Linux user forced to use Windows as part of home confinement
By Darren Murph 
posted August 24th 2007 1:53PM
posted August 24th 2007 1:53PM
If you think doing five months of hard time in the slammer for uploading a feature film to the internet is tough, try using Windows for nearly half a year when your heart belongs to Linux. Unfortunately, this heartbreaking scenario is indeed true, as the "ex-administrator of the EliteTorrents BitTorrent tracker" is now being forced to use an operating system in which the US government can install monitoring software on. According to Sk0t, who has served his jail time and is now sitting through five months of home confinement, he believes that the government "should have software that conforms to [him]," especially considering how expensive it would be to replace all of one's software... sans a job. Of course, his alternative seems to be just living out the sentence without using a PC at all, but c'mon, we all know that ain't happening.[Via Slashdot]
aww boo hoo- nerds
wah wah go cry some more...
Someone took over "brb" sk0t's nickname?
http://strugglers.net/wiki/User:Andy/Sk0t
at the end of his confinement, do they take the software off?
If not, he could start working on ways to detect it, for others.
In fact, in the middle of his sentence, he could just back his hard drive up to an external usb drive and work at it at leisure later.
Speaking of which, if the clean PC they have him get boots from USB he could boot from that and run his own os. Or boot from CD. Assuming they don't protect the BIOS.
THAT is soooo sad (tear*)
Expensive? There's a FREE 180-day trial of Windows Server 2003 available for download. That should get him through his five month sentence.
Bet he's already got a cracked version of windows downloaded ;)
Tracking his internet usage externally would be such a pain in the rear, I can understand why the gov't is requiring him to install and use local software instead. Good god, imagine using a packet sniffer and hacking apart every packet to make sure its legit?!
Although a local program would be awfully easy to hack . . .
Make him use a Foleo!
Forcing windows use? I'd rather take the death penalty
wheres the UN when you need them?
that is a breach of human rights if i ever saw one.
it has to say someone "people my use whatever OS they like, no matter their race, religion or age."
He could always serve the remainder of his sentence back in federal prison.
Wait, the US government doesn't have monitoring tools for linux?
That just doesn't make sense.
I bet they have the software for Linux too, but just wanted to rub it in a little.
Force him to use OS2 Warp. That should shut him up.
Why doesn't the Fed Govt have Linux software? It's simple. Because Linux is not commercial software, and because the govt is aware of SCO's claims that Linux was concocted out of stolen SCO-UNIX code. And because Windows is easier to debug (and more "user-friendly") than Linux.
That probably isn't too far off.
Keep in mind, it's like the computer version of an electronic monitoring braclet you wear on your ankle. Any attempt to remove, tamper with, or hack around it will be noticed by the software, which will contact your probation officer...As your probation can legally include virtually any condition if it can be at all related to the crime committed (or the commission of other crimes), 100:1 odds says doing *anything* to evade it also violates a condition of your probation.
Maybe the government should hire a few hackers to design a good Unix-based OS designed for monitoring that they could install on a criminal's computer. One that would give them complete control.