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DMCA Anti-circumvention vs. (was it more than just) bug reporting?
Posted by Tara Swaminatha on Monday, November 17 @ 11:55:11 EST Digital Millennium Copyright Act
Online gaming service provider, Gamespy, sent a cease and desist letter to an Italian independent researcher, Luigi Auriemma, for posting information about security vulnerabilities in Gamespy's software. The company suggests Auriemma violated the DMCA's anti-circumvention provision.

Auriemma's own account is slightly different. Claiming he is just conducting security research, Auriemma says he alerted the company to the first bugs he found and that nothing he has posted since then (e.g. on Bugtraq) has been inappropriate. Last week Auriemma removed the information about Gamespy product vulnerabilities from his website.

Gamespy agrees that Auriemma's activities initally consisted of bug reports, however they assert he violated the DMCA when he began publishing game pirating techniques and how to attack Gamespy's network.

Gamespy assures its invocation of the DMCA anti-circumvention provision is "not against security researchers in general but against one person who, the company maintains, has focused on the company maliciously."

A Gamespy VP said, "It is not that we don't welcome people talking about bugs--we do." The company's Chairman and Founder stated in an online letter, "It's all about playing games and having fun, people! That's why we do what we do!"

Some question whether the U.S. law can be enforced against Auriemma in Italy.
 
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