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MS Source Code Seller Gets Two Years

By Nate Mook, BetaNews

January 27, 2006, 3:12 PM

A Connecticut man convicted of selling stolen portions of Microsoft's source code for its Windows operating system was sentenced to two years in prison by a federal Judge on Friday. William Genovese Jr., 29, pleaded guilty in August to the crime after being charged in February 2004.

An undercover FBI agent and a paid Microsoft investigator were able to successfully purchase and download the source from Genovese's Web site. Genovese, who went by the alias "illwill," was selling code for Windows 2000 and NT 4.0, but was likely not the person who originally obtained it.

Unauthorized users that have access to source code could pose a problem for Microsoft. By having copies of the internals of an operating system, a hacker could write new viruses and malware to exploit vulnerabilities within that code.

U.S. District Judge William Pauley cited Genovese's history of criminal activity, which included 12 prior convictions including three computer crimes and a sexual abuse charge, when handing down his ruling. Before his plea agreement, Genovese could have received up to 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

After his two years are up, Genovese will be supervised for three years. He must also register as a sex offender and install software on his computer that will track his activity. Genovese simply told the court, "I screwed up."

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By roostermohsh

edited Jan 30, 2006 - 2:32 PM

All crime should be labelled terrorism. Pure and simple.

12 priors. Sexual offender. One bullet will fix this.

Score: 0

By isapuff

edited Jan 30, 2006 - 1:37 PM

It was said "commit a crime, serve the time? I'm pretty sure that regardless of what was done". There is a problem with this the law is the law and if you dont like it change it but dont break it mentality. Remember the Salem witch trails? If you spoke out about it, you were considered 'one of them' and punished accordingly. The same thing happens here in the US today. Its very hard to change alot of these rediculous laws that are designed to make it appear as the politicians are doing something, or to preserve the power of the rich.
One paragraph seems particulary biased describing how relase of the code could be used by hackers for malicious activities. They dont however mention at all the many positive uses it could be used for, such as reporting the bugs, or by students to learn from for example.
Dont get me wrong, this guy sounds like a typical selfcenterd idiot.

"Create a climate of fear and it's easy to keep the borders closed. It's just a matter of emphasis. The right word in the right broadcast, repeated often enough, can destabilize an economy, invent an enemy, change a vote..." - The Editor (from doctor who episode)

Score: 0

By jshurst

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 12:52 PM

"12 prior convictions" shouldn't this guy already be in prison?

Score: 0

By tipsyboy

posted Jan 29, 2006 - 3:56 PM

Make a film of this stuff - a comedy. Stupid people are always good for a laugh, especially when dealing with matters that are above their minds.

Very soft judging. Very gracefully. Though, maybe, people like this guy are more punished by being buggy than by any "time".

Score: 0

By Matrix3000k

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 7:31 PM

Oh I really hope that some hacker did buy that off the site. It is just rediculous. They convict him and then they open it up to the public last week. What a bunch of morons they are. I really hope Microsoft falls flat on their face!!!!.

Score: 0

By Jedite

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 9:26 AM

JFC.. Don't people read anymore? I mean past the headlines.

First of MS has not opened up the Source Code to windows. They have opened up a select section of the source code, and it is not for public viewing. They are willing to license this select section of source code to those devs willing to pay up for the license. Also with the license comes a nice little disclaimer were you cannot copy or mimic any of the MS source code that has been licensed to you.

READ PEOPLE. FREAKING READ. Before you make idiotic posts that make you look totally and completly ignorant.

Score: 0

By hmemcpy

posted Jan 29, 2006 - 4:09 AM

Opening the source code (actually, licensing it) does not give anyone the right to sell it. Selling proprietary code is illegal. Do the crime - do the time. That simple.

I can't believe that even this obvious crime is justified by Microsoft bashers. Pathetic.

Score: 0

By Skyfrog

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 12:56 PM

"He must also register as a sex offender and install software on his computer that will track his activity."

WTF? For selling Microsoft source code?

Score: 0

By VikingBlade

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 3:25 PM

No, he was already convicted of sexual abuse (nothing to do with MS). I don't know why they included the two in the same sentence.

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 8:39 PM

Welcome to Capitalistic World where PROFIT is the top concern of all others.

Score: 0

By jspratjr

edited Jan 28, 2006 - 9:41 AM

What a joke - the guy was trying to profit from STOLEN goods. How hard is that to understand?

Score: 0

By swampfox

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 8:27 PM

Child abusers walk free, while this dangerous crimminal is off the streets. Clearly the laws are to protect profits, not our children.

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 11:40 PM

Please see my response to Floodland.

Score: 0

By Floodland

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 6:47 PM

And another example where law help to protect.. people?, erh, no sorry, just big corporations. Micro$oft still needs to make security trough obscurity. Hackers can make viruses not because one soul published windows source code but because Microsoft code is TERRIBLE. I think selling someone else code is bad, but there are worse actions to jugde.
If this man go to jail for 2 years and pay $250k fine, Bill Gates should go to jail for his next 2 reincarnations and the fine no less than $60000000000. And justice for all.

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 11:40 PM

Am I the only one who sees justice and law as meaning-- commit a crime, serve the time? I'm pretty sure that regardless of what was done, if you are convicted of a crime, you are punished for it.

Law enforcement agents and lawyers have this little thing called EVIDENCE that is required to convict people of crimes. Hence the policy, guilty until proven innocent.

If you know of a criminal that is not in prison but should be, then the right thing to do is report it and provide evidence of the crime... not sit on BetaNews whining about speculated events.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 9:20 AM

roflmao...

D'oh!

Don't ya hate it when your whole argument is ruined by a simple typo?

"guilty until proven innocent."

Or was that a commentary on the current state of our judicial system? (which, in fact, is still doing just fine for the most part, contrary to popular belief.)

Score: 0

By googun

edited Jan 30, 2006 - 4:06 AM

Were you being ironic?

The basis of criminal law is "innocent until proven guilty"., not the other way around. If it were the other way around, we'd all be criminals by default.

Even if he was innocent, the chances of him winning against the megabucks lawyers of Microsoft and the FBI were always likely to be slim at best. And given the stupidity of the crime and its unlikeliness to succeed, the plea agreement seems the best way out for him. However, if he didn't actually sell the source code to anyone other than the investigators, the huge fine seems to be nothing other than a deterrent to others.

Score: 0

By maoge

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 11:08 PM

good point

james
http://www.dubo888.com

Score: 0

By john_zorn

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 1:01 PM

"Hence the policy, guilty until proven innocent."Hahahaha... Silly troll, boards are for techs. Quit baiting.

Score: 0

By Floodland

edited Jan 28, 2006 - 8:18 AM

You are right, except for the fact that Microsoft has the largest (and maybe the best) lawyer team in the world. I'll need too much money to attempt proove something against Microsoft. I don't have the resources to do it, and neither trust in justice, but if people start being aware of things you'll never hear on TV, that's good. That's the power of internet: Besides efforts, nobody can really control it and you have more than the official speech.

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 9:11 AM

That's what class-action suits are for... you get a large group of people with the same problem to join forces. :)

Score: 0

By Black-Wolf

edited Jan 27, 2006 - 5:37 PM

haha, poor b@st@rd

Score: 0

By hlesesne

edited Jan 27, 2006 - 6:58 PM

And to make matters worse, Microsoft opened it all up a couple of days ago...

http://hal.lco.net/2006/...ker+Gets+Two+Years.aspx

Hal

Score: 0

By PhoenixPath

posted Jan 30, 2006 - 9:16 AM

Thought that was only the Networking protocols, not the OS itself.

Two entirely different things.

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 11:37 PM

Umm, they opened it to those developers who license it under strict conditions. Please don't overstate the concession they made to the EU. :)

Score: 0

By purefx

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 3:23 AM

those strict conditions are merely the beginning... they will open up more.

Score: 0

By GoodThings2Life

posted Jan 28, 2006 - 9:12 AM

Hmm... maybe, but never to the satisfaction of Open Source :)

Score: 0

By purefx

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 7:28 PM

Ironic.

Score: 0

By PC_Tool

posted Jan 27, 2006 - 3:41 PM

"I screwed up" = "I got caught"

So...where they keeping him for those two years? Got a thank-you card to send out.

Score: 0

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