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I'm hoping you're saying that parent's statement was not unethical (which of course it's not), rather than saying that the course of action he mentioned is ethi

I'm hoping you're saying that parent's statement was not unethical (which of course it's not), rather than saying that the course of action he mentioned is ethical. Your second statement roughly mirrors the parent comment in saying that the guy would have been served better by selling the vulnerability, but surely you don't believe that that's the only criterion for determining if something is ethical, right? Do you have in mind a buyer who would make such a sale ethical? I would imagine intelligence agencies of major European powers, as well as the US and Russia, as the nation-state buyers, plus organized crime as another possible buyer. Among that field of upstanding people, who do you imagine this exploit could be sold to without clearly and knowingly contributing to massively unethical operations? Perhaps the NSA wouldn't be too terrible a result, because they would just use it to watch everyone rather than cause instability and threaten officials, but for that extra potential it seems like organized crime would be the bigger buyers. Or do you excuse everyone so long as they're not the final link in the chain, the one firing the gun? I hope that I've just written all of this out of a misunderstanding of your comment, because in no world is selling this vulnerability ethical. If Slovenia were a huge liability, likely to start World War III at any time, maybe, but that's just not the case.

vbezhenar 10y ago
Selling vulnerability is not ethical. Opening yourself to police is just stupid. It would be ethical to report about vulnerability but without disclosing your name. And if it won't fixed, disclose it at public.
zzzcpan 10y ago
> Among that field of upstanding people, who do you imagine this exploit could be sold to without clearly and knowingly contributing to massively unethical operations? I imagine state actors as the most likely buyers and way worse offenders, than organized crime. In the world, you believe in, it might be unethical to sell to them. In the world, where the state actors are the enemies of the people and the enemies of each other, it might not, but passively not doing anything might be.

vbezhenar 10y ago

Selling vulnerability is not ethical. Opening yourself to police is just stupid. It would be ethical to report about vulnerability but without disclosing your name. And if it won't fixed, disclose it at public.

zzzcpan 10y ago

> Among that field of upstanding people, who do you imagine this exploit could be sold to without clearly and knowingly contributing to massively unethical operations? I imagine state actors as the most likely buyers and way worse offenders, than organized crime. In the world, you believe in, it might be unethical to sell to them. In the world, where the state actors are the enemies of the people and the enemies of each other, it might not, but passively not doing anything might be.