Laws with unintended consequences should be illegal.
Yes, I can't see any way that could possibly go wrong.
EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
11–20 of 65 posts
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#12The linked PDF is ambiguous, "penalisation of the production and making available of tools ... for committing the offences". If this requires mens rea , i.e. they prove that your intent was for committing an offense, it's not such a big deal. If it does not, i.e. your software merely could possibly be used to commit an offense, it's a huge deal.
Case in point on the latter: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2007/08/new_german_hac...
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#13Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#14Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yes, I can't see any way that could possibly go wrong.
And I certainly can't see any way the way we currently do it could possibly go wrong either...
I do believe my point was that no law is free of unintended consequences, particularly not your law that outlaws laws with unintended consequences, thus your law outlaws itself.
The outlawing of the law against laws with unintended consequences by the law against laws with unintended consequences would undoubtedly be considered yet another unintended consequence of the law against laws with unintended consequences.
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#15knives should be illegal, they may be used to kill people
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#16If hacking tools are outlawed, then only outlaws will have hacking tools.
Meaning if you're a software developer or system admin in the EU, you better be on standby 24/7 to combat 0-day exploits.
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#17hahaha. I spent a summer writing dissectors for ethereal/wireshark. I guess that's a hacking tool as well, eh.
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#18This is already the case in the Netherlands. Hacking tools are only allowed for private use or research, e.g. for checking the security of your own network. Possession of hacking tools with the intention to harm other peoples' systems is not allowed.
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#19This seems more like one of those ideas which end up being a law used to slap people a second time when they are nabbed for something rather than something that would be enforced on its own.
ha or used to cluelessly or maliciously persecute any one giving them trouble.
Re: EU: "Making hacking tools should be illegal"
#20Wouldn't it be simpler and more efficacious to simply ban sales of Windows in the EU, or mandate that they fix the security issues?
Not that I favor ludicrous bans of this sort, or that I think they will work. Because I manifestly don't. But geez, if you're going to be over-the-top Orwellian, at least do something that has a chance of achieving your stated goals.