Judge issues injunction against alleged Cyber Patrol hackers

A Federal Judge has issued a temporary restraining order against two hackers, prohibiting them from distributing an application that allegedly makes it easier for children to access appropriate online information.

Microsystems Software, part of toy maker Mattel's Learning Company division, filed a lawsuit against Eddy Jansson and Matthew Skala earlier this week, asking a judge to order them to stop distributing their Cphack program immediately, after they made the utility freely available for download.

Mattel accused the hackers of breaking copyright law by reverse enginering its Cyber Patrol internet filtering application and then using the allegedly illegally obtained source code to develop their own utility.

Cphack lists more than 100,000 internet sites that are considered unsuitable for children, and if run on a parent's computer, can release the password provided by Cyber Patrol, potentially providing minors with access to such sites.

But US District Judge Edward Harrington has now ordered that the "defendants, their officers, agents, servants, employees, attorneys and those persons in active concert or participation with them, shall discontinue publishing defendant's Cyber Patrol bypass code and binaries known as 'CP4break.zip' or 'cphack.exe' or any derivative thereof."

The ruling prevents the online distribution of the code in the US or the copying of it onto other international websites. It also grants Mattel expedited discovery into who has already downloaded the software.