Overusing a piece of software in violation of a TOS/license agreement is radically different than employing human agents to conduct on-the-ground corporate espionage.
2,496 karma · joined March 11, 2015
Which companies are employing H-1B labor to work on presumably ITAR/EAR-regulated articles?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motion_Picture_Patents_Company
https://www.lcsc.com/product-detail/C47117600.html
Here's a capable switch for $0.07.
Or literally any $1-3 SPDT RF switch? >80% of which are directly optimized and advertised for wifi and bluetooth?
Which is conveniently exactly what the statute requires to establish criminality: knowingly exceeding authorized access. They have a lawful right to stop you (revoking authorization), you do not have a right to proceed anyway. This is the "wrong" and is accordingly a federal felony.
And, you know, all of the intentional, physical, artfully-planned means by which he did so.
I don't disagree with what he was doing from a moral standpoint or a hacker standpoint, but it's very easy to convict him.
This discussion typically devolves into an argument about what is "publicly accessible." No reasonable person (i.e. those who serve on juries - not autistic software engineers) would agree that someone who isn't even a student at a school is legally entitled to enter a building (unlocked or not), venture into their utility room and access protected computer resources.
Everyone loves to make this about JSTOR: they weren't the only victim. MIT was far more aggrieved; JSTOR blocking his Harvard account access and him proceeding to breach their TOS ("clickwrap agreements aren't law!!!") and circumvent their defenses isn't required to convict him of CFAA violations.
Why can't I go into a bank, sit down at a personal banker's desk who is away on vacation, plug into a switch port and do whatever I want? There's no lock on his cubicle, the door was open! This is the legal equivalent of "neener neener, I'm not touching you."
Mens rea is an important thing people love to sweep under the rug with this case:
• First and foremost: Why did he have to go to into a closet at MIT to fetch documents? Why not do it at home or a public library?
• Because of rate limits and/or authentication requirements. He *knew* he could not obtain the access he needed through other means, so he had to trespass to do it.
• He wasn't some weirdo who liked to wear his helmet that way: he stopped immediately when he believed he didn't need to conceal his identity any further. He *knew* he shouldn't be there.
• Why wouldn't he just use his real name if he believed what he was doing was legitimate?
• Computer people will try to reduce this to "MAC addresses aren't legal identifiers blah blah blah." The beliefs of zealous third parties are completely irrelevant: direct measures were taken to prevent his access, he recognized and immediately circumvented them. He *knew* what he was doing. That's what matters.
Just by fact of population, a generalization may or may not hold more weight. Anecdotes are also tricky to really apply broadly: it's simply impossible for you to have encountered that many Swiss software engineers because few exist... few Swiss people exist. In 2019, there were over 300,000 Indian H-1B petitions to Switzerland's total of 202.
> I'm also sure i've worked with a lot more very good Indian engineers than German engineers here in America, but that might have more to do with who immigrates here.
Relative quality of life in Germany is objectively better in India by pretty much every metric, so there's an automatic/inherent bias - it's probable that more Indians wish to immigrate to the United States. (More than 10% of the Indian population doesn't have access to modern toilet facilities, for instance.) The competition for U.S. immigrant visas is far higher amongst Indians simply by the numbers, so there may also be a filtering function at play.
Do some countries possibly value quality or responsibility as a desirable property more than others at a cultural level? (Is "German Engineering" a real thing?)
Why do 419-style scams seem to emanate from a few specific countries? Why is piracy on the high seas more prevalent in Somalia than the United Kingdom?
This is likely a a flattened curve after you enter ballistic missile territory.
Wow, what an interesting binary when 80% of all cases end in settlement.
...While 99% of road damage is being done by out-of-state semi trucks exempt from CA registration.
Yes - doing this is quite ugly, electrically, is all. Dimmable LEDs, etc. do this same thing (with the load supply, not a separate line - you couldn't get away with this on a fan.)
They are also substantially more quiet (silent) where every Hunter fan from $150-$550 had terrible hums. YMMV.
Poor cooling, poor light emission, poor longevity. Philips Dubai lamps aren't bad in this line, but Feit, Philips' normal products, etc. have high failure rates when installed in most enclosures (fans, cans, tight sconces, etc.)