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State Of Alaska Threatens CrackHo After Confusing Redirect With Hijacking...
from the why-lawyers-should-have-some-tech-knowlege dept
It's always bad news when the technically illiterate start filing lawsuits over technology issues. A few folks have sent in the news that the state of Alaska, under Sarah Palin's governorship, has (we're not making this up) sent a cease and desist letter to the website CrackHo.com supposedly for hijacking a page from the state's website and using the official seal of Alaska without permission -- which the state claims violates both state laws (fines up to $500 or six months in prison) and federal copyright laws.
So what did the site CrackHo.com do to deserve this? Well, it simply redirected anyone who went to Crackho.com to Sarah Palin's website on the state webpage. Yes. A simple redirect. And the state claims that this is hijacking the website, a misuse of the seal of the state and a violation of federal copyright laws. Based on that logic, with a few simple magic tricks, I've just made TinyUrl, Bitly and Is.gd guilty of the same things.
I mean... I'm sure the lawyers working for the state of Alaska have some free time on their hands right now... but... seriously? Did no one bother to actually investigate what they were threatening?
Reader Comments (rss)
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hahahahahahahaha!
hahahahahaahahahaha!
Oh, I'm sorry (snicker)... Ahem, let me start again...
Can someone please send them a copy of "Stupid Web Tricks"?
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Does that mean www.lilcrackho.com goes to Bristol?
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Clueless
Please repeat after me, and do this EVERY time a technology issue comes up like this, likely forever:
POLITICIANS AND LAWYERS DO NOT UNDERSTAND TECHNOLOGY!!!
(unless the lawyer is a specialist in a tech area)
Is it any wonder they keep missing the mark when they "go after" these "problems"?
Idiots running the country.
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Hmmm...
Okay, hijacking the site: No. Copyright violation: No. Misuse of the state seal? I could see that sticking, depending on how the law is worded.
The analogy I imagine being presented in court would go something like this: Suppose you walk into a store that says "CrackHo" on the sign and are teleported into the governor's office. Many people might surmise that the governor's office is inside the store.
Yes, yes, yes, I know. You and I and most of the other people reading this would do a double-take, look at the address bar, and know we'd been redirected. But are we representative of the majority of Web users?
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If their IT guys had half a brain they could check the referer tag and further redirect crackho.com requests to http://www.state.gov/secretary/
Or, if they wanted to be boring and keep their jobs, just return a 404 instead.
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Re: Hmmm...
misuse of the seal? how?
This is a core part of internet, this would be like complaining that we can turn an IP address into a URL. Pointless.
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Miss-use of the state seal ......
Sounds like the lawyers up there are miss-using some state seals!
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Good fun
I always use southlate.com when booking Southwest Airlines tickets. It just amuses me.
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http://www.iwasmakingajoke.com/
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The IT department is busy at the moment.
"If their IT guys had half a brain they could check the referer tag and further redirect crackho.com requests to http://www.state.gov/secretary/
Or, if they wanted to be boring and keep their jobs, just return a 404 instead."
That's asking an awful lot, they're busy eradicating color printing from the every state office at the moment. ;)
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Re: Hmmm...
you're retarded
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Re:
You win the comments.
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Re: Re: Hmmm...
Nuh uh! I am!
wait...
What just happened?
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I'm so glad that retard Sarah Palen didn't become Vice President. Imagine if somehow (God forbid) the president died and she became president. Then we'll REALLY be in a mess.
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Re:
I would bet my first born/only son that she is lot smarter than you, and a million times smarter than obama. Hell he still doesn't realize that socialism/communism won't work, or is such an evil sob that he doesn't care about the human suffering his cramming that crap on this once great nation is going to cause. Heil Obama.
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Re: Re:
That's quite a bet considering you know about Palin only what you've been told about her, and probably nothing about Mr/Mrs Betta.
However, we did just learn something about you. ;)
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"I would bet my first born/only son that she is lot smarter than you, and a million times smarter than obama. Hell he still doesn't realize that socialism/communism won't work, or is such an evil sob that he doesn't care about the human suffering his cramming that crap on this once great nation is going to cause. Heil Obama."
I didn't vote for Obama. I wanted to vote for Ron Paul, I agree with so much of what he says. BTW, he is a doctor, lets see if Palin knows more than him.
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Re:
You mean instead of the fucking mess we're in now that the Exalted Communist is in power?
Dumbass
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My initial choice for president was Mike Huckabee, even before Ron Paul, but before I'm convinced I have to know his position on health freedoms. If he does not endorse health freedoms in the same sense that Ron Paul does then I won't vote for him. Otherwise he would be my primary choice.
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"You mean instead of the fucking mess we're in now that the Exalted Communist is in power?"
Lets not forget it was that idiot George Bush that put us in this mess.
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Re:
I wanted to vote for Ron Paul
Oh well that explains your moonbattiness.
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Re: Hmmm...
Petréa Mitchell wrote:
And if you were teleported to the planet Venus, would people also assume that the planet Venus was inside the store?
Since we’re doing analogies and all...
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"Oh well that explains your moonbattiness." I'm not the one defending Sarah Palin and if you really think she is Smarter than Ron Paul let me see her become a doctor. Even if she did become a doctor I would be afraid for any child who has their parents take them to her if the child is sick.
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Too funny
You all don't REALLY think that Sarah Palin was perusing the internet, surfed over to crackho.com, got offended, and set the lawyers loose...do you?
Wait...I think you do!
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Watch this! http://bit.ly/crackho
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Consultant Ted Stevens
Perhaps Alaska is using former Senator Ted Stevens as their tech guru.
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"You all don't REALLY think that Sarah Palin was perusing the internet, surfed over to crackho.com, got offended, and set the lawyers loose...do you?
Wait...I think you do!"
She seems pretty stupid, I wouldn't be surprised.
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Re: Clueless
(unless the lawyer is a specialist in a tech area)
Please, PLEASE, tell me where you have found a lawyer that's an expert in anything other than extorsion.
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Re: Re: Hmmm...
" would people also assume that the planet Venus was inside the store? "
From that case i must conclude that you don't have a direct job connection to the average customer. Otherwise you would have known that people (especially the average ones) will assume everything at face value without thinking (not that they are actually capable of that).
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Re:
Damn, betta, can you use the 'reply' function, or are you committed to spread out threads like butter on toast?
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How about...
I wonder if stupidignoranttechnoidiot.com is available... It might be worth the $10 to register it and point it to her domain.
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Just Funny
This is really funny. She does kind of act like a crack ho though ...
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Please - Do Not Feed the Trolls
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A simple request
To all of the crazies out there on both sides of the aisle, please stop equating government systems that aren't equal.
1. Capitalism does not equal democracy
2. Socialism does not equal communism
For a breakdown: http://graphcomp.com/home/bfree/opinions/economy.html
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Dumb lawyers; dumber judges
99.9% of lawyers and 99.999% of judges don't know the difference between a megabyte and a mosquito bite! Nor between a database and a naval base.
So there's a high risk the dopey case will be heard before a dopey judge with a dopey outcome very likely!
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Re: Re: Hmmm...
"And if you were teleported to the planet Venus, would people also assume that the planet Venus was inside the store?"
In Internet terms, yes, they would.
Please remember that most people understand the workings of Web browsing about as well as you and I understand the finer points of Alaskan state law.
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One of those lawyers you all seem to hate
But whatever.
I appreciate that this post confirmed what I had "known" but not been able to put into techie language: that the Alaska AG's office is full of shit. Now I have the technical language to express it, and this site to cite the information to. Ain't the internetz grand?
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Re: A simple request
Also don't equate government systems with economic systems. Some examples follow.
Forms of government:
democracy
oligarchy
totalitarianism/dictatorship
theocracy
Economic systems:
capitalism
socialism
communism
In theory, you can mix and match from the two (incomplete) lists in any way.
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No State of AK IT was informed about this that I know of.
This was a crazy surprise that shook my office to the bones! We did not know! Of course, we'd spot this right away and know what to do. There are a lot of educated, intelligent, experienced IT proffesionals working for the State of Alaska.
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