DMCA

Posted Dec 7, 2011 19:12 UTC (Wed) by cmccabe (guest, #60281)
In reply to: DMCA by ewan
Parent article: C|Net Download.Com accused of bundling Nmap with malware

> > I mean technically, when you run nmap on Windows, the Windows kernel
> > is loading the nmap binary, which is an nmap-copyrighted file, and
> > executing that binary.

> You can run GPLv2 software on a proprietary OS - standard OS components
> are specifically exempted.

Good point.

Clearly the malware needs to patch the OS somehow during the install, so that they can legally be in the clear. Microsoft toolbar / nmap parser kernel module, anyone?

People really have to learn to stop downloading from shady third-party repositories... just don't do it.

DMCA

Posted Dec 7, 2011 22:25 UTC (Wed) by tialaramex (subscriber, #21167) [Link]

Sure, people shouldn't do it, but this is just exploiting a trust relationship.

The more certain you are that organisation (or person) X won't abuse your trust of them, the more valuable it is for X to sell you out to the bad guys, or if X won't sell, the more valuable it is to impersonate X by any means necessary.