Live data from Hacker News

Bot countermeasures impact on the quality of life on the web

notes.volution.ro

11–12 of 12 posts

Re: Bot countermeasures impact on the quality of life on the web

#11
post #4

Can I legaly take a copyrighted book, read it, perhaps more than once Keep cheerleading for the copyright-maximalists and you won't be able to "buy" a book, only rent it each time you want to read it

>and you won't be able to "buy" a book, only rent it each time you want to read it

Then I can just start pirating them much more pervasively. Problem solved. Buying mere access to things like books and media has its uses, but to make it obligatory as an alternative to true ownership is a tendency that can go die.

Re: Bot countermeasures impact on the quality of life on the web

#12
There’s no substitute for 401 Auth Required with a resource description of “Please enter any username or password to proceed”. Automated scrapers would be legally liable under US criminal hacking statutes if they started attempting random credentials at random sites, even if one claimed that an AI interpreted the message to indicate it was permissible; meanwhile, human beings can simply follow the directions to be authorized access without vulnerability under any common sense interpretation by a judge.
Post reply on HN