> AT&T's intent isn't really relevant. The fact is, they published all of those emails publicly. They certainly didn't mean to, but I fail to see how accessing public websites can be considered a crime, even if you access lots of them when the company doesn't want you to.
In the meatspace it happens all the time that you can get in trouble for being somewhere you're not supposed to even if they forgot to hit the locks on the way out.
Or for a possibly more relevant example, what happens in real life if you find an ATM that has an error such that it gives you twice as much cash as you asked for? Is it still theft if you take it? (Hint: Yes)
Should that equate to a felony here, where no authentication shenanigans were employed? I don't think so, but I wish we'd quit with the victim blaming here on HN.
I also wish we'd separate the enforcability of something from its morality or legality. There's many, many minor things wrong that people can do that even the current state can't hope to fully enforce, but that doesn't make it right, it makes it a fact of life. But if you do somehow get caught doing something that 99% of the rest manage to get away with, shame on you.
By the way, that ATM example wasn't made up: http://investorplace.com/2012/11/faulty-atm-gives-out-extra-... (the Bank opted not to try to find out which customers took the money, due to the difficulty with getting accurate evidence, not because it was right to take the money)
In the meatspace it happens all the time that you can get in trouble for being somewhere you're not supposed to even if they forgot to hit the locks on the way out.
Or for a possibly more relevant example, what happens in real life if you find an ATM that has an error such that it gives you twice as much cash as you asked for? Is it still theft if you take it? (Hint: Yes)
Should that equate to a felony here, where no authentication shenanigans were employed? I don't think so, but I wish we'd quit with the victim blaming here on HN.
I also wish we'd separate the enforcability of something from its morality or legality. There's many, many minor things wrong that people can do that even the current state can't hope to fully enforce, but that doesn't make it right, it makes it a fact of life. But if you do somehow get caught doing something that 99% of the rest manage to get away with, shame on you.
By the way, that ATM example wasn't made up: http://investorplace.com/2012/11/faulty-atm-gives-out-extra-... (the Bank opted not to try to find out which customers took the money, due to the difficulty with getting accurate evidence, not because it was right to take the money)