The Trojan Defence

[Betamax]

I was thinking about BT's apparent future problems with the MPAA and my mind drifted back to a defence used by a pedophile in the UK. Basically, he was blatantly nabbed with kiddy porn on his machine, but escaped conviction by saying that he'd been infected by a trojan which was responsible for downloading the offensive material. He had some technical experts apparently verify his story and he was let off.

So, I was thinking that maybe somebody should create an array of dormant/docile trojans which could be activated in the case of attempted prosecution by the MPAA. You could then activate the trojan before your machine is inspected and then blame it all on the trojan.

Thoughts?

[DigitalJunkie]

Why not use just a wipe disk utility & wipe your hard disk with multiple passes? No evidence, no case!

[Whistler]

Agreed just deny deny deny

[Mels_Smileys45]

A large hammer works well also.

[black_magiic]

w000000000000000000000t for large hammers, or blow torches

[Mels_Smileys45]

And throw your CDs in the microwave for about 2 seconds. Makes a disc dandy!

really, try it

[rebirth]

I LOVE Zapped-CDs. They look spiffy, you can trace the trail of the electrical arcing. It r00lz. Just pop ur old Britney CD into the microwave for 2 seconds, as he said, nail up on wall and enjoy the many loving, oddball comments you will receive.

[notbob]

I was thinking about BT's apparent future problems with the MPAA and my mind drifted back to a defence used by a pedophile in the UK. Basically, he was blatantly nabbed with kiddy porn on his machine, but escaped conviction by saying that he'd been infected by a trojan which was responsible for downloading the offensive material. He had some technical experts apparently verify his story and he was let off.

So, I was thinking that maybe somebody should create an array of dormant/docile trojans which could be activated in the case of attempted prosecution by the MPAA. You could then activate the trojan before your machine is inspected and then blame it all on the trojan.

Thoughts?

that's a criminal case, not civil like the RIAA or MPAA cases

the evidence responsibilities to convict in a criminal case are much higher, allowing that trojan evidence to provide reasonable doubt. in a civil case, it would probably be irrelevant

it would probably be cheaper to just settle instead of hiring lawyers and risking worse charges (perjury, tampering with evidence) by infecting yourself with a trojan

[Omyn]

We have had this conversation a few times before.

Of course, your best course of legal action isnt
to wipe the drive and try to claim your innocence,
by doing that you would actually bring more
wrong doing in the eyes of the jury than a full
drive with viruses infected on it.

No one can prove you were in control of your
computer then and were just using you as
a proxy to download their files through.

It would be extremely difficult to get you in
court.

[DigitalJunkie]

After you wipe the drive, you can claim Trojan wipe your drive clean after they are done! :-)

[Rajarius]

Magnets are fun too. So is shooting old stuff.

I'd rather give it away though.

[SanDiegoKid]

Has anyone that's been sued actually had their house entered and computer inspected? I've never heard of that, and highly doubt that's part of the process. As was stated before, it's a civil matter and not criminal. The "no I didn't" defense is the best I've heard of. Then countersure for invasion of privacy and harrasment.

[method]

In my last job... the computer I worked on started mass FTP scanning for no reason... CERT contacted the network administrator 2 days later.. according to our network administrator it was a trojan. Crazy things.. computers!! - I guess it could be an acceptable defence.

btw... you can setup your browser to start downloading torrents automatically with your favourite BT client... what happens if a rogue website wants to provide more seeds by automatically redirecting users to a torrent?? Is it possible this could be done in the background without the users knowledge?? (rhetorical question... the answer is YES)

If so (which is plausible)... there'd be a 3rd-party motive and sequence of actions that could lead to an infringement without the users knowledge. The connectivity would have been instigated by a website and enacted by automation of the end-users computer.

How could they prove otherwise?? - And this way it doesn't require a trojan or tampering of anything. :;)

[black_magiic]

thats some pretty good stuff there method

[Watchmen]

In my last job... the computer I worked on started mass FTP scanning for no reason... CERT contacted the network administrator 2 days later.. according to our network administrator it was a trojan. Crazy things.. computers!! - I guess it could be an acceptable defence.

btw... you can setup your browser to start downloading torrents automatically with your favourite BT client... what happens if a rogue website wants to provide more seeds by automatically redirecting users to a torrent?? Is it possible this could be done in the background without the users knowledge?? (rhetorical question... the answer is YES)

If so (which is plausible)... there'd be a 3rd-party motive and sequence of actions that could lead to an infringement without the users knowledge. The connectivity would have been instigated by a website and enacted by automation of the end-users computer.

How could they prove otherwise?? - And this way it doesn't require a trojan or tampering of anything. :;)

how would that be possible?

[Brycen257]

If anyone wanted to infect their own computers with trojans or viruses , it would be ridiculously easy . Just do some browsing of some of the shadier websites (ie porno) , download a few things there , allow pop-ups, allow cookies, allow any installer programs etc that request permission to install to load. Install free screensavers and other "free" programs from the internet on your computer without reading the licensing agreement .Its particularly helpful if you allow numerous third party programs that are packaged along with the program you downloaded to install on your computer .

Disable your antivirus and firewall and any spyware detection . And just for good measure, download some porno and software applications from Kazaa . I doubt it would take even 15 minutes to become infected . Then you unfortunately have no choice but to wipe your hard drive clean so that its functional again .

Having said all that, that doesn't mean that I would suggest or recommend that anyone follow these steps to try to avoid detection of any files they may or may not have had. But unfortunately I can't control what other people may decide to do .