Malicious design is putting it mildly. This is fraud with a bit of blackmail sprinkled in. They bricked perfectly functioning trains that their customers already had paid for, because another workshop was chosen for servicing them after the warranty period of the train ended. Then they charged over 20k € to unlock trains they deliberately locked before. The unlocking itself took them 10 minutes.
In a just world the Newag CEOs would go to jail for this, but sadly we all know this won’t happen.
This and many other things is why I always thought that even from the viewpoint of “common good” reverse engineering, copying and disassembly and whatever else of everything digitally stored should be absolutely immune to the law. Otherwise it’s illegal to know if the other side is breaking the law to sue it.
Malicious design is putting it mildly. This is fraud with a bit of blackmail sprinkled in. They bricked perfectly functioning trains that their customers already had paid for, because another workshop was chosen for servicing them after the warranty period of the train ended. Then they charged over 20k € to unlock trains they deliberately locked before. The unlocking itself took them 10 minutes.
In a just world the Newag CEOs would go to jail for this, but sadly we all know this won’t happen.
Sabotage. Property made unusable. Passengers were literally stranded in the middle of a journey.
Yeah, this has a criminal component of endangering train traffic and putting hundreds of lives at risk.
This is not merely fraud or property damage. This should be seen in the context of attempted homicide.
The story I read the trains were bricked in the maintenance yards. Do you have the source about passangers?
This and many other things is why I always thought that even from the viewpoint of “common good” reverse engineering, copying and disassembly and whatever else of everything digitally stored should be absolutely immune to the law. Otherwise it’s illegal to know if the other side is breaking the law to sue it.