Fear Of New Laws Suppress Security Research

from the unintended-consequences dept

As with just about any ridiculous law having to do with technology, unintended (though, not unpredictable) consequences are bound to show up. Just a few weeks ago, there was a lot of talk about the various "super DMCA" bills (mostly written by the MPAA) that made it illegal to have a firewall on any computer - since it could block out the info of where you were coming from. Right after everone was talking about it, such a law went into effect in Michigan. Now, a PhD. student, researching security software, steganography and honeypots, has realized that his research probably violates that law. So, he's removed copies of his research from his own website, and moved it to the Netherlands, and has tried to block anyone in the US from accessing it. This is just great. We're banning computer security in the US - but, it's ok, because we'll finally be able to watch (heavily restricted and costly) Warner Brothers' movies on our PCs.

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