Microsoft Tricks Hacker Into Jail 284

Posted by Zonk on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:29AM from the ha-ha dept.

CompotatoJ writes "Wired News reported that William 'IllWill' Genovese was sentenced to prison after being tricked by a Microsoft Investigator offering to pay $20 for a copy of the secret source code. From the article: 'The investigator then returned and arranged a second $20 transaction for an FBI agent, which led to Genovese's indictment under the U.S. Economic Espionage Act, which makes it a felony to sell a company's stolen trade secrets ... [Microsoft] has also expressed fears that making its source code public could allow hackers to find security holes in Microsoft products -- though, so far, intruders are doing fine without the source.'"

Microsoft Tricks Hacker Into Jail

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$200? (Score:5, Funny)

by Tx ( 96709 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:31AM (#14597374) Journal

You paid $200 for the Windows source? Dude, you got ripped off!

Re:Summary wrong, $20 not $200 (Score:5, Funny)

by John Nowak ( 872479 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:35AM (#14597386)

Submitter actin' like he never seen a ten before.

electronic monitoring (Score:5, Funny)

by digitaldc ( 879047 ) * writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:36AM (#14597387)

...will serve three years of supervised release following his prison term, during which he'll be subject to electronic monitoring through special software installed on his computer

Looks like they have finally found a legal use for the Sony Rootkit.

Crown Jewels! (Score:5, Funny)

by LiquidCoooled ( 634315 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:36AM (#14597392) Homepage Journal

The company has long maintained that the source code to Windows and other products are its crown jewels, and that making the code public could cause serious harm by stripping it of trade-secret status, and allowing competitors to duplicate the functionality of Microsoft software.

Come on - anybody can code up a BSOD if they really want to.

Should Mark from sysinternals [sysinternals.com] be worried?

heh, microsoft monopoly (Score:5, Funny)

by musonica ( 949257 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:37AM (#14597399) Homepage

paid $200 and the go to jail..

This is sooo untrue! (Score:2, Funny)

by cablepokerface ( 718716 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:45AM (#14597432)

I heard recently about three hackers which were charged but microsoft later dropped all charges and decided not sue. I believe their names were Whitman Price and Haddad.

Re:Summary wrong, $20 not $200 (Score:2, Funny)

by Cerberus7 ( 66071 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @08:47AM (#14597445)

Snack attack, mutha f*****!!!

Re:$200? (Score:5, Funny)

by Elitist_Phoenix ( 808424 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:09AM (#14597558)

I paid $200 for Windows and the source code wasn't included. I got ripped, I mean how am I meant to get applications to compile when I don't have the full kernel source?!

M$ (Score:4, Funny)

by sloths ( 909607 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:11AM (#14597568)

Google doesn't trick people into jail.

In related news... (Score:2, Funny)

by should_be_linear ( 779431 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:30AM (#14597667)

... Remainings of MS lawer that tricked Don Vito Genovese's grandson into jail found in shoebox.

Hacker outsmarted by Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)

by dcavanaugh ( 248349 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:33AM (#14597682) Homepage

Now that's news.

Re:Semantics... (Score:5, Funny)

by RandoX ( 828285 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:36AM (#14597699)

He downloaded the source from a P2P program. My mother could do that.

Really? Would she be interested in selling it? Please, speak a little louder... :)

Re:Semantics... (Score:5, Funny)

by Basehart ( 633304 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:44AM (#14597739)

"Hell, he was the only one to be indited even though everyone and their dog has thsi source code"

After reading this I became curious and checked my dog's bedding, and sure enough I found a copy of the Microsoft source code.

Re:$200? (Score:5, Funny)

by thesnarky1 ( 846799 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:45AM (#14597746) Homepage

Yea, but he paid with YOUR Paypal account...

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:4, Funny)

by geoffspear ( 692508 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @09:46AM (#14597749) Homepage

I'm not entirely sure how law works either, but if you think he's going to use that or anything else as his defense, when he's already been covicted and sentenced, you understand the law a lot worse than most people.
See, you're supposed to defend yourself before you're sent to prison.

Apple (Score:5, Funny)

by Frankie70 ( 803801 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @10:00AM (#14597827)

Google doesn't trick people into jail.

After drinking Steve Jobs' koolaid, people would
voluntarity go & get themselves arrested, if Jobs
asked them to. And would even pay daily board &
food charges at the jail.

Re:Crown Jewels! (Score:4, Funny)

by Andrewkov ( 140579 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @10:15AM (#14597913)

As a general rule of thumb, don't install that screensaver on a server. Trust me on this.

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:3, Funny)

by Anonymous Coward writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @10:20AM (#14597945)

When you download it from P2P, it looks so full of bugs and poorly written, it can't be the real thing!

Re:electronic monitoring (Score:2, Funny)

by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @10:37AM (#14598099) Homepage

No, but he'll sell you some for $200 each.

Re:Story from a first-person perspective (Score:5, Funny)

by AndroidCat ( 229562 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @10:40AM (#14598122) Homepage

So, what's his Slashdot username?

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:5, Funny)

by MindStalker ( 22827 ) writes: <mindstalker.gmail@com> on Monday January 30, 2006 @11:08AM (#14598339) Journal

I'm not entirely sure how slashdot works either, but if you think he read the article, before he posted his comment, you understand slashdot a lot worse than most people.

See, you're supposed to post first before anyone else can.

Re:Crown Jewels! (Score:3, Funny)

by loraksus ( 171574 ) writes: on Monday January 30, 2006 @04:38PM (#14601191) Homepage

Goddamn buggy software. It bluescreened my computer and now it keeps rebooting. Looks like I'm going to have to reinstall as soon as I find my cd.
Dammit!

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Microsoft Tricks Hacker Into Jail 284

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Microsoft Tricks Hacker Into Jail

$200? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Summary wrong, $20 not $200 (Score:5, Funny)

electronic monitoring (Score:5, Funny)

Crown Jewels! (Score:5, Funny)

heh, microsoft monopoly (Score:5, Funny)

This is sooo untrue! (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Summary wrong, $20 not $200 (Score:2, Funny)

Re:$200? (Score:5, Funny)

M$ (Score:4, Funny)

In related news... (Score:2, Funny)

Hacker outsmarted by Microsoft? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Semantics... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Semantics... (Score:5, Funny)

Re:$200? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:4, Funny)

Apple (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Crown Jewels! (Score:4, Funny)

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:3, Funny)

Re:electronic monitoring (Score:2, Funny)

Re:Story from a first-person perspective (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Available on P2P? (Score:5, Funny)

Re:Crown Jewels! (Score:3, Funny)

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