Just a quick reminder

[BillR]

I know we have covered this subject over and over but a small reminder never hurts.

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/300

Advice as always, keep your enthusiasm in check

 

[Bill Clo]

Always get WRITTEN permission, I say. Looks like alot of "he said, she said, the truth is somewhere in there"...

 

[Scorpionjwp]

And also a Verbal Permission and also do not loose your job over it.

 

[dekard]

written permission is the only thing you can take to the court. audio or video recordings would work too, anything else and your in a he said \ she said situation.

Sucks for the dude involved but it pretty much makes the university look dumb.

 

[marty9876]

Just don't borg the bosses machine.

 

[Roman79]

Thanks that's a good reminder!

There is another lesson here: Never give a lawyer a calculator

At an early stage in the proceedings, prosecutors claimed that McOwen had cost the state of Georgia $415,000 in bandwidth charges, based on a calculation that the distributed.net clients consumed precisely 59 cents worth of bandwidth per second. The state has since backed away from the $415,000 figure.

That's over $100/day per computer in bandwidth. Maybe if they were all hooked up to satellite phones...

 

[Heliocentrical]

That's over $100/day per computer in bandwidth. Maybe if they were all hooked up to satellite phones...

lol.

 

[ReaperofDreams]

Thanks that's a good reminder!

There is another lesson here: Never give a lawyer a calculator



That's over $100/day per computer in bandwidth. Maybe if they were all hooked up to satellite phones...

I greatly enjoyed that. Especially when reading before that, they discovered

during the Christmas holidays in 1999 school administrators noticed that unused machines were sending and receiving the distributed.net data -- about the equivalent of one email a day.

That school was getting really crappy rates for their bandwidth. I mean, a hundred bucks for an email seems a little steep. I'd rather stick with the postal service.

 

[unhappy_mage]

"I think the prosecutor's office needs some lessons in computer science," says Farber.

He's not going to learn much about DC in comp sci classes...

 

[Celerator]

Just don't borg the bosses machine.

I borged (with permission) my boss's machine, and the others in his office. I'm going for early retirement!

 

[Kvothe]

I think it goes without saying (but I'll say it anyhow), that this is the kind of publicity these project we hold in high regard don't need. As has been stated, always get permission, get more permission, and get it in writing, notorized, archived, and so on.

 

[Pocatello]

stupid prosecutor:

"McOwen placed a program on computers, that in his estimation would benefit him personally, including computers that has sensitive student financial and identity information without authorization," says Willard. "There is concern about the program itself compromising or providing the basis to compromise sensitive personal or financial information, there is the matter of Mr. McOwen's unauthorized activities on this computer, and finally there is the point that there was misappropriation of state property."

Just remember... not all prosecutors got "A" grades in school.

McOwen says the prize money wasn't a factor. "People do these projects for the betterment of mankind," says McOwen. "You are not doing it for the prize and possibility of money, you are doing it because it is the right thing to do."

"I think the prosecutor's office needs some lessons in computer science," says Farber. "If you want to make a point, there are much better examples than this guy."

I can't stand stupid prosecutors!

 

[AtomicMoose]

This burns me...

They want to nail this guy to the wall, but murders go free or with little punishment on a daily basis. But this is not the SoapBox.

Thanks for the reminder, BillR. This is something we all need to be aware of.