Winny P2P Software Creator Arrested
Found on Slashdot on Sunday, 09 May 2004
The author of Winny, the Japanese P2P software with encrypted networking capability, similar to Freenet, has been today officially arrested for abetment of copyright violation, after the raid in the last December. He started its development in May 2002 and occasionally appeared on the web forum 2ch with his anonymous codename "47", but today turned out to be an assistant professor of computer science at the University of Tokyo in his 30s. Winny was so efficient and popular that it generated problems even at the Japanese police and the GSDF. As the Japanese police is the most advanced among the world in pulling P2P into criminal cases, outcry of users in Japan is expected.
That's pretty cheap. They are just looking for a scapegoat to blame. If he really has to go into jail, this constitutes a precedent. People could sue the creators of weapons for murdering, car-manufacturers for accidents, nature for carbon monoxide. There is a difference between offender and creator. It would make more sense to sue MS for creating Windows. But wait... Windows creates the biggest network for sharing virii and worms; we should hold MS responsible for that.