Rich Fiscus
24 Jan 2008 22:14
Although Japan apparently doesn't have any laws to prosecuted virus authors under, that's not stopping officials in that country from going after a 24 year old graduate student suspected of spreading a virus through infected animation files. Ironically it's the same innocuous looking files used to spread the virus that are at the heart of the government's case - for copyright infringement.
It marks the first case of anyone being arrested in Japan over a virus, and seems to have been a reaction to complaints from animation production houses whose copyrights were being violated. Although it's encouraging to see copyright law used for something clearly in the public's fundamental interest, such as bringing a virus author to justice, it's hard not be struck by the irony of the situation.
While distributing malicious code that could potentially have financial ramifications for hundreds, thousands, or even millions of people, the illegal use of cartoon characters, which is unlikely to affect anyone financially, seems to be a high legal priority.