Hacker News Reader

If I request content without circumventing any access controls and you give that content to me, I've done nothing wrong. I didn't accept any terms of service to do that, and even if I did, what is the legal recourse for someone breaking the terms of service? I always assumed it was termination of service, but that's probably wrong.

Suing people because you're too lazy to only give your content to people who you want to receive it is wrong.

View on HN

What will happen is that they will send a cease and desist letter to you (like they did to Pete). At that point, you have basically given notice and it becomes much riskier to continue doing what you're doing.

That's not to say their C&D is valid or enforceable. It just enters into another legal bin that's a bit more hairy.

Unfortunately, the legal precedent for all this is murky at best. Past cases have been very specific to the details of those cases. No line has ever been drawn about what is ok and what is not.

> That's not to say their C&D is valid or enforceable. It just enters into another legal bin that's a bit more hairy.

Exactly. It will be interesting to see where things end up playing out in the "leaving yourself wide open" department.

It's very much parallel with the "using open wifi points" debate.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com