Slashdot Mirror
PayPal Hands Over 1,000 IP Addresses To the FBI
tekgoblin writes "PayPal was attacked by Anonymous last year when they had blocked the Wikileaks accounts transactions. Now PayPal has finally come up with enough evidence to strike back at Anonymous with the help of the FBI. PayPal has come up with a list of over 1,000 IP Addresses left behind when they were attacked by Anonymous."
If I recall correctly, there was a wave of encouraging sympathetic bystanders to install LOIC. This is unlikely to get the organizers of the protest, just the idealistic or foolish people who essentially just showed up and lent their voice.
Actually, no.
There mightve been help from botnets but a large number of people were using LOIC, a gui ddos tool for scriptkiddies which doesn't spoof packets.
It's hilarious to me that it's the main tool for Anonymous members and clearly shows how the majority doesn't really know what they're doing but just following lead.
Haven't you heard? The US Government has jurisdiction wherever the hell it wants.
Technoli
How many times can I push the reload button on my browser before I'm breaking the law?
Well that's awfully well timed to coincide with the bill to retain IP addresses for 18 months.
The problem with this theory is that it's no different, conceptually, from a civil protest of any other sort. The net effect is the same as, say, a venue's ticket sales website going down because too many people are trying to buy the tickets that "just went on sale" for some crazy-popular act (say, if Gaga or *shudder* Bieber were starting a new tour).
If anything, call it a virtual sit-in. Remember the "Virtual Marches on Washington" a few years back, where people were encouraged to slam emails at their congressmen and tie up the congressional phone banks? SAME THING.
Voluntary people. Doing voluntary things as a form of protest. 1000 people, in an organized sit-in, could easily shut down business in 10 consumer banks. Those same 1000 people, "virtually", were part of an organized "virtual sit-in" that caused trouble for Paypal because Paypal had done something worth protesting.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that sit-ins and pickets cannot legally prevent or impede normal operations of the business - you cannot block customers or employees.
Picket lines and sit-ins are meant to educate people about an issue; make them think twice about it, make them realize there may be more to something that hadn't considered before. Attempt to dissuade people from working or doing business with the company or institution you don't like.
DDoS is nothing like that. It directly impedes business, it directly impedes customers. It has no message, other than an error when a customer tries to load the page; there's no persuasion there. They might read about it later - might - but then, the DDoSers no longer control the message - most people are going to read about it from a news outlet. They'll probably see it as some "hackers" preventing them from getting on with their lives. Frustrating people and not letting them handle their affairs is not a good way to get them on your side.
DDoS isn't a sit-in, isn't a protest. It's sabotage. It's revenge. It's sneaking into UPS at night and letting the air out of all the tires of all the trucks. No permanent physical damage done, but disrupts business, delays packages.
I vote based on politicians' actions, unless contrary to my preconceptions. Often wrong, never uncertain. #iamthe99%
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I do believe that sit-ins and pickets cannot legally prevent or impede normal operations of the business - you cannot block customers or employees.
Picket lines and sit-ins are meant to educate people about an issue; make them think twice about it, make them realize there may be more to something that hadn't considered before. Attempt to dissuade people from working or doing business with the company or institution you don't like.
DDoS is nothing like that. It directly impedes business, it directly impedes customers. It has no message, other than an error when a customer tries to load the page; there's no persuasion there. They might read about it later - might - but then, the DDoSers no longer control the message - most people are going to read about it from a news outlet. They'll probably see it as some "hackers" preventing them from getting on with their lives. Frustrating people and not letting them handle their affairs is not a good way to get them on your side.
DDoS isn't a sit-in, isn't a protest. It's sabotage. It's revenge. It's sneaking into UPS at night and letting the air out of all the tires of all the trucks. No permanent physical damage done, but disrupts business, delays packages.
I am not sure, on the sit-ins and pickets. I would not think a sit-in can disrupt operations, since it's on private property, and it's not like they're discriminating against you based on your race or gender. A picket line might be different--if someone touches you to move you out of the way, that's a tort and a crime. But it may also be a tort and/or crime for you to physically bar their entry. (And disobeying a lawfully given police order is also a crime usually, but I'm not sure how the first amendment interacts with that in orders to disperse, etc...)
A DDoS is not sabotage--sabotage implied some kind of surreptitious damage to a machine, to equipment, etc... and a DDoS attack damages the bottom line, but not equipment. The UPS metaphor is close, although again, you're not sneaking in--you come in through the front door, the way everyone else does, you just behave differently. It's kind of like a flash-mob that doesn't steal anything, but is filling the store and and nobody else can get in.
The only real difference--and it is a big one--is that for a DDoS, there is no real way to tell someone to leave.
-- IANAL, this isn't legal advice, and definitely isn't legal advice for you. Also, Squee!
By that logic, citizens who protested against Gitmo were "providing material support" to the supposed terrorists held there.
This is where the law has become completely goddamn stupid. A protest is a protest. If it becomes violent, and that means PHYSICALLY VIOLENT, then it's a problem. Shy of that, it's just a protest and protected under the Constitutional right to peaceably assemble.
Temporarily taking a website offline sucks for the affected company. So does a protest that blocks the street in front of a store being protested, or even the neighboring stores in the strip mall. But unless there is permanent damage done (the equivalent of someone not just peacefully protesting, but actively spray-painting graffiti as one conceptual example) then it's just a protest and shouldn't be considered criminal.