(1) The government that also governs your power, water, roads, etc. Maybe some sort of visa process for people who wish to "import" software. (2) For sure new

(1) The government that also governs your power, water, roads, etc. Maybe some sort of visa process for people who wish to "import" software. (2) For sure new laws would need to be created, and it would be difficult. (3) Right now that "agency" is Google and Apple, and even though it is additional bureaucracy to bring those functions into something controlled by citizens, I think that is obviously better. (4) Let's see if we can stretch existing criminal processes into this problem domain. For severe crimes, an individual can be arrested and have to pay bail to go free. How about the allegedly illegal software has its certificate revoked and is reinstated if bail is paid? That would be for "felony"-class software; maybe just tickets and fines for misdemeanors. > the threat of criminal prosecution does not seem to have proven to be a deterrent I believe this is largely due to the very high levels of anonymity that are currently possible on the platforms where malware is prevalent (Win32). It is much less of a problem on the platforms where anonymity of software creators is mostly removed (iOS and Android). I think it is VERY interesting to ponder a scenario where the government removes the anonymity, rather than a corporation.