A security researcher in France was just busted and given a suspended 5000 Euro fine for publishing security exploit information for Tegam Viguard antivirus. Tegam was not happy about the published research and instigated legal action that resulted in the suspended fine. The prosecution alleged that intellectual property laws were broken by the researcher. This is not good news for Security Research in France and sets a worrying precedent for the rest of the world. The same argument that is often quoted when discussing gun control applies here. If you take all the legally owned guns, then only criminals will have guns. Likewise, if you make finding and publishing security flaws illegal, then only criminals will look for flaws, (they are not likely to publish them though.). Zdnet has the full story.
