Do the laws require distribution or showing of intent to harm or simply writing malware?
Is there any precedent to democracies jailing a person over reducing to writing an idea or algorithm?
What is illegal is stealing from banks, and conspiring to steal from banks—and so they’ll show communication, an illegal agreement, and concrete acts in support of the conspiracy. If they weren’t pretty sure they could persuade a jury of those, they wouldn’t have gotten this far.
There are also some devices it’s illegal to build—bombs, for example, and other devices whose only or nearly-only purpose is illegal. Some software is included there, including software whose only purpose is illegal wiretapping.
That makes it legal to write and exchange proofs of concept for vulnerabilities, but you have to be really careful not to make the PoC too pointy.
[1] https://dejure.org/gesetze/StGB/202c.html
[1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/volokh-conspiracy/wp/201...
We better hope they have some real evidence beyond just some random code; if mere possession is enough, they can throw all of us security people in jail, together with anybody who has any DRM circumvention or file-sharing software and whatnot. Seems any computer could contain something to detain just about anybody if twisted around enough.
I guess only the future will bring clarity if this is gross overreach or if they really have substantial evidence that he is both the source and had the intent.
A gun is designed to fire bullets, the bullet is designed to inflict intended levels of damage upon the target of choice. A single gun can have ammunition that ranges from no damage whatsoever to any target up to beyond lethal to a living target.
In other words, your gun's primary purpose is what you decide it is.
While I do appreciate and support the backpressure on illegal activities on the internet to make it a safe place, it should also apply to state activity.
Using the code to commit illegal acts is the issue.