UK Parliament to ban DoS Attacks

Ian Hill writes "It seems that the UK government is not as technologically withdrawn as you may think. This bill is an amendment to the Computer Misuse Act 1990 which bans Denial of Service attacks by name. It states that a person is guilty of an offence if they cause, or intend to cause, 'degradation, failure or other impairment of function of a computerised system.'"

Thank God

[Ashcrow]

Now no one will ever do it!

p2p sharing here I come

[azzy]

I can p2p share as much as I like.. breaching copyright.. and the American's can't get me!!! Yippee!!!!!

First Criminals

[Amazing Quantum Man]

And the first two people charged will be:

Ian Hill and CmdrTaco for causing a slashdotting of the UK Parliament server!

irony

[s20451]

So we slashdotted them with a link. How ironic. Can I rat out Taco for a reduced sentence?

Degridation, impairment..

[AntiTuX]

Like installing windows?
(HA HA HA HA!! I Made a Funny!!!)

Re:UK vs US?

[huh_]

So when the RIAA kills a file-sharing server in Scotland because US law specifically permits it, and when they are indicted because UK law specifically outlaws it, whose national sovereignty will be degraded?

Thats a stupid question. US law prevails over all others.

Re:First Criminals

[tomhudson]

It states that a person is guilty of an offence if they cause, or intend to cause, 'degradation, failure or other impairment of function of a computerised system.'"

So this means that Microsoft can be charged for upgrades that don't work properly, etc.!!!!

Works for me!

English Law

[Jucius Maximus]

In other news, it is still legal in Chechire (Chester) England to shoot, with a crossbow, any Welsh person, as long as you do it inside the city walls after 11 PM.

(don't ask me for a reference, I found it on a 'Stupid Laws' page that has subsequently shut down)

This is very good.

[tshak]

This is very good - I mean consider all of the damage that DOS could do to your machine. It's insecure, lacks multitasking, and requires users to configure EMM386 and HIMEM.SYS just to play Doom. Let's just hope that bin Laden doesn't have the technology available to perform a DOS install/attack on all of our machines.

Re:First Criminals; This is *NOT* funny

[lingqi]

Read the damn file! it reads:

A person is guilty of the offence in subsection (1)(a) even if the act was not intended to cause such an effect, provided that a reasonable person could have anticipated that the act would have caused such an effect.

this means no more posting of links on slashdot linking to UK sites lest Taco becomes an international criminal.

somebody in UK, please write your queen about this.

Thank god!

[HowlinMad]

Now that they are banned, they won't happen anymore. Hey look, is that a flying pig?

Too vague

[Anonymous Coward]

a person is guilty of an offence if they cause, or intend to cause, 'degradation, failure or other impairment of function of a computerised system.

Couldn't most of Microsoft's programmers be arrested under this statute?

Re:First Criminals; This is *NOT* funny

[FyRE666]

"somebody in UK, please write your queen about this"

Didn't you know? We all know her here in the UK - I'll pass on your message next time I drop by for tea and scones...

Re:First Criminals

[Yottabyte84]

Windows works fine untill you try to observe it working, at which point it shits itself.

Re:Dos'ers should have

[arivanov]

It is easier to organise in the US then in the UK.

Rat them up to the NKVD^WHomeland Security. Works great on spammers (espcecially of the "all capitals nigerian bulshit" or other scam varieties). All you need to do is express your suspicion that the scam money is used to finance terrorism. After that you will never hear from that spammer again once they have disappeared "in and night and fog" to GULAG^WGuantanamo Bay for questioning with no legal representation.

Unfortunately the Yard in the UK systematically drops the ball on these. I wish it did not. And I wish it did what you suggest.