Skype users: beware (silver needle in the skype)

[housetier]

Morality makes the greatest battlefield. What is illegal in one country can be totally acceptable in another; what is morally frowned upon by most people could be a legal (think law) requirement.

It is very difficult to *argue* on these grounds. I think it is more precise to make clear that the arguments come from one's personal opinion:

I find this not so good because

or

IMO this is acceptable

and similar.

It's about adding precision in order to avoid misunderstandings.

I don't agree nor do I agree with any of the above posts. If you feel agitated or even offended: that's your own fault! 

[NickW]

Somebody recently told me that (in his opinion) the object of art was to question, even attack, one's beliefs, points of view etc - that if a piece of art really annoyed you (he referred to something titled "Piss Christ" which, I guess understandably, rather upset some people) then it had succeeded.
This forum is a work of art!
Have a good weekend all.

[svv1999]

What is illegal in one country can be totally acceptable in another

-housetier (May 19, 2006, 04:06 PM)

Perfectly true. In the former German democratic republic software was like carbon dioxide: once emitted everybody was allowed to use, copy and distribute it.

The problems with the Skype EULA are

1. you are not allowed to proof a hack in your copy of skype and are at the same time responsible for the consequences of that hack.

2. you can do what you want between the date of the termination of the license and the date of the deletion of all copy's under your control.

3. the period between both dates is unspecified.

4. Once terminated you can revive the license by simply getting a new copy and account.

[rocky500]

I just looked up American law and found this.
"Reverse Engineering: University faculty, students, and IT professionals engage in reverse engineering for currently permissible purposes such as research and teaching, debugging, ensuring interoperability between systems, and security testing."

So I think the PDF could actually be legal (in most countrys) if done for debugging & security testing Purposes by IT Professionals or Students etc.

To me the PDF didn't steal anything.
I am so glad that people reverse engineer software to find security risks.
I do not want my Computer System compromised in any way.
I purchase software legally and I am so glad when People with good intentions find the holes before the bad ones do.
I'm from Australia by the way.

Intersting article here
http://lwn.net/Articles/134642/

Quote from Article (You got to feel sorry for America with all their teams of Laywers for the rich stuffing up their country just for finacial gain for a few)

"The recent flurry of rulings that reverse engineering of mass-market products is not fair use have tied one arm behind American programmers' backs while leaving everyone else free to compete with us. . . . These days I teach university courses (undergrad through doctoral) as a Professor of Software Engineering at Florida Tech. We have a lot of grad students from other countries. They are often surprised by our restrictions on reverse engineering -- they certainly don't have their hands tied by these restrictions in their companies.
The United States used to have a commanding lead in software development. We have been steadily losing that lead. Part of the reason for this is that for the last 15 years, lawyers for software publishers have been pushing for short-term advantages for their clients over the long term health of the industry. The ban on reverse engineering is just another example -- we are shooting the American industry in the head, with little actual benefit for anyone (publisher or engineer) in the United States, but plenty of benefit for engineers in all the rest of the world. "

[mouser]

just posted:

Skype Technologies has updated its popular Skype Internet telephony software to fix a security bug that could expose sensitive data.

The flaw could let an attacker construct a Skype hyperlink which, when clicked on by the target, sends a file from the victim's computer to another Skype user, the company said in a security alert published Friday.

http://news.com.com/...4640.html?tag=cd.top

[f0dder]

just posted:

Skype Technologies has updated its popular Skype Internet telephony software to fix a security bug that could expose sensitive data.

The flaw could let an attacker construct a Skype hyperlink which, when clicked on by the target, sends a file from the victim's computer to another Skype user, the company said in a security alert published Friday.

-mouser (May 19, 2006, 11:02 PM)

Sounds good!
Hope that has fixed all the problems... I guess we can expect an addendum to the PDF exploring whether the fixes are sufficient. I hope they are

[nowshining]

skype is not their property,and if u agree with that the person who said that skype's software is their property, then ur house is not ur propety or apartment, ur tv is not ur property, ur carpet, car, cat, dog, bathroom, towels, etc.. and most importantly the CLOTHES on ur back and SHoes on ur feet is not ur property that means the people who built these can LEGALLY come right up and Take ur shoes of ur feet, take ur house/apartment, tv, carpet bathroom, car, cat, dog, towels, the clothers on ur back, 'cause its BASICALLY NOT URS, U DIDN'T BUILD IT... GET IT...

[nowshining]

oh let me clarify the CODE TO SKYPE is SKYPES property, but once its on ur computer the SOFTWARE that u donloaded/bought is urs to do whatever u want....even disassemble it if u like now if someone claims they built the code and is wrong (hey other people have been ripped off by others due to many saying they build something and the person who did patent it patented it with lies claiming they did it when they didn't as this has happened before and is still with many corporations engaging in lawsuit after lawsuit is actually themselvs THIEVES) so I cannot verify if the Originator of skype built it themselves or just patented it first..considering their ACUTAL code they build it with was actually a used one and is patented so TECHNICALLY they don't own it either so that means TECHNALLY every software built from C++ C, etc... is not their own work...U have to DEEP THINK and DEEPLY UNDERSTAND to get this..

[Malacandra]

For my two pennuth and a slight aside.
I still think it is incredibly strange that any program can be copyrighted.
Surely then every program ever written in C++ violates the first program to use:

    cout << endl; 

There are only finite ways to do certain things on a computer within programming language constraints.
So there will be repeated blocks of code in almost every program on your computer.

Sorry, just thought this was funny.

Donationware is the way forward, or Open Source.
If people like your stuff they'll buy it, download it or donate towards it. 

[f0dder]

I don't see a problem with copyrighting software & requiring payment. We live in a capitalistic world, socialism (ufortunately?) never worked out where it was tried implemented. Like it or not, money's what makes the world go round, and without it, many programs wouldn't be written

[Malacandra]

Ah so true.
But then many programs would get written.
Just because you pay (more) for something doesn't mean it's the best software.
Too many programs are over-priced because the market is supply lead and people will pay what they have to.
It's usually justified by the research needed or somesuch reason but it's basically to make as much money as possible.

Anyway slightly off topic, sorry for that.

[SexyLilDarkPaw]

So whats the verdict? ... Are we waiting for patches? and how likely are the chances that the skype server is spying on us and can we protect ourselves with like a external proxy program or tunnel ? O_o

THat whole PDF is theory correct? because it meant nothing to me it was just crazy hex and stuff lol

byebye felicia