> In the US at least, this is not a crime. If someone leaves their car unlocked by accident, why should they get punished if someone steals it and uses it for a crime?
Negligence. If you own a powerful tool, you are at least in part responsible for it not to be misused. Similarly to how you are usually required to keep your guns locked away and are held responsible (at least ideally…) if someone steals them from your kitchen table and misuses them, you are held responsible if someone just sits in your car and drives off to kill someone.
> Victim blaming is not the answer, it's just silly.
Except that the victim in a DDoS is the person being ddos’d, not the random user who installed malware. If someone gave you a key and said “Enter this flat over there, take the computer, bring it to me and I’ll give you 10€“, you couldn’t later claim to be a “victim” because they stole your time. If someone sends you a file and goes “double-click this and you’ll get fantastic porn”, I don’t see how you could later claim to be a victim if they stole part of your data cap.
If someone tells you "Enter this flat over there, take the computer, bring it to me and I’ll give you 10€", its on you to realize that that is illegal (and morally wrong) and refuse to comply.
"Double-click this for fantastic porn", on the other hand, will sound perfectly legitimate to many unsuspecting computer users. And there is nothing inherently illegal about the act.
A gun is one of the few things you could reasonably make the negligence argument with. Anyone can get a car, or a knife, or a big plank, and leaving one in the street with no lock does not meaningfully contribute to crime.
Negligence. If you own a powerful tool, you are at least in part responsible for it not to be misused. Similarly to how you are usually required to keep your guns locked away and are held responsible (at least ideally…) if someone steals them from your kitchen table and misuses them, you are held responsible if someone just sits in your car and drives off to kill someone.
> Victim blaming is not the answer, it's just silly.
Except that the victim in a DDoS is the person being ddos’d, not the random user who installed malware. If someone gave you a key and said “Enter this flat over there, take the computer, bring it to me and I’ll give you 10€“, you couldn’t later claim to be a “victim” because they stole your time. If someone sends you a file and goes “double-click this and you’ll get fantastic porn”, I don’t see how you could later claim to be a victim if they stole part of your data cap.