FC: CyberPatrol sues coders who revealed flaws in its software, from AP

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

********

Background:
  http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=cyberpatrol

If you want to download the software before the injunction hits:
  http://hem.passagen.se/eddy1/reveng/cp4/cp4break.html

If anyone sets up a mirror site, please let me know.

-Declan

********

> Date: Wed, 15 Mar 2000 21:11:27 -0500
> From: Ted Bridis <tbridis () ap org>
> Subject: Cyber Patrol lawsuit
> To: declan () well com
>
> Declan,
>
> Didn't know if you saw this yet.
>
> http://www.sjmercury.com/svtech/news/breaking/ap/docs/321750l.htm
>
> Software Co. sues hackers
>
> BY TED BRIDIS
> AP Technology Writer
>
> WASHINGTON (AP) -- A company that makes popular software to block children
> from pornographic Internet sites filed an unusual lawsuit late Wednesday
> against two computer experts who developed a method for kids to deduce their
> parents' password and access those Web sites.
>
> Microsystems Software Inc. of Framingham, Mass., which sells the widely used
> Cyber Patrol, asked U.S. District Judge Edward F. Harrington for a temporary
> restraining order requiring Eddy L. O. Jansson and Matthew Skala to stop
> distributing their ``cphack'' program immediately.
>
> Skala, a Canadian graduate student in computer science, and Jansson,
> believed to be living in Sweden, published over the weekend on the Internet
> and in e-mail details about how to circumvent the filter technology in Cyber
> Patrol, which sells for about $30 and is widely used in many of the nation's
> elementary schools and libraries.
>
> They also offered a small ``cphack'' utility for ``people oppressed by Cyber
> Patrol'' that, when run on a parent's computer, reveals the password that
> blocks questionable Web sites -- and also discloses the product's entire
> list of more than 100,000 Internet sites deemed unsuitable for children.
>
> ``I oppose the use of Internet filtering software on philosophical
> grounds,'' Skala said in a telephone interview with The Associated Press.
> ``The issue here was to see what does Cyber Patrol actually block. Parents
> have a right to know what they're getting and without our work they wouldn't
> know.''
>
> In its legal filings, Microsystems said it suffered ``irreparable harm''
> from the publication of the bypassing software, which it said sought to
> destroy the market for its product by rendering it ineffective.
>
> ``The practical effect is that ... children may bypass their parents efforts
> to screen out inappropriate materials on the Internet,'' the lawsuit said.
>
> Skala, a cryptography buff who attends the University of Victoria in British
> Columbia, said he spent about six weeks analyzing Cyber Patrol with
> Jansson's help via e-mail from Sweden.
>
> ``One could well question how much force of law (the legal filings) have in
> Sweden or in Canada,'' Skala said.
>
> In an unusual legal strategy, Microsystems alleged that Skala and Jansson
> violated U.S. copyright law when they reverse-engineered Cyber Patrol to
> analyze it, which the company said is expressly prohibited in its license
> agreements.
>
> Skala, who learned about the legal filings in Massachusetts from the AP,
> said he planned to speak with a lawyer but suggested that his work may be
> protected under a ``fair use'' clause of copyright law.
>
> Microsystems also asked the judge to order the Swedish Internet company
> where the bypass utility is published to turn over records identifying
> everyone who visited the Web site or downloaded the program.
>
> The company's lawyer, Irwin Schwartz, said damage to its product is ``at
> least at a minimum'' now because relatively few people were believed to have
> downloaded the bypass software.
>
> ------
>
> On the Net: http://www.cyberpatrol.com



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