Password Sharing - Potentially a Federal Crime?

Discussion in 'The Veterans' Lounge' started by Aghinem, Jul 11, 2016.

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  1. Aghinem Augur

  2. Jhenna_BB Proudly Prestigious Pointed Purveyor of Pincusions

    The link says Foxnews on it. I'm not clicking it. :p
  3. EnchFWO Augur

    I started reading and thought the exact same thing once I saw that :D
  4. --Voodoo-- Augur

    It's an interesting case that could set an unintended precedent. This is probably not the right forum for discussion of the subject though.

    Cliff notes for those that don't want to read:
    Some guy left a company, then used the password of someone still at said company to access a private database, and used the information at his new job. The guy was convicted on hacking charges.

    A appeals judge raised a point that the case does not distinguish between that kind of password sharing, and something like sharing your Netflix password. Which could potentially be used by subscription providers to criminalize said sharing.
    Aghinem likes this.
  5. Aghinem Augur


    If it makes you feel warm and fuzzy - you can simply google 'password sharing criminal' to see that FoxNews is not the only reporting news agency.
  6. Aghinem Augur


    It is very interesting, and you're right about the forum - though I don't think this subject matter falls under any particular category, however it could apply to EverQuest as it is a digital subscription service and the case itself could set a dangerous precedent for those who make habit of password sharing.
  7. Gyurika Godofwar Augur

    That's too broad an interpretation and likely wouldn't stick in any court. Not to mention any company that tried to use that against it's customers would lose a large portion of their customers.
  8. Aghinem Augur


    Technically aren't they already losing customers though if someone is not paying for an account and simply accessing someone else's? Curious to your thoughts :)
    Kaenneth likes this.
  9. Gundolin Augur

    I would say its a bad, bad idea to share your password. Too many people have had someone they trust share their password only to get completely screwed over later, after that trusted person turned out to be a 45540!3.
    Aghinem likes this.
  10. MrMajestykx Augur

    and yet Killary was a total innocent according to the Fed but this is a crime go figure lol
    Enkel and Aghinem like this.
  11. Kaenneth [You require Gold access to view this title]

    Netflix accounts are designed to be shared by a number of simultaneous users.
  12. --Voodoo-- Augur

    True, but that doesn't mean they want you sharing your plan with your neighbor.
  13. GothicCelt Lorekeeper


    Yeh, ask Vince Foster's family how innocent she is ... or the foreign national who was murdered in prison because he hacked the Chappequa server ...

    ;)
    MrMajestykx likes this.
  14. Laronk Augur


    I think the precedent wouldn't be used in a case involving netflix. Netflix even has tiers so you can run it on more devices, they know people share. The guy in this case obviously did something wrong which was very very illegal
  15. --Voodoo-- Augur

    Probably true, but one could argue that there is a difference between sharing for multiple devices within your household, and sharing with your neighbor.

    The whole point of the thing is that the ruling isn't explicitly clear as to the nature of the criminal activity. Just kind of a vague "accessing something he shouldn't have been able to, but could because someone gave him a password". Not too hard to imagine some service providers throwing together enough money and lobbyists to get themselves a favorable ruling.
  16. Laronk Augur

    On the flipside companies also have to try to protect their name, they can't disenfranchise their customers when there are competing services. In netflix's case if they went after their subscriber base easily a bunch of people might just go "F YOU im just going to get a proxy and torrent your stuff" sure that has its own issues but they don't want to lose customer base so they do have to be pretty careful about it.

    Also while they might lobby it and have some dumb F judge side with them it likely would go to the supreme court and get overturned . That said, stories like this make me happy I live in Canada where the laws are much more fair.
  17. --Voodoo-- Augur

    Companies may decide they care if they believe they can gain extra subscriptions by prohibiting sharing, whether simultaneous use or not.

    Similar in theory to sharing cable/satellite.
  18. Aghinem Augur


    Problem with this is it alienates people who travel and take their laptops with them, active service members who are abroad, etc..
  19. Rainbowbright Journeyman

    You can't have multiple people logged into the same account in everquest, it just doesn't work, so pointless. Steam on the otherhand has ways of being worth while but then again most steam accounts are worth thousands of dollars at this point and would be horrifying to lose due to fraud or theft so yeah...I don't think internet games will ever have an issue with sharing of info.
  20. Melanippe Augur

  21. Azurulia New Member

    I was genuinely interested by the OP's post.

    But then I saw Fox News.

    Move along, nothing to see here.
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