As reported on BoingBoing, the developer of Display Eater for Mac OS X apparently configured the app to delete the user’s home directory if a pirated serial number were entered. However, it appears to have been a scare campaign instead of a genuine threat to the serial trading community. I sent in an email to BoingBoing letting them know about the developer’s public letter regarding the fiasco as well as telling them about a real instance of a program doing this back in 2004.
Microsoft has already done as much or more than this by locking users out of their computers if they don’t activate Windows. I wonder if we’re beginning to enter an era of Cold War application development. Unfortunately, it’s difficult to see if an app is packing heat under compiled code.
Photo above: Ardy berates the warez kiddies.
Dynamic Subspace 