Security → Court rules that IP cloaking is a crime

Interesting question, is a web site considered public or private, if its private then this is a logical outcome as it equates to trespassing. How do you think this ruling should have gone and why?

Blake

How do you think this ruling should have gone and why?

Craigslist indicated that areas were protected by virtue of blocking access by IP address ranges.

Interesting question, is a web site considered public or private, if its private then this is a logical outcome as it equates to trespassing. How do you think this ruling should have gone and why?

Blake

3Taps asks this Court to hold that an owner of a publicly accessible website has no power to revoke the authorization of a specific user to access that website. However compelling 3Taps’ policy arguments, this Court cannot graft an exception on to the statute with no basis in the law’s language or this circuit’s interpretive precedent.

3Taps says that Craigslist had no power to “de-authorize” anyone, but it cannot point to any language in the statute supporting that conclusion.

To be sure, later cases may confront difficult questions concerning the precise contours of an effective “revocation” of authorization to access a generally public website. This Court cannot and does not wade into that thicket, except to say that under the facts here, which include the use of a technological barrier to ban all access, 3Taps’ deliberate decision to bypass that barrier and continue accessing the website constituted access “without authorization” under the CFAA.

Well the judge did not rule it a crime, the judge simply refused to dismiss the cause of action. Also if you read the ruling you would see it was very specific to the case and depended on the fact that there was a cease and desist letter forbidding access to the site and they deliberately changed their IPs to avoid the IP ban.

The case really is about does a company have the right to ban someone from their site, not about the use of a proxy or changing IPs.

Anyways in theory the case could be seen like this. There's a man on the corner and he's giving out information. He doesn't like your face (IP block), so he says get out of here (C&D letter). So you ask someone else to get the information for you and convey it to you (proxy). Is there a crime of trespass or even civil trespass here?

the court:
"Craigslist blocked the Internet Protocol addresses associated with 3Taps, but the data harvester continued to scrape data off Craigslist by concealing its identity with different IP addresses and proxy servers. Craigslist argued that the 3Taps' subterfuge violated the CFAA, which prohibits the intentional access of a computer without authorization that results in the capture of information from a protected computer."

BF mine, but that's where the court missed the boat.
How is Craigslist a protected computer?

Anyways in theory the case could be seen like this.

In business (where the word "proxy" originated), a proxy is someone who you appoint to represent your interests when you cannot be there in person. A proxy is given specific instructions and is not acting as an independent entity. It is only in the electronic age that "proxy" has taken on a new meaning - tending to be an anonymizing agent. Trying to remain anonymous to circumvent a ruling banning you from entry (physical or communicative) is still an overt act, done in response to an acknowledgement that you have been banned.

Suppose some one posts a link on facebook. You click this link thinking its something else, but inadvertently just clicked threw to a site you have been banned from. How would that play out and what are your thoughts?

Suppose some one posts a link on facebook. You click this link thinking its something else, but inadvertently just clicked threw to a site you have been banned from. How would that play out and what are your thoughts?

edit: Scenario, say someone always browses on a free proxy, cause they want to remain and browse anonymously. They link to a site, but use the proxies link and post it on facebook. Just so we are all on the same page. My thought process can be strange to decipher some times(even for me).