Hackers Fold Like A Cheap Umbrella

[Secret Squirrel <secret_squirrel@nym.alias.net>]

Maker of Cyber Patrol settles with hackers who spilled secrets 

 But ACLU argues deal couldn't bar others

 By Hiawatha Bray, Globe Staff, 3/28/2000 

Microsystems Software has settled its copyright lawsuit against two computer 
hobbyists who wrote software that defeats the Framingham company's popular 
Internet filter, Cyber Patrol. But the fight isn't over, because of the 
intervention of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The Cyber Patrol case has attracted national attention to the question of 
whether programmers have the right to ''reverse-engineer'' software made by 
others, in order to publicize how that software works.

The controversy began when Eddy Jansson of Sweden and Matthew Skala of Canada 
deciphered the code that makes Cyber Patrol work. They then wrote a program 
called CPHack, which enables the user to read a complete list of all Internet 
sites blocked by Cyber Patrol. CPHack also reveals the master password for 
Cyber Patrol, so that a user can simply switch off the program, which filters 
out pornography and other objectionable material.

Microsystems went to court, charging that Jansson and Skala had violated 
their copyright by creating and distributing CPHack. Last week, a federal 
judge in Boston, Edward Harrington, issued a temporary injunction against 
Jansson and Skala and their Internet service providers. The four defendants 
were ordered to stop posting CPHack on the Internet. They quickly complied.

Over the weekend, Microsystems attorneys worked out a deal with Jansson and 
Skala that was announced yesterday in court. They agreed to stop distributing 
CPHack and to refrain from hacking future versions of Cyber Patrol. They also 
gave Microsystems the ownership rights to CPHack, enabling the company to 
launch copyright lawsuits against anyone else who distributes the program.

The ACLU, though, has gone to bat for a number of Internet activists who have 
published CPHack on their Web sites. ACLU attorney Chris Hansen said that his 
clients are just ''mirroring'' the original CPHack program. Since they didn't 
reverse-engineer Cyber Patrol themselves, Hansen said, they're doing nothing 
wrong.

''My clients didn't commit a copyright violation, even if you accept every 
word they [Microsystems] said,'' Hansen argued.

The dispute turned what might have been a brief hearing into an hour of 
complex disputation between Hansen and Irwin Schwartz, the attorney for 
Microsystems.

Schwartz informed the judge of the settlement with Jansson and Skala and 
asked him to formalize it with a permanent injunction. But that injunction 
would have applied not only to Jansson and Skala, but to operators of mirror 
sites that offer CPHack to the public.

Hansen opposed this, on behalf of three mirror site operators who had asked 
the ACLU to represent them. They are not defendants in the original lawsuit, 
Hansen said, and should not be covered by the injunction.

Hansen noted that Microsystems now owns the copyright to CPHack, as part of 
the settlement with Jansson and Skala. If Microsystems wants to force them to 
stop distributing CPHack, Hansen said, the company should have to file a 
separate copyright suit against the operators of the mirror sites.

''Why don't you go away and make life easy?'' Harrington joked with Hansen at 
one point.

But in the end, the judge indicated he saw some merit in Hansen's arguments. 
He said he would rule in a few days.


 This story ran on page E06 of the Boston Globe on 3/28/2000. 
 © Copyright 2000 Globe Newspaper Company.