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Comment by VladRussian | Hacker News Reader

>I can't imagine removing his program from a dozen macs would exceed $5,000,

if to use Randal Schwartz's $68K restitution (in mid-90s prices) to Intel for copying a file between hosts as a precedent ...

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Apparently, the spyware was embedded on over 100 macs. That is at least what is known at the present time. Say apple hires a guy to clean those 100 machines and it takes 1 hour at a rate of??? We get above 5k in no time. Plus, do you really think apple is just going to check those 100 machines he admitted to infecting? Wouldnt you run a check on every single machine in that store? It wont take long to go from 5k to 500k.

The machines are wiped automatically at night. The cost to apple to remove his software is no greater than what they do anyway...

Fair point. But if you were the regional manager at Apple, would you take that chance? More to the point if you were an executive at apple with the your PR team breathing down your neck would you tell them argue your point to the press? Or would you hire a bunch of high priced consultants to preform tests to authenticate and verify the security of the machines and stores in question? Yup, you would pay for the security PR umbrella without question and without hesitation. Again, well over $5k. Also, can you add "indirect costs" into the equation? If so, we have gone from +5k to near $1m in a matter of paragraphs. NEXT....

Are you trying to provide an example of the stupid things a lawyer could invent to blow this out of proportion, or are you actually arguing that there are any damages?

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