Quote:
Originally posted by mrap1
Assuming that a website did want to prosecute a person for using a hacked password, are you saying that the max they could get is their standard membership fee?
|
Wrong. In most states, there are laws in place for a website owner to gather damages for a hack. In Virginia, for example, a webmaster can prove that the hacked password was used by multiple individuals and that this was a loss of income (from the multitude of lost yearly memberships). Additionally, since it can be argued that a paysite's unique content is the only thing that distinguishes it from other sites and that this forms the basis for its membership appeal, a hacked password ruins the mystique that leads to new memberships -- this is, also, a damage to be compensated for (precise numbers are impossible to generate -- but an absence of memberships is usually compelling but its hardly important how many there MIGHT have been had the hack NOT occurred when courts want to make examples of hackers). This applies to more than just porn sites, and is particularlly painful to websites that explain how to do things -- think of how-to real estate forums and such. Whether you like their content or not isn't important; that they had a unique concept or information to sell that is, now, violated is important. The basis for income is gone. It's almost like forceablely releasing patented or copyrighted material into the public domain.
Remember that under current legislation, virus programmers and hackers are, by the letter of the law, terrorists. Be very careful when you do stuff like this.