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The action makes it wrong not the code itself. Writing code cannot be evil, it's the user's decision to exploit the code for own selfish gain. ex. See people u
by brilliantcode 10y ago
The action makes it wrong not the code itself. Writing code cannot be evil, it's the user's decision to exploit the code for own selfish gain.
ex. See people using cars or knives or guns as weapons to commit crimes, we don't throw in Toyota or H&K executives in jail. Just because an item was used by someone, the inanimate object by itself do not display intent, intent is something that can only be held in the minds of a person.
- soverance 10y agoIntent is what matters. Writing code can most definitely be evil when written with evil intentions, or with the expectation of having the code used in malicious ways. It's a very different thing to write code with good intentions, only to have it repurposed by others for nefarious intent. It's obviously not a black and white matter, or we wouldn't be having this discussion. The important thing to remember, though, is intent. What was that code or feature originally intended to do? If it was intended to be malicious, then why write the code? I actually do not believe this is really a legal issue, and is instead a moral and ethical issue on a personal level. It is only becoming a legal issue because we have no other way to deal with it, since not every person operates on the same moral code. If more software developers went out of their way to hold themselves to a higher ethical standard, maybe fraud wouldn't be as prevalent as it is today, and we wouldn't need to have this discussion in the first place.
- brilliantcode 10y agocode itself cannot show intent. the code is executed when the person chooses to run it to fulfill their intent which can be judged to be bad in hindsight if it caused harm to others. a gun by itself doesn't show intent to commit assassinations. only when it's taken by a revolutionary and aimed at the heart of capitalist pigs will the intent be realized. the gun maker cannot be held responsible for creating a device that intended to kill someone important.
- emodendroket 10y agoYes, but if the gun maker started advertising on the Underground Assassins Network it might be a different story.
- brilliantcode 10y agoI guess you are trying to tie this back to HackForums as a way to suggest intent, this is a pretty weak argument. Unless there's private messages like "oh hell yeah my nanocore is going to be loved by criminals, I'm going to code the best keylogger ever.", there's no intent whatsoever to pin here.
- emodendroket 10y agoEvidently the prosecutors don't think it's so weak an argument.