Frontiers of free enterprise

During the last week of August, a killer ap was unveiled by a new company set up to exploit the possibilities. Star38 is the company's name and the killer ap allows callers to spoof the caller ID function of your telephone. That is, it enables the caller - a private investigator, a collection agency, a telemarketer - to make your caller ID identify them as someone you know in order to trick you into answering the phone.

However, just three days later,

the founder, Jason Jepson, ... decided to sell the business. Mr. Jepson said he had received harassing e-mail and phone messages and even a death threat taped to his front door - all he said from people opposed to his publicizing a commercial version of technology that until now has been mainly used by software programmers and the computer hackers' underground.

Jepson said that the people who threatened him had tapped his phone and obtained information about his bank account.

"Some people," he said, "are pretty fired up about this."

Doesn't that make him think that this sort of invasive technology is something that should be resisted rather than commercialized? Or is it just that all's fair when it comes to money?

Footnote: Jepson said that he had no paying customers but considerable interest. There is one limitation on its potential, however: It's illegal for collection agencies to misrepresent themselves, and there is at least a good argument to be made that this technology would be included under that ban.