6 ms·

But it's illegal. It's abusing the system.

nottorp 4y ago
This ticks me off every time i see it. Neither Amazon, nor Google or any other tech company are allowed to make laws. It's a breach of the terms of service maybe, and maybe illegal, but whatever the terms of service say is not a law and said terms of service could be themselves illegal. They have enough power, please stop attributing them even more by your choice of terms.
- wstuartcl 4y ago
  It is not that they are creating new laws, it's that the dev committed theft of services and fraud (existing well established laws) as he utilized the system with intent to receive free services that were directly forbidden in the grant from google.
- paxys 4y ago
  It is most definitely illegal to buy and use stolen credentials from darknet markets (which is what the author hypothesizes happened in this case). It is also illegal to misrepresent the service you are providing to a customer.
- advisedwang 4y ago
  It's likely wire fraud
  - davidguetta 4y ago
    free credits is not money. FAANG can't just create money by saying we give you 100k credits
    - advisedwang 4y ago
      Wire fraud doesn't require that you're stealing money: > Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or *property* by means of false or fraudulent pretenses ... (18 USC 1343) Property here includes stealing services of value (in fact it even includes intangibles such as confidential info or goodwill, see Carpenter v. United States 484 US 19).
imwillofficial 4y ago
Being against the terms of service is not illegal. They are different things. Google might have a case for fraud, but that would be unlikely to move forward given the circumstances.
hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago
It’s against the terms of service, and a bad idea because you’ll get banned and lose all the data in the free accounts, but is it illegal?
- scrollaway 4y ago
  Not a lawyer. It's likely fraud. (Doesn't matter because the story is fictional anyway)
- 0xbadcafebee 4y ago
  Technically, breaking a contract is not illegal. But a broken contract is evidence that can be used to sue someone for a crime. If our contract was "you pay me $50 every month for a year and I give you service in return", and you don't pay me, I can sue you for fraud and use the contract as evidence. But if our contract was "you must say 'Hail, Emperor!' every time you see me", and you break that contract, there is no law that enforces that.

This ticks me off every time i see it. Neither Amazon, nor Google or any other tech company are allowed to make laws. It's a breach of the terms of service maybe, and maybe illegal, but whatever the terms of service say is not a law and said terms of service could be themselves illegal. They have enough power, please stop attributing them even more by your choice of terms.

wstuartcl 4y ago
It is not that they are creating new laws, it's that the dev committed theft of services and fraud (existing well established laws) as he utilized the system with intent to receive free services that were directly forbidden in the grant from google.
paxys 4y ago
It is most definitely illegal to buy and use stolen credentials from darknet markets (which is what the author hypothesizes happened in this case). It is also illegal to misrepresent the service you are providing to a customer.
advisedwang 4y ago
It's likely wire fraud
- davidguetta 4y ago
  free credits is not money. FAANG can't just create money by saying we give you 100k credits
  - advisedwang 4y ago
    Wire fraud doesn't require that you're stealing money: > Whoever, having devised or intending to devise any scheme or artifice to defraud, or for obtaining money or *property* by means of false or fraudulent pretenses ... (18 USC 1343) Property here includes stealing services of value (in fact it even includes intangibles such as confidential info or goodwill, see Carpenter v. United States 484 US 19).

imwillofficial 4y ago

Being against the terms of service is not illegal. They are different things. Google might have a case for fraud, but that would be unlikely to move forward given the circumstances.

hsbauauvhabzb 4y ago

It’s against the terms of service, and a bad idea because you’ll get banned and lose all the data in the free accounts, but is it illegal?

scrollaway 4y ago
Not a lawyer. It's likely fraud. (Doesn't matter because the story is fictional anyway)
0xbadcafebee 4y ago
Technically, breaking a contract is not illegal. But a broken contract is evidence that can be used to sue someone for a crime. If our contract was "you pay me $50 every month for a year and I give you service in return", and you don't pay me, I can sue you for fraud and use the contract as evidence. But if our contract was "you must say 'Hail, Emperor!' every time you see me", and you break that contract, there is no law that enforces that.