Ikatako Virus Replaces Victims' Files With Pictures of Squid 105
An anonymous reader writes "Ikatako is a virus that spreads through Japanese P2P network Winny, aided by the pirates' lack of wit. Once downloaded and run, the virus sends their data to a central server and replaces it with cephalopod and cnidarian imagery. Japanese hacker (and virus creator) Masato Nakatsuji thought he wouldn't be arrested this time. However, Japanese police considered the files in Japanese pirates' hard drives to be more important than his manga depictions of octopods and other tentacled fauna."
Re:"Your Rights Online"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, I read TFA too. But the reason for my question was: How is it a YRO issue that you get arrested after making a harmful virus and spreading it. Would anyone here think that this should NOT be punishable?
As I understand the YRO category, it is mainly used for cases where there is a difference between what we think should be allowed/disallowed/possible, and what authorities/courts/companies/legislators think should be allowed/disallowed/possible. And I see no such difference here.
Of course it is funny that he thought he could legally get away with destroying other peoples' files as long as he made sure not to use any copyrighted material in the process. But that belongs in the Idle category, I think.
Re:"Your Rights Online"? (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:"Your Rights Online"? (Score:3, Interesting)
I don't think /. editors should decide on beforehand what I think is right/wrong. This is related to internet laws so it fits in the YRO category.
Re:Tentacle P...ictures? (Score:4, Interesting)
Octoporn: Pornography that depicts an, in fact, real octopus being ejected from a human orifice. The act is classically accompanied by a copious amount of unappetizing muscular contractions. The resulting ejection is considered a delicacy in at least nine countries.
Re:Property destruction or not? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:DOUBLE FAIL! (Score:1, Interesting)
You know why there's so much violent crime in the US? Because the psychopaths know that, thanks to people like you, they will be constantly supplied with sex slaves paid for by our tax dollars.
This is the Japanese police's fault (Score:4, Interesting)
They charged him somewhat improperly the first time and so the criminal was confused about what his REAL crime was.
Dealing with Japanese people frequently, I encounter similar communications problems in that the most important issues aren't mentioned often enough. Quite frequently, they only mention one reason or one problem or one symptom. For whatever reason, they feel no need to add more for completeness or accuracy. It is interesting to see that they not only do this to me, but they do it to themselves as well. So they charge him the first time on copyright infringement. Naturally, he believes that is the extent of what he did wrong the first time since there was no mention of other crimes in his original charges. So, he does it again...
The first time I encountered this strange behavior, it was with a Japanese girlfriend. If I asked her to do something and she didn't want to, she would offer a reason why not. And after addressing the concern, she would come up with another reason why not. Eventually, I would get to the core reason(s) why not, but only after persistently digging into the issue. At first, I thought it was just her. But after working with Japanese people extensively, I have found that this is rather common. So when dealing with Japanese users, they might offer up a single problem or symptom omitting any additional information. Naturally, I either assume the problem is one thing that it is not based on the absence of important symptoms described or that it is a new issue not yet encountered before. I know these people are not stupid. But I remain mystified as to how this peculiarity of communication has come to be.
While I recognize that Japanese culture and communications are strongly tied to context and general assumption of knowledge and understanding, it would seem they are so accustomed to that level of incompleteness of expression that it is simply so engrained into their thinking that it is applied to everything. Often I wonder why so many of their TV shows contain subtitles, but this goes a long way to explaining why.
In any case, I believe this is a clear case of them doing it to themselves this time! "Oh! So I was arrested for copyright infringement! Okay, so next time I will draw my own pictures and it won't be a problem!" Lovely. Cultural inbreeding....