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"Knowledge and concious disregard for the fact that your work is being used to commit a crime is indeed malicious intent." Cryptographers beware... "computer-

"Knowledge and concious disregard for the fact that your work is being used to commit a crime is indeed malicious intent." Cryptographers beware... "computer-related crime" Except that "computer-related crime" has come to mean "any crime in which a computer is used." As more and more things become computerized, more and more crimes will be "computer-related." Eventually everyone who is accused of a crime will also be accused of a CFAA violation, which will weaken everyone's defense. "If you're trying to show the injustices of a law, it's generally a good idea to find sympathetic defendants rather than criminals or their accomplices" Henry Louis Mencken addressed this more eloquently than I can: "The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all."

jimwhitson 14y ago
IANAL, but I think "knowledge ... a crime" means a particular crime, not a general category. So if you reasonably suspect that your work might be useful to criminals, that's not conspiracy, but as soon as one particular criminal tells you he intends to use your software for a particular crime, you're a conspirator unless you report him to the authorities. So honest cryptographers have nothing to fear, unless a criminal tells them about his crypto-assisted crimes and they don't report it.
mpyne 14y ago
Just as there is a difference between making guns in general, and making a specific gun for a friend who has indicated that he will use it for a specific crime, there is a difference between making programs which can be used in crimes in general and making specific programs to aid and abet specific future crimes. Your point about computer crimes becoming more prevalent is certainly justification to alter legislation dealing with computer crimes so that minor infractions have minor penalties, but I never saw rayiner arguing to the contrary.

jimwhitson 14y ago

IANAL, but I think "knowledge ... a crime" means a particular crime, not a general category. So if you reasonably suspect that your work might be useful to criminals, that's not conspiracy, but as soon as one particular criminal tells you he intends to use your software for a particular crime, you're a conspirator unless you report him to the authorities. So honest cryptographers have nothing to fear, unless a criminal tells them about his crypto-assisted crimes and they don't report it.

mpyne 14y ago

Just as there is a difference between making guns in general, and making a specific gun for a friend who has indicated that he will use it for a specific crime, there is a difference between making programs which can be used in crimes in general and making specific programs to aid and abet specific future crimes. Your point about computer crimes becoming more prevalent is certainly justification to alter legislation dealing with computer crimes so that minor infractions have minor penalties, but I never saw rayiner arguing to the contrary.