Re: End of ROCKate soon

[Andrew <tor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Robert Hogan wrote:
> "Unless the aim of ROCKate is to commit a crime, as opposed to facilitating 
> privacy, then you have nothing to worry about. Honest."
>
> Given Germany's recent history with Tor I understand your caution. And I don't 
> think anyone would want to be the subject of a test case.
Actually, it's a little more complicated than this. The law is, as
always, voted on by politician who understand nothing of the matter -
being a student, I'm living in a house with five law students, and asked
those to fine-read the law just passed. Their conclusion (though there's
no warranty that it ain't off by miles):
If judges really stick to this law, and do not concern themselves with
common sense (as they sometimes don't...), this new paragraph could be
used to sue not just IT professionals trying to fix security leaks, but
even Professors and students studying security-related engineering. It
really is that bad, because to be convicted under this law does not
require any attempt or even intent to do anything bad or wrong. It just
says that you're guilty if your work could in any way be related to or
used to doing bad things. And which program can't..?

Thus, it's not too surprising that this is not the first, and certainly
will not be the last, great project maintained from Germany, that will
cease to exist - at least for a while. Until there's some rulings that
tell us how serious this threat really is, most of us will keep their
heads down.

Regards,
Andrew

--
cerebellum - tor 0.1.2.14 on SUSE 9.3