On Wed, 01 Dec 2004 22:22:30 EST, KrispyKringle said: > The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act > (http://www.usdoj.gov/criminal/cybercrime/1030_new.html) forbids one to, > among other things, ``knowingly cause the transmission of a program, > information, code, or command, and as a result of such conduct, > intentionally cause damage without authorization, to a protected > computer,'' which pretty much covers viruses and other malware. This > would appear to apply to the Lycos software as well, given that it > ``causes damage without authorization to a protected computer.'' So that > is the key point, one that has not, to my knowledge, been tested in court. The point that Lycos is probably betting on is the "causes damage". If their rate-limiting works, they're *NOT* actually causing a DDoS - if the site is still responding, claiming "damage to the computer" is quite the reach. Damage to the bandwidth bill from your provider - that's something else. Not sure that's a criminal offense, but I'd not be at all surprised if the ISP left holding the bag for the unpail bill (what - you think the spammer will actually pay for the bandwidth? ;) might go after Lycos on the "your actions cost me money" theory of civil tort.
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