FBI Half-Life 2 Raids [Jan 19, 2004, 4:02 pm ET] – Share – Viewing Comments
A weblog post
mentioned in a
Slashdot story apparently gives the account of a San Francisco native's
encounter with the FBI as the fed's raided his home looking for evidence in
connection with the theft of the Half-Life 2 source code (story).
According to Slashdot (since the site has been, naturally enough, Slashdotted),
the blog includes a scan of the FBI's search warrant. Thanks Captain Trips.
"Remember that the purpose of laws is to protect our private property from unlawful search and seizure--theft. The irony here is that while some people see nothing wrong with hackers searching and seizing Valve's property, they think its terrible that the FBI might search and seize the hacker's property. It's pretty funny when you think about how hypocritical that viewpoint is."
It's not hyporitical at all. You are presuming that the man that was searched was guilty. What if he is innocent? Should he not be PRESUMED innocent?
It's a shame someone took Valve's code, but what's worse if if they then turn around and destroy the life of an innocent man who had nothing to do with the crime. I'm protecting HIS rights, not the rights of a criminal.
In addition, Valve's source code is intangible. It was not stolen. It was copied. They still have access to it. This man on the other hand no longer has access to his computers. So he is worse off than Valve is now.
"If this person's computers were seized, there is no corroboration that it involves Valve at all. He might have "photochopped" the search warrants to include mention of Valve simply to cover up the fact, among his friends and associates, that his property was seized for other purposes, such as common computer credit-card fraud, or something similar."
That is pretty damn far fetched.
"Finally, a good concept for you to consider is that the value of your neighbor's private property is determined by the owner of that property, and nobody else"
That's funny, because when we were moving, the moving company damaged my television, which I had been given, and so did not have a receipt for, and they managed to pull a number out of their ass for how much it was worth. And then scrwed me by saying it was worth less than the deductible.
So no, you don't set the value of the property you own. The government and insurance companies do.
It's not hyporitical at all. You are presuming that the man that was searched was guilty. What if he is innocent? Should he not be PRESUMED innocent?
It's a shame someone took Valve's code, but what's worse if if they then turn around and destroy the life of an innocent man who had nothing to do with the crime. I'm protecting HIS rights, not the rights of a criminal.
In addition, Valve's source code is intangible. It was not stolen. It was copied. They still have access to it. This man on the other hand no longer has access to his computers. So he is worse off than Valve is now.
"If this person's computers were seized, there is no corroboration that it involves Valve at all. He might have "photochopped" the search warrants to include mention of Valve simply to cover up the fact, among his friends and associates, that his property was seized for other purposes, such as common computer credit-card fraud, or something similar."
That is pretty damn far fetched.
"Finally, a good concept for you to consider is that the value of your neighbor's private property is determined by the owner of that property, and nobody else"
That's funny, because when we were moving, the moving company damaged my television, which I had been given, and so did not have a receipt for, and they managed to pull a number out of their ass for how much it was worth. And then scrwed me by saying it was worth less than the deductible.
So no, you don't set the value of the property you own. The government and insurance companies do.
Date
Subject
Author
Copyright © 1996-2021 Stephen Heaslip. All rights reserved.
All trademarks are properties of their respective owners.
Privacy Policy. Manage Cookie Settings.
News CGI copyright © 1999-2021 James "furn" Furness & Blue's News. All rights reserved.
Chatbear v1.5.0/blue++: Page generated 7 March 2021, 00:38.