Re: SF new article announcement: Can writing software be a crime?

[Kelly Martin <kel () securityfocus com>]

cc wrote:
> Pardon my ignorance, but I find it a little 'strange' that the
> government should be cracking down on this type of thing.  There
> are certainly a lot of products under the sun that fit the
> description of "<product x> can be used for both lawful and
> unlawful purposes".   Wouldn't this open a larger can of
> worms, so to speak?

The issue in this case is that the product was being explicitly marketed
for illegal activities. The U.S. government has been on both sides of
the fence defending or prosecuting people who use security tools. I had
a good chat with Mark Rasch about how this comes to be, and he mentions
some of the reasons in his article.

> Or am I just misreading this whole thing?

Maybe a second read of the article wouldn't hurt. :)

Kelly