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Are you sure there are grounds for a criminal case? When you install and run a piece of software on your computer, you grant it a fairly wide license to run. Ve
by mseebach 14y ago
Are you sure there are grounds for a criminal case? When you install and run a piece of software on your computer, you grant it a fairly wide license to run. Very little actual harm was done (I can't think of anything beyond power consumption and perhaps an infinitesimal amount of wear and tear), and certainly much less than a bug that causes the computer to crash. If crashing the user's computer could be grounds for a criminal case if would have very far-reaching consequences.
- dm2 14y agoSupposedly some peoples video cards got overheated and were destroyed. I would seriously consider participating in a class-action lawsuit if this happened to me.
- mseebach 14y agoIf a piece of hardware accepts a valid API software command that will destroy it, the hardware is faulty, not the software.
- Goronmon 14y agoIf crashing the user's computer could be grounds for a criminal case if would have very far-reaching consequences. It's not "crashing the user's computer". The guy intentionally added hidden functionality to his company's software that he knew would cause an extremely high load on the client. It's the difference between a mistake and deliberate sabotage.
- mseebach 14y agoI'm aware it didn't crash the computer, it's an analogy. Also, "sabotage is a deliberate action aimed at weakening another entity through subversion, obstruction, disruption, or destruction". Clearly not what's going on here, and it's this kind of hyperbole I'm arguing against.