Topic: Death at the hand of Pirates

Software pirates.

The most serious change is the introduction of life terms of imprisonment for anyone who ?knowingly or recklessly causes or attempts to cause death? through counterfeited goods or services.

http://techlogg.com/content/view/156/

Ok. I understand how counterfeit heart meds could be a problem, but what about software?

Hmmm.....

quote:

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A POLICE HUNT for a murder weapon on a Hampstead estate where a man was killed two weeks ago has uncovered a number of software CDs stashed near the crime scene. But despite finding ?several? versions of Microsoft Vista retail packages on the Rowley Way estate in Abbey Road, Detective Inspector Richard Ambrose, the officer in charge of the investigation, revealed the CD which killed Charlie Pacl, who died from CD lacerations, on Sunday June 18 has not yet been found. He said: ?We found several Vista CDs and a Linux distribution discarded over the estate but we?ve eliminated them because they did not fit the dimensions of Mr Stilwell?s injury. We are still looking for the murderous software.?

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(Edited by SleepingWolf on 05-18-2007 22:23)

(Edited by SleepingWolf on 05-18-2007 22:28)

quote:

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SleepingWolf said:

Ok. I understand how counterfeit heart meds could be a problem, but what about software?

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There's a ton of software running assorted equipment in hospitals and the like... introduce some bad code and Bob's your uncle.... your dead uncle.

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"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying that I approved of it." Mark Twain

quote:

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NoJive said:

There's a ton of software running assorted equipment in hospitals and the like... introduce some bad code and Bob's your uncle.... your dead uncle.

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software piracy/copyright infringement are very different from malicious code - i don't think there are too many documented
cases of people dying in hospitals because someone introduced a trojan in a heart monitor - but then again, medical devices do not use software that comes on CDs or can easily be copied digitally - most use dedicated ROM chips or something similar, no?.

but even then....please come up with a scenario on how mass produced pirated software would kill a patient
just for fun.


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(Edited by SleepingWolf on 05-18-2007 23:44)

Well... if the truck that said mass-produced software is being transporte in explodes, shards of plastic and metal could fly out of the truck, which is also crashing throguh the front of a hospital, and hit people, and kill them.

Yeah, that's plausible.


Justice 4 Pat Richard

I know of quite a few people who wanted to kill themselves after installing VISTA.... so if it were pirated....

Jason

Nemesis has it; if one should widely distribute counterfeit software with just the intent of driving its users to frustrated suicide, then one falls foul of this particular detail.

It would logically follow, having proved such a case against a murderous pirate, that the law be amended to encompass the original publisher of the murderous product... o.O