Malicious Compliance

18113 readers

2 users here now

People conforming to the letter, but not the spirit, of a request. For now, this includes text posts, images, videos and links. Please ensure that the “malicious compliance” aspect is apparent - if you’re making a text post, be sure to explain this part; if it’s an image/video/link, use the “Body” field to elaborate.

======

We ENCOURAGE posts about events that happened to you, or someone you know.
We ACCEPT (for now) reposts of good malicious compliance stories (from other platforms) which did not happen to you or someone you knew. Please use a [REPOST] tag in such situations.
We DO NOT ALLOW fiction, or posts that break site-wide rules.

======

Also check out the following communities:

[email protected] [email protected]

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

917

Here's all the source code (lemmy.sdf.org)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

88 comments fedilink hide all child comments

In 2000, I wrote a Linux device driver that "decrypted" the output of a certain device, and my company, which hosted open-source projects, agreed to host it.

The "encryption" was only a XOR, but that was enough for the maker of said device to sue my company under 17 U.S.C. § 1201 for hundreds of millions in damages.

The story got a lot of press back then because it highlighted how stupid the then-new DMCA was, and also because there was a David open-source enthusiasts vs. Goliath heartless corporation flavor to it.

Our lawyer decided to pick up the fight to generate free publicity for our fledgling company. For discovery, the maker of the device requested "a copy of any and all potentially infringing source code". They weren't specific and they didn't specify the medium.

So we printed the entire Linux kernel source code including my driver in 5-pt font and sent them the boxes of printouts. Legally they had been served, so there was nothing they could do about it.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Damn. Did they ever find your actual source code in there

[–] [email protected] 79 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

No idea. That company folded before it could even respond. It was a typical dot-com with a completely ridiculous business model. That's why our lawyer decided to fight the suit: he figured they'd collapse soon anyway, so we might as well milk the lawsuit for the publicity.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 8 months ago

Smart man