Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
If you're wondering how things are going with the famous DRM'd Polish trains, well, their manufacturer – #Newag – sued the hackers who had un-blocked them:
https://rys.io/en/175.html
But weirdly, after months of implying and suggesting that the locking code was added to the software by the hackers themselves, in the lawsuit the company now insists they did not in fact modify the software installed on the trains.
Why? Because that would not mesh well with the copyright infringement claim. 🤡
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@edavies in the specific case of the trains that were being maintained by SPS and which were the reason to hire the Dragon Sector guys to figure it out, the contract explicitly specified that maintenance *can* be provided by third party yards, and that Newag is supposed to provide all necessary documentation for that.
Newag seems to claim that "software is not documentation" when asked in public hearings about why the documentation provided by them was clearly not enough.
Ed Davies
@rysiek Something I've not seen mentioned explicitly in this case but maybe you, having taken more interest, might know: did the original contract the train operating company signed for these trains specify any obligation to get the maintenance work done by Newag?
I assume not as it should have been mentioned but most of what I've read has been anti-Newag so I'm not sure.
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
A lawyer from Stefan Batory Foundation told me what he thinks of Newag's lawsuit:
> "Based on the media description of the case it seems that we might be talking about a so-called SLAPP"
> "It is in public interest interest that journalists and civil society watch this case closely and verify if it indeed is a case of SLAPP and an attempt to curtail freedom of expression"
During the first hearing, Newag requested that the whole trial be made non-public. The judge rejected that request.
2/🧵
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@richh they very actively tried to blame it on "hackers", i.e. Dragon Sector folks that figured out what's up.
And I would be surprised if the "hey we can just blame it on the hackers, everyone will buy it" thing was not at least a part of the reasons for the decision to not go the route you mentioned.
The stereotype is very strong in Polish media, and lends itself to that kind of crap. One reason why I am allergic to the abuse of the word "hacker" in mainstream reporting.
richh
@rysiek Thanks for the English-lang reporting! I’m amazed Newag haven’t blamed it on a disgruntled former employee, fixed the trains and tried to move the story along. Every rail operator in Europe must be watching this and striking Newag off their “qualified bidder” lists. Who would buy multi-million-euro trains from a company that might do anything resembling this?
Michał "rysiek" Woźniak · 🇺🇦
@richh I do hope you're right
richh
@rysiek It's all very odd. They surely must know that absolutely noone is buying the "but hackers" story - especially after PCERT decided it was credible.
I don't have knowledge of Polish cultural norms or media portrayal of "hacking", but their audience isn't Poles - it's rail operators across Europe. They've massively misjudged this by not just blaming it on an error, apologising profusely, fixing it and putting it to bed. Instead they're going for an industry-wide "Streisand Effect".
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