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This is potentially terrible precendent essentially allowing private entities to write federal law.
by logn 14y ago
This is potentially terrible precendent essentially allowing private entities to write federal law.
- drivebyacct2 14y agoUnfortunately, that precedent has been (being) set for some time now.
- tptacek 14y agoWhat?
- Domenic_S 14y agoStep 1: Write a ToS for your private entity Step 2: Catch someone violating it Step 3: Sic the Feds (government) on them for violating it (your private, unvetted agreement). (no comment from me personally, but I think that's what the GP was saying.)
- tptacek 14y agoThat is not how the law works.
- raldi 14y agoI'm pretty sure sneaking into a server closet and patching your computer into their network was already against the law before this incident happened.
- sp332 14y agoIt was a janitorial closet, not a server room. And connecting to a network is not illegal.
- tptacek 14y agoNo, but scraping all the articles off JSTOR using MIT's negotiated access in order to put them onto BitTorrent sure is.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- raldi 14y agoYou're asserting that it's legal for you to plug your computer into a piece of networking infrastructure that's clearly not intended for general public use, without the permission of that network's owner? I'm going to have to slap a [citation needed] on that.
- sp332 14y agoIt's the same network that's available elsewhere on campus, so it's not like he was connecting without authorization. Aside from possibly trespassing, what kind of crime would it be?
- tptacek 14y agoAre you suggesting that there's a kind of network equipment that you have to trespass to access for which people have a reasonable expectation that they are authorized to use it? There's no giant sign hanging over the breaker box in my building's elevator room saying "AUTHORIZED USE ONLY", but I'm pretty sure I'd get in trouble if I went in there and started flipping switches.
- sp332 14y agoIf I'm a student, and there's a switch in the teachers' lounge that connects to the same network that I am allowed to access in the rest of the school, then I can illicitly enter the teachers' lounge and plug in to that network with the same authorization that I would have outside. Edit: doesn't have to be wifi.
- tptacek 14y agoI don't follow, but then, we're not talking about wifi networks.
- deleted 14y ago[deleted]
- davidbrent 14y agoEver heard of Operation Fastlink, Buccaneer, Site down, etc... The BSA, MPAA and the RIAA's of America have been doing this for years.