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Man Reportedly Jailed for Using Lynx

wezzul writes "A Londoner made a tsunami-relief donation using Lynx on Sun's Solaris operating system. The site operator decided that this 'unusual' event in the system log indicated a hack attempt, and the police broke down the donor's door and arrested him." Honestly, though, aside from a BBC article about a tsunami fund hacking probe that doesn't mention user agents there's little to corroborate this. Hopefully Lynx users need not worry too much yet.

8 of 912 comments (clear)

  1. Stupidest mod ever by mirko · · Score: 3, Informative

    That idiot doesn't know that besides Lynx, there is also Links.

    Parent is not offtopic !

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    Trolling using another account since 2005.
  2. Re:I had to use Lynx once by wertarbyte · · Score: 3, Informative

    You are right, (e)links is much better! :-) (Also support mouse control through SSH with PuTTY)

    --
    Life is just nature's way of keeping meat fresh.
  3. Re:https? by Dicky · · Score: 4, Informative

    Lynx has (optionally) supported https for many years now - I used to use it for my online banking (one of the reasons I'm impressed by my bank's service - it uses javascript and stuff, but works fine without it) before I caught this nasty GUI bug...

    --
    Paranoia isn't an infectious condition, it's a way of life
  4. Re:Lynx & https by Anthony · · Score: 3, Informative
    Darn - where did that preview button go? :(

    Lynx has supported https for years.

    [adavid@adavid work]$ lynx --version
    Lynx Version 2.8.4rel.1 (17 Jul 2001)
    libwww-FM 2.14, SSL-MM 1.4.1, OpenSSL 0.9.6
    Built on linux-gnu Mar 19 2003 15:33:59

    Copyrights held by the University of Kansas, CERN, and other contributors.
    Distributed under the GNU General Public License.
    See http://lynx.browser.org/ and the online help for more information.

    See http://www.moxienet.com/lynx/ for information about SSL for Lynx.
    See http://www.openssl.org/ for information about OpenSSL.
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    Slashdot: Where nerds gather to pool their ignorance
  5. Corrections by ozbird · · Score: 3, Informative

    From the article, he was arrested and released i.e. bailed - not "jailed".

    If he hadn't been released, he would have been remanded in custody - still not "jailed".

    If he was point on trial and convicted, he would have been gaoled - did I mention not "jailed"?

  6. Re:Where's the buggy-eyed smily when you need it? by rpjs · · Score: 5, Informative

    Although its legal throughout the UK

    Um, not exactly. According to this Wikipedia article Scottish banknotes aren't even legal tender in Scotland!

    "Legal tender" is a bit of misleading concept though in that it only really applies to the settlement of debts - i.e if you owe somebody and pay them in legal tender they have to accept that payment, but they don't have to accept payment by other means. It's worth noting that buying something in a shop does not constitute settling a debt as you pay before you receive legal title to the goods, so "legal tender" does not apply.

    Ultimately you can pay for anything with anything if the other party agrees. Shops in Scotland will of course accept Scottish banknotes because they're familiar with them and trust the Scottish banks to back them. Many shops in England will similarly accept Scottish banknotes for the same reasons. Some shops in England and Scotland will take Euro notes, and a few at airports US dollars and other currencies. You're unlikely to find a shop that will accept Bhutanese Ngultrum, say, though I suppose it's possible if the shopkeeper happens to be about to go on holiday to Bhutan and can't find a bureau de change that carries Ngultrum...

  7. Re:And for good reason! by grandmofftarkin · · Score: 4, Informative

    I think you mean elinks. It has every thing Lynx and Links has plus a lot more. including Frames, tabs, basic javascript, some CSS support, etc. They are even in the process of adding bittorent support right into the browser. Best text-only browser going!

  8. Um, it's Cory Doctorow by argent · · Score: 4, Informative

    Cory Doctorow isn't exactly a random luser, he's a well-known commentator and online journalist.