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Comment by Svexark | Hacker News Reader

> The functions listed above are not mainstream use cases for legitimate software.

Who decides what is "legitimate" software? Do you want to live in a world where you have to get the government's approval before writing code?

How could a feature be "mainstream" if it isn't included in software? Should we have arrested Steve Jobs for the Macintosh because GUI wasn't "mainstream" when it came out?

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For that matter... if it's not legitimate, then why does the hardware have the ability to do it? Why does camera hardware allow the light to be disabled during recording? I mean SYN is useful, and SYN flood might be useful for systems testing... that said, there are other tools for that, and RAT probably isn't the right place.

In any case, this is definitely a slippery slope as there are "Security" companies that provide software that does all of this that act as US, local and other govt vendors.

>Do you want to live in a world where you have to get the government's approval before writing code

I'm not saying it would be a good idea but there is a very clear comparison here to building permits.

For example, you may want to remodel some part of your house and remove/replace some walls. To do this, you must get the governments approval.

It is simple, the law decides.. Whether the law is sane or sensible is a different matter ..

Which law provides an unambiguous definition of "legitimate software"?

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