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Blogger Fined €3,000 for 'Publicizing' Files Found Through Google Search

Posted by Soulskill on from the you-crafty-hackers-and-your-keyword-searches dept.

mpicpp points out an article detailing the case of French blogger Olivier Laurelli, who had the misfortune to click links from search results. Laurelli stumbled upon a public link leading to documents from the French National Agency for Food Safety, Environment, and Labor. He downloaded them — over 7 Gb worth — and looked through them, eventually publishing a few slides to his website. When one of France's intelligence agencies found out, they took Laurelli into custody and indicted him, referring to him as a 'hacker.' In their own investigation, they said, "we then found that it was sufficient to have the full URL to access to the resource on the extranet in order to bypass the authentication rules on this server." The first court acquitted Laurelli of the charges against him. An appeals court affirmed part of the decision, but convicted him of "theft of documents and fraudulent retention of information." He was fined €3,000 (about $4,000).

5 of 248 comments (clear)

  1. Hacker??!! by bogidu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You fsckup your own security then blame the guy for accessing and republishing something you posted for the world to see?! Stupid bureaucrats.

    1. Re:Hacker??!! by presidenteloco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey!

      The world wide web was designed to make accessible via hyperlinks (URLs) a whole bunch of documents / generated content. Key word being accessible. If someone is stupid enough to put documents intended not to be public on the public world wide web, that's their issue.

      It is not a transgression on the part of the person who used the URL to access the content, doing nothing more than the technology is explicitly designed to do.

      This is just another example of judges who got an A in social studies and a C in technical subjects making asinine rulings about use of technology they don't understand.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
    2. Re:Hacker??!! by presidenteloco · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Ok I'l give you another analogy.

      This is pretty much like leaving a stack of pamphlets on a table in a train station, then arresting those who pick one up for possession of classified material.

      I can't make it any clearer: Content that is behind a URL in a publicly searchable server directory, with no password or secure session protection, has been placed in plain sight in public. There is no fault in accessing it, nor in republishing it (posting the pamphlet on the door of your house) unless it contained an explicit copyright restriction statement.

      --

      Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
  2. Laws server their purpose by EMG+at+MU · · Score: 4, Insightful

    In this scenario the Law worked perfectly.

    Government sets rules on what you can and cannot do,
    Government interprets those rules,
    Government imposes punishments based on those interpretations.

    You piss off the government, they use the laws to make your life hell.

  3. Re:Why is anything accessable on the internet rega by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you left a book on the street out the front of your house, but didn't give anybody your address, is it somebodies fault if they read the book?

    There is no expectation of privacy here, it is a publicly accessible web page.