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Technically, the extension is clearing cookies for the site, and setting the "Referer" header to either google.com or facebook.com. Is it illegal to do that? S
by msravi 8y ago
Technically, the extension is clearing cookies for the site, and setting the "Referer" header to either google.com or facebook.com. Is it illegal to do that?
Source: https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox/blob/master/background.js https://github.com/iamadamdev/bypass-paywalls-firefox/blob/m...
- ckastner 8y agoCookie clearing is almost certainly not a legal issue; there'd have to be an explicit legal agreement between the setter and the keeper to be an issue in the first place. The "Referer" header is an interesting question. Hypothetically, if there's be some kind of renumeration for the site (eg: "I grant access to all of your users to my site and in exchange, for every referred visitor, you pay me 0.01 cent"), then spoofing the Referer would incur a financial cost to Google/Facebook. The incurred cost would be negligible for the individual user, but a case could be made against the extension publisher for the aggregated costs.
- esotericn 8y agoIllegal? What? Wallace and Gromit in a case of... the Wrong Bits!?
- MagnumOpus 8y agoIANAL but the definition of Wire Fraud is ridiculously flexible. Manipulation of http headers to get free access to paid services is likely to get you convicted if anyone cared enough to prosecute... Also likely to be punishable under DMCA as circumventing access controls.