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emidlntoday at 6:45 PM2 repliesview on HN

If you can be prosecuted for guessing urls you can be prosecuted for sending garbage data in a way you know will be uploaded to a remote system.


Replies

vkoutoday at 9:21 PM

You think criminalizing guessing URLs is unreasonable.

What about guessing passwords? Should someone be prosecuted for just trying to bruteforce them until one works?

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mindslighttoday at 7:01 PM

As a strictly logical assertion, I do not agree. Guessing URLs is crafting new types of interactions with a server. The built in surveillance uploader is still only accessing the server in the way it has already been explicitly authorized. Trying to tie some nebulous TOS to a situation that the manufacturer has deliberately created reeks of the same type of website-TOS shenanigans courts have (actually!) struck down.

As a pragmatic matter, I do completely understand where you're coming from (my second paragraph). In a sense, if one can get to the point of being convicted they have been kind of fortunate - it means they didn't kill themselves under the crushing pressure of a team of federal persecutors whose day job is making your life miserable.

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