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I think that's a stretch. Here's another example: A certain airline offers upgrades to first class seating, but only within a certain time period before the fl
by flatline3 14y ago
I think that's a stretch. Here's another example:
A certain airline offers upgrades to first class seating, but only within a certain time period before the flight.
When using their website, I realized that I could pass in the time constraint as a parameter to their webapp. Boom, cheap first class upgrade, at any time!
Is that stealing? Yes. At the very least, theft of service. That first class ticket can sell for thousands of dollars, and instead, this trick would have allowed me to get it for hundreds. Just because their webapp allowed it doesn't make it OK. It's no different than tricking someone at the counter into giving you an item for free, or giving you extra change.
- tptacek 14y agoThe distinction you're trying to draw between "theft" and "theft of service" is the reason we have fraud statutes. Fraud is a more general crime than theft.
- lowboy 14y agoI think that analogy is flawed because the airline can only sell that seat once. If you used that hack, then you would be removing the chance that the airline could sell that seat for the full price. That doesn't apply to the wifi situation.