. He's perfectly welcome to simply not use one at all.
All in all, he got off easy and just has to fullow the very simple rules in order to get the easy version of punishment.
Parent
Re:Why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Why? Because he's a convict still serving his sentence (that's why he's under home confinement). If he doesn't like the terms of home confinement, he can always go back in the slammer and have even more restricted access.
Parent
Re:Why... (Score:5, Insightful)
Parent
Re:Why... (Score:4, Interesting)
No, the taxpayers cant be bothered to pay for more coding software. Hell, considering his crimes it just be better to not allow him computer use during probabtion, if he doesnt like that he cant spend those 5 months in prison. I know what I'd pick. Incredible how we coddle our criminals. Whats next a personal butler and compensation for jail time spent? Hot chocolate?
Parent
Re:Why... (Score:5, Interesting)
Hmm...I wonder how lucrative starting such a business to provide these things to authorities would be, seems like a fun project.
Parent
Re:Virtual machine (Score:5, Insightful)
People have made this comment on every single thread on this topic everywhere (Slashdot is the third site I've seen this story on), and it's still wrong and (frankly) nonsensical.
The requirement is that they run software that can monitor his computer activities. The complication is that the software is Windows-only so it won't run on his Linux system. Your suggestion accomplishes neither party's goal: It wouldn't let them monitor his computer activity, and it wouldn't let him run Linux as the OS on his machine (he'd have to run Windows, and then screw around, and then maybe run some Linux apps in a VM while still paying for a Windows license and dealing with Windows crap).
Parent
Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Score:5, Insightful)
Sure, but he's done the jail time, and he's not complaining about the probation term at all.
Just because someone has committed a crime does not mean that the government gets to impose arbitrary terms on them without an explicit court ruling. It especially doesn't mean that the government should be mandating specific non-optimal technical choices that interfere the livelyhood of an expert in a technical field.
Mandating Windows to a computer expert so they can be tracked for piracy is like mandating a Chrysler mini-van to a farmer because he beat his wife. Sure, you can carry produce to market in a mini-van, but making the farmer buy a new Chrysler mini-van to replace his perfectly functional Toyota pickup truck is absurd.
Parent
Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Score:5, Informative)
This is where I lose you. You think that the Alabama police should be arresting people for sodomy or (until a few years ago) marrying someone of a different race?
There are many checks on dumb laws. The first is the intelligence of legislators. Since that often fails, we have other checks: the people can just not obey them, and if they don't, the police can choose to not enforce them, the judges can choose to not sentence for them... you might have heard of the Scopes trials?
This power, to selectively enforce the law, is used more often than you might think.
Parent
Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Score:4, Interesting)
Maybe the parent was suggesting that it might be good to move towards a concept called equality before the law. If laws had to be enforced equally, the legislators would have to get rid of the plethora silly minor offences on the statute books that criminalise stuff that everyone does (including those same legislators). Then the police might have to spend their time going after real criminals as opposed to selectively enforcing such statutes against people they don't like the look of. I can see how that would be a terrifying dystopia..uhhh...wait
Parent
Re:Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. (Score:4, Interesting)
Parent
Re:It's not the having to use windows (Score:5, Insightful)
By `indirect' I mean things like not being able to get a good job, being shunned/tormented/killed by people merely because you're a registered sex offender, etc.
By `direct' I mean going to jail, paying fines, probation, even having to register as a sex offender.
Parent
Parole violation (Score:4, Informative)
Ie: You are not allowed to use a computer if we cant see what you are doing with it.
The point is not that he cannot do it. The point is he is not allowed to do it. He is probably not allowed to get a linux shell somewhere else either.
When the parole officer inspect his computer and see his VMware installation with a linux VM, they would probably put him back in jail.
But hey it could be worse, they could forbid him to use any computer. He probably should anyway, and try something else.
Parent