Thread

1. lm411 · 1789782149 · focus · HN ↗

   The Warez scene was an absolute blast. I made some of the best friends of my early teenage years there, both online and online/offline.

   Unfortunately it came to a sudden end after I got a little too cocky and persistently took and re-took control of a smallish US telecom companies network, and the RCMP came knocking on my door for the FBI. That was largely unrelated to Warez but the advice given to me was that I should probably stop that as well. Thankfully I was too young to be charged with any of it at that time.

   I do regret the massive headaches I must have caused the system administrators at the telecom company. Sorry guys. I have repaid my bad karma many times.

   1. shevy-java · 1789784869 · focus · HN ↗

      The question is whether you find it ok that the FBI comes sniffing after you. Personally I don't find it ok at all. I don't see any of that as a crime either. The legislation is clearly written by corporations and lobbyists acting as lawyers. That's another reason why I think open source is preferrable - that way they are replaced indirectly by not depending on them in the first place, meaning, as a trade-off towards how the society is currently structured. Hopefully it will become more sane again in the future. Back then, though, say in the 1990s or early 2000s, the "vibe" of warez also was "look how great ILLEGAL can be".

      1. enneff · 1789789477 · focus · HN ↗

         You don’t think it should be illegal to hack a telecom network and take control of it?

         1. ExoticPearTree · 1789799008 · focus · HN ↗

            Nope. It means the people running it did not do a good job configuring and securing it.

            1. shitloadofbooks · 1789800482 · focus · HN ↗

               So if you steal something it means the owner didn’t do a good job securing it and if you murder someone they didn’t do a good job protecting themselves?

               What an absurd world view.

               1. CrimsonRain · 1789807613 · focus · HN ↗

                  The diff is that owner is responsible for their own shit where a telco has everyone's things in there and is exposed to the whole world instead of just one street.

                  It is like a bank that has sloppy security and exposes you to the whole world, including adversaries from Russia china NK etc.

                  Things like Telco cloud banks should absolutely be thrashed for having bad security. Responsible disclosure should also be a thing but we all know these companies sue people for that too.

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