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The entire IP concept is really hard to make sense of with the web: a browser works by making a local copy of a remote resource and then making that local copy
by fiddlerwoaroof 6y ago
The entire IP concept is really hard to make sense of with the web: a browser works by making a local copy of a remote resource and then making that local copy available to the user. I don’t see why, from the server’s perspective, the precise client matters: if I use curl + pandoc to read your webpage, is that really meaningfully different from using Firefox or Chrome?
- superkuh 6y ago> is that really meaningfully different from using Firefox or Chrome? In the USA legally it is because the vast majority of the judges that have ruled on these things think anything that isn't a browser is a hacking tool. Using wget is enough to get you thrown in federal prison for accessing public web resources.
- ReaLNero 6y ago> Using wget is enough to get you thrown in federal prison for accessing public web resources. Example?
- aspenmayer 6y agoAaron Swartz remains a prominent example. RIP https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/when-programmers-scrape-by https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-of-technology/when-pro... His JSTOR code (below) calls wget: https://osf.io/bnd2h https://osf.io/bnd2h
- moonchild 6y agoSo, had he opened a browser and used the javascript console to download everything instead, he would have gotten off scot free?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- _jjkk 6y agoWhat's a javascript console? Sounds like a hacker tool, off to prison with him.
- wafflesraccoon 6y agoNitpick, on page three of the document you posted it states that his script used curl and not wget
- aspenmayer 6y agoI was interpolating, the article implies wget but I didn’t mean to imply I had verified that or anything. I’ll admit I did make a stronger statement than intended and was relying on third party interpretations of the code. Thanks for the clarification! I think weev may have used wget in his AT&T work where he discovered links or interactions between customer data and iOS in an AT&T subsite? http://madisonian.net/2013/04/09/academics-go-to-jail-cfaa-edition/ http://madisonian.net/2013/04/09/academics-go-to-jail-cfaa-e...
- nsgi 6y agoWere those public resources, though?
- Thorentis 6y agoNope, you needed to be on the MIT network. He argued that they should be public, which is very much NOT the same thing as actually being public in the eyes of the law.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoThe crime was not that he used wget, it’s that after he was banned from the service he used a server closet he was not permitted to access to continue downloading. Still bullshit but it’s not even close to wgetting a public resource
- aspenmayer 6y agoIsn’t MIT a public university? Edit: no, it’s a private land grant university. What kind of socialism is this, anyway? How is this structure even valid, if not for historical precedent? Nothing against socialism or even my point, really. Just very odd to see how blatantly discriminatory and contradictory this seems to have a private university performing a necessary public service, with free land from the state. Not that the work isn’t well done, or anything. Just bears strict scrutiny.
- PurpleFoxy 6y agoIf I go to a public park and bust open the lock on the utilities shed and mess with the tools, it’s still a crime.
- greensamuelm 6y agoUnited States v. Swartz?
- deleted 6y ago[deleted]
- bo1024 6y agoweev? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#AT&T_data_breach https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weev#AT&T_data_breach
- superkuh 6y agoYes. That's what I was thinking of.