moltar

Is Breaking CAPTCHA a Crime? | Threat Level | Wired.com

nkobend

yes it is. You can get life or even a death sentence in Alabama for it.

You'll also rot in Hell for all eternity afterwards. Don't you read your Koran? "Thou shalt not suffer a captcha-breaker to live"

And its even in the Bible, Corinthians 17:11 "And the breakage of the captcha resounded mightily unto the hordes of the Israelites, and they Googledeth that it was good".

pushchris

^^LOL

Refrozen

It almost certainly is. It's 1: unauthorized access to a computer system and 2: probably an infringment on the DMCA ;-)


IANAL.

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Bofu2U

Definitely isn't unauthorized access. Also isn't an infringement on DMCA. DMCA assumes what you do after you get in, and unauthorized means you get into a system that is supposed to lock out everyone but a specific list. CAPTCHA cracking a signup form isn't breaking into anything.

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Refrozen

I dunno man. I'd talk to a lawyer who actually had a fuckin' clue what they were talking about if I cared.

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eVandals

What if some random indian fills in the captcha for me through an api?

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Flash4Ever

Well said. No rule says that CAPTCHA strings have to be read by human eyes and not by pattern recognition algorithms.

The real infringement in the article is :

faceblogger

It can't be a crime!

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igl00

soon everything will eb a crime

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bobby

amen.

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tainted

Good thing I'm already a criminal. Ahead of the curve ;-)

zingo

CNN: Spam/Illegal Webmaster DeCaptcha.com Under Investigation - Associated Press 7-14-10

lwelch45

that hurr-durr crap was not funny

Taraqil

Offenses against intellectual property.

(a) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization or without reasonable grounds to believe that he or she has such authorization, attempts or achieves access, communication, examination, or modification of data, computer programs, or supporting documentation residing or existing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network commits an offense against intellectual property.
(b) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization or without reasonable grounds to believe that he or she has such authorization, destroys data, computer programs, or supporting documentation residing or existing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network commits an offense against intellectual property.
(c) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization or without reasonable grounds to believe that he or she has such authorization, discloses, uses, or takes data, computer programs, or supporting documentation residing or existing internal or external to a computer, computer system, or computer network commits an offense against intellectual property.
(d)(1) Except as otherwise provided in this subsection, an offense against intellectual property is a Class A misdemeanor, punishable as provided by law.
(2) If the offense is committed for the purpose of devising or executing any scheme or artifice to defraud or to obtain any property, then the offender is guilty of a Class C felony, punishable as provided by law.
(3) If the damage to such intellectual property is greater than two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500), or if there is an interruption or impairment of governmental operation or public communication, transportation, or supply of water, gas, or other public or utility service, then the offender is guilty of a Class B felony, punishable as provided by law.
(4) Whoever willfully, knowingly, and without authorization alters or removes data causing physical injury to any person who is not involved in said act shall be guilty of a Class A felony, punishable as provided by law.
(Acts 1985, No. 85-383, p. 326, §3,; Act 2003-355, p. 962, §1.)


This is some Alabama legalize regarding computer crime. There are no doubt tried cases setting praxis for interpretation of this of which I have no knowledge, but just reading the text you could definitly argue that if you have a computerprogram automate a decaptcha (a system to control the user is a human being), you do not have reasonable grounds to belive you are authorized. But ye, you should talk to a lawyer if you are worried.

GerardWon

I think it depends on how you look at it. So say your using xrumer to get backlinks to your money site to boost it's PV's. Aren't you in reality lying to people about the popularity of your site? Aren't you committing a fraud?
I understand that this is not what was done in the case cited by wired -- my example is much more innocent(?). But the reality is that if the news media jumps all over something, than it can easily spiral out of control. The average net user is sooo ignorant-- whatever they read or hear on the news becomes an evil truth.

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seoworking

Well I asked a friend who does this job of making people decode captcha and get paid, he said it is illegal though he did not mention anything about it being a crime.There are so many sites which decode captcha I dont think they get caught.....so if you ask me I say it is illegal but surely not a crime

Uncle Tony

Maybe if it can be proven that the person doing the breaking expressly agreed to the site's TOS which contains a clause about CAPTCHAs. This would mean registering on the site. Those footer notices that claim the mere act of visiting the site "constitutes acceptance of TOS" are about as worseless as those email signatures stating not to forward or publish the contents if received by anyone other than the intended recipient.

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hyerutko

Great post. Thanks for the heads-up

webweaver

Yes Jesus is watching you

Falian

This would create a very slippery slope. You're essentially giving power to website owners to constitute what is a crime. Anything that breaks their TOS could then be considered a crime.

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aparadekto

Every time you break a captcha Jesus cries.

BacklinksMonkey

Kills a kitten, too. And a fat Chinese guy masturbates.

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irish

I have similar thoughts

runinto

that cracked me up!. Nice one. Certainly they need to be googled to death.

greengoblin

well im a career crook then

az2005guy

just about everything is illegal if you get caught

karizma07

yes it is illegal!

goddesspoo

it's a crime if you believe it is!

SharePro

Breaking captchas is not illegal and just the suggestion is depriving the handicap a valid chance to join and participate in forums.

Fact is, most blind people live on Decaptcher.com!

Now tell me your not discriminating...

vibra

LOL agreed Just don't abuse it and no one will mind you.

lukep

^^^This.

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svigor

lol....i don think so

jigggermonkey

only if watching porn and writing about it is illegal =\

TigerUK

it can, i know all you guys are laughing about it, but it's down to the intent and purpose behind it.

thre was a tread on here long ago about some dude who realsed that hotmail was assesing whether an email is junk or not based on how man users allow/block list it's on.

so the guy opened up millions, yes millions of hotmail accounts, put his spam email account down as "allow" and then spamed hotmail users.

if youre breaking captcha ate a mass scale, hundreds of thousands of them, then you are faciliating spam but circumvent anti spam procedures..

it all coes down to who you pissed off and do they have big po kets to sue you.

if you break googles patcha system for instance and offer this service out to others, they'll rape your ass.

Blogofsports

If you are breaking captcha ate a mass scale, hundreds of thousands of them, then you are faciliating spam but circumvent anti spam procedures.

TigerUK

Why the fuck are you copy pasting my stuff like this. What are you trying to achieve by raising the post count here?

lukep

I smell a BOT! Oooooohhhh MODs.....

Man this is Deja-vu... The exact same thing happened to me by a different user over here on the DFB forum.

...Love to see if their IP addresses matched up...

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GoogleBitchSlap

lmfao

music4mic

This shit is so absurd. More federal interference, they work within the law and stop trying to manipulate them to their sole advantage.

Enforcing contracts = aok
manipulating laws so they can lock people up for retarded reasons = garbage.

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ly2 from WF

fucking son of a bitch...

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_GR1NN3R_

It was pretty funny

robognome

Bot.

lukep

A new kind of spin, ly2? What shall it be named? The "Hotdog Roll?"

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itos84

Sorry but I really laught at that. I don´t think it´s a really big problem.

Bofu2U

No, it's not illegal

the truth

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eziolan

Agree!

TigerUK

fuck you

teguh123

If only there is a system where chinese can solve captcha for porn and we can monetize that with pix profit. Hmm...

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warrichpk

Yes , it is , some countries have severe warning and punishments for doing it and also bible also warns about it , so be carefulll..

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