Computer Legislation



I am pondering the idea of computer legislation in light of all the new
exploits and damaging affects of spyware, malware, viruses and damages to
computers and systems today. We have all read and written at one point
about P2P and copyright laws, but I am not thinking of that at this point.
What I want to focus on is what my rights are as a computer user. If a
persons computer was to infect mine with a virus, can I sue you for my pain
and suffering, repair cost, etc. Will there be an insurance company that
will insure my computer and its data in the event that something such as
that happened?



What about the user; should the user be required to have a computing permit,
similar to a drivers permit, or even a computers license to be a user of any
computer. If you're thinking that's a crazy thought it isn't. Many
"skilled" computer users use their systems day to day warding off attacks
from compromised systems of users whom are clueless to what they are even
doing on the computer. Most of which do not even realize that they have been
infected. Where are the computer "police" to protect my systems?



I am sure if someone was to drive a car and hit parked cars on the streets
and crash into other cars they would soon be apprehended and penalized for
this. Should the same be applied to computer usage?

"The intentional use of exploit code, in any form, to cause damage
to computer users, is a criminal offense. Accordingly, Microsoft
continues to assist law enforcement with its investigation of the
attacks in this case. Customers who believe they have been attacked
should contact their local FBI office or post their complaint on the
Internet Fraud Complaint Center Web site. Customers outside the U.S.
should contact the national law enforcement agency in their country."

Ref: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/p...FUpdatePR.mspx

--
Carey Frisch
Microsoft MVP
Windows - Shell/User
Microsoft Community Newsgroups
news://msnews.microsoft.com/

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Mr. Backup" wrote:

| Computer Legislation
|
| I am pondering the idea of computer legislation in light of all the new
| exploits and damaging affects of spyware, malware, viruses and damages to
| computers and systems today. We have all read and written at one point
| about P2P and copyright laws, but I am not thinking of that at this point.
| What I want to focus on is what my rights are as a computer user. If a
| persons computer was to infect mine with a virus, can I sue you for my pain
| and suffering, repair cost, etc. Will there be an insurance company that
| will insure my computer and its data in the event that something such as
| that happened?
|
| What about the user; should the user be required to have a computing permit,
| similar to a drivers permit, or even a computers license to be a user of any
| computer. If you're thinking that's a crazy thought it isn't. Many
| "skilled" computer users use their systems day to day warding off attacks
| from compromised systems of users whom are clueless to what they are even
| doing on the computer. Most of which do not even realize that they have been
| infected. Where are the computer "police" to protect my systems?
|
| I am sure if someone was to drive a car and hit parked cars on the streets
| and crash into other cars they would soon be apprehended and penalized for
| this. Should the same be applied to computer usage?

From: "Mr. Backup" <backup@yahoo.com>

| Computer Legislation
|
| I am pondering the idea of computer legislation in light of all the new
| exploits and damaging affects of spyware, malware, viruses and damages to
| computers and systems today. We have all read and written at one point
| about P2P and copyright laws, but I am not thinking of that at this point.
| What I want to focus on is what my rights are as a computer user. If a
| persons computer was to infect mine with a virus, can I sue you for my pain
| and suffering, repair cost, etc. Will there be an insurance company that
| will insure my computer and its data in the event that something such as
| that happened?
|
| What about the user; should the user be required to have a computing permit,
| similar to a drivers permit, or even a computers license to be a user of any
| computer. If you're thinking that's a crazy thought it isn't. Many
| "skilled" computer users use their systems day to day warding off attacks
| from compromised systems of users whom are clueless to what they are even
| doing on the computer. Most of which do not even realize that they have been
| infected. Where are the computer "police" to protect my systems?
|
| I am sure if someone was to drive a car and hit parked cars on the streets
| and crash into other cars they would soon be apprehended and penalized for
| this. Should the same be applied to computer usage?
|

YOU are the Police of your own computer.

Please practice Safe Hex !

http://www.claymania.com/safe-hex.html

--
Dave
http://www.claymania.com/removal-trojan-adware.html
http://www.ik-cs.com/got-a-virus.htm

It seems that the problem in all such efforts, that have been many,
comes down to the inability to establish the wrongdoer's identity.

I witnessed a car accident, and the policeman took down the
description of the auto that did it and speeded off, but was not
really too interested. What he was interested in was my ability
to describe the driver and the certainty I had about whether I
could or could not recognize the individual.

It is much the same with the internet which was (intentionally or
not) designed so that network traffic is anonymous as to the
person ultimately responsible.

In your examples, if your neighbor's computer is found to have
been the one to which your financial data was transferred, is it
your neighbor that gets arrested? What if they, as you observed,
have no clue that their machine was a bot in a data collection
network? What if that machine was actively being used by a
person who directed step-by-step the actions that resulted in
your data being copied out? etc. etc. etc.

About the only way to make what you propose actually
enforcable is to have an audit trail which cannot be tampered
with and it would need to be about everything that happens.

Is that sort of Orwellian approach what you are after?

But, without the actual tangibles to establish who the crimial
was, what one would instead see is an ever growing number
of laws (many not clearly enforcable) each attempting to
tighten the noose, but actually each likely just increasing the
burden on the average, well-intended and fully lawabiding
computer user.

"Mr. Backup" <backup@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eAK2WugEGHA.1032@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Computer Legislation
>
>
>
> I am pondering the idea of computer legislation in light of all the new
> exploits and damaging affects of spyware, malware, viruses and damages to
> computers and systems today. We have all read and written at one point
> about P2P and copyright laws, but I am not thinking of that at this point.
> What I want to focus on is what my rights are as a computer user. If a
> persons computer was to infect mine with a virus, can I sue you for my
> pain and suffering, repair cost, etc. Will there be an insurance company
> that will insure my computer and its data in the event that something such
> as that happened?
>
>
>
> What about the user; should the user be required to have a computing
> permit, similar to a drivers permit, or even a computers license to be a
> user of any computer. If you're thinking that's a crazy thought it isn't.
> Many "skilled" computer users use their systems day to day warding off
> attacks from compromised systems of users whom are clueless to what they
> are even doing on the computer. Most of which do not even realize that
> they have been infected. Where are the computer "police" to protect my
> systems?
>
>
>
> I am sure if someone was to drive a car and hit parked cars on the streets
> and crash into other cars they would soon be apprehended and penalized for
> this. Should the same be applied to computer usage?
>
>

Why not treat virus creators as terrorists? After conviction in any country
on writing and releasing the virus, find the country with the most sever
penalty and turn them over for the punishment. I'm positive if we publicly
execute a few virus writers, the number of new virii will drop dramatically.

Oh, and by the way, I can almost guarantee your name isn't "Mr. Backup" Use
your real name when posting this type of crap.

Mike Ober.

"Mr. Backup" <backup@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:eAK2WugEGHA.1032@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> Computer Legislation
>
>
>
> I am pondering the idea of computer legislation in light of all the new
> exploits and damaging affects of spyware, malware, viruses and damages to
> computers and systems today. We have all read and written at one point
> about P2P and copyright laws, but I am not thinking of that at this point.
> What I want to focus on is what my rights are as a computer user. If a
> persons computer was to infect mine with a virus, can I sue you for my
pain
> and suffering, repair cost, etc. Will there be an insurance company that
> will insure my computer and its data in the event that something such as
> that happened?
>
>
>
> What about the user; should the user be required to have a computing
permit,
> similar to a drivers permit, or even a computers license to be a user of
any
> computer. If you're thinking that's a crazy thought it isn't. Many
> "skilled" computer users use their systems day to day warding off attacks
> from compromised systems of users whom are clueless to what they are even
> doing on the computer. Most of which do not even realize that they have
been
> infected. Where are the computer "police" to protect my systems?
>
>
>
> I am sure if someone was to drive a car and hit parked cars on the streets
> and crash into other cars they would soon be apprehended and penalized for
> this. Should the same be applied to computer usage?
>
>