McOwen Case Settled

ewilts writes: "Back in July, you ran a story about David McOwen, a computer adminstrator at DeKalb Technical College in Georgia, who was being charged for installing SETI software on school computers. This case has now been settled. See also the EFF press release on McOwen's web site." Update: 01/18 16:11 GMT by M : It was software from distributed.net, not SETI.

Re:$2100 and 80 hours community service

[ImaLamer]

Won what?

It's seti@home... do you get a free trip to the place where the beings are found?

Lucky you!

Punishment.

[AnalogBoy]

Now, of course, he gets off light from the government.. but jeeze, think of the internet traffic charges he's gonna rake up from being slashdotted. YOU MEAN HEARTLESS PEOPLE! Have you no decency? Give the man a break.

Re:Powerful implications - Indeed!

[ackthpt]

This decision simply adds an element of criminality to an already bad situation.

<Cut to courtroom somewhere in the USA>

Defendant: "...and then I installed the application on all the computers."

Prosecutor: "You did this, fully aware that it was vulnerable and subject to attacks, which may paralyze the company email system, compromise data, or worse?"

Defendant: "Yes."

Gallery: *GASP*

Prosecutor: "And what was this application?"

Defendant: "MS Outlook."

The prosecutor, appearing struck, glances at a shadowy figure in the gallery who bears some resemblance to John Ashcroft in a trenchcoat and fedora, the figure quickly draws a finger across his throat and the prosecutor recomposes himself.

Prosecutor: "Your honor, the prosecution humbly requests all charges be dropped and that the defendant be released!"

Re:Where's SETI's comment?

[Lebofsky]

Hi. I work on SETI@home. I was under the impression he didn't install our software. For what it's worth, we do say during the install to not put SETI@home on machines on which you don't have permission.

And anyway.. Consider SETI@home software's track record for security compared to, say, some larger commercial companies. I'm always getting paranoid rants via e-mail about how we can't be trusted, yet people download netscape and install microsoft products as if they are any safer and don't slow your machine down needlessly.

- Matt Lebofsky - SETI@home

Re:Powerful implications

[DaveWood]

Yeah - that's definitely worth a 30 year vacation at a Georgia penitentiary. Those jails are kind of crowded though, so they might have to release some rapists and child murderers early to make room for him.

"How's prison going?"
"Let's just say I'm not getting the respect a sysadmin deserves!"

(What I'd like to see is 30 year jail terms for the executive corps at Enron, let alone all of the auditors at Andersen who destroyed documents instead of auditing. Funny how it doesn't work that way...)