Marcus Beagley's Blog

Is Accessing Someone Else’s Facebook classed as Identity Theft?

supermoose37 — Mon, 08 Aug 2011 12:28:33 +0000

If somebody gained access to your Facebook account and started posting status updates, would you say they were guilty of Identity Theft? On top of that, how much would you want them punished. Would you simply close down the account. Send them an angry email, or would you maybe expect them to get prosecuted in a court of law?

Well that’s exactly what happened to Rolando, a juvenile currently living in California. Rolando received a text message from an unknown number, which contained the victim’s password. Rolando used this to access her Facebook account and posted several sexually inappropriate messages. He also reset her password so she couldn’t get back in.

He was subsequently tried in a court of law and found guilty of Identity Theft.

This is not the first time Rolando has found himself in trouble. Prior to this he was previously in trouble for reckless driving when he drove his car “at three girls in the school parking lot, but stopped abruptly several feet away from them in an attempt to scare them.”

No one seems to know who sent the original text message and how they got the victim’s password in the first place.

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I’ve been discussing this story with various people and was quite shocked to find that some felt Rolando had been “Over Punished”. One person suggested that what Rolando did was no different to a student sticking a note saying “I SMELL” on the back of another student. It’s just a harmless bit of fun.

Others pointed out that it was more like leaving your keys in the ignition and someone coming along and pinching your car. No matter how easy the theft was, it’s still theft.

Most however agreed that they were fed up with the “It was just a joke!” excuse.

Ultimately the crime committed here is Unauthorised Access to somebody else’s private data, without consent of the original owner.

I personally think that what Rolando did was wrong and the judge was right to punish him accordingly.

Some Doctor Who Spoilers

supermoose37 — Sat, 02 May 2009 16:07:51 +0000

Apparently the finale will include

(SPOILERS highlight to reveal)

Donna Noble
Jack Harkness
Sarah-Jane Smith
The Master
Wilfred Mott
Sylvia Noble
A Slitheen
A Graske
Some Monks
and Midshipman Frame

There’s some photos over at Planet Gallifrey

LOST – The Variable (Trailers & Promos)

supermoose37 — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 20:38:50 +0000

Trailer

Sneak Peak 1

Sneak Peak 2

Sneak Peak 3

Ben Linus hints at Season Finale

supermoose37 — Tue, 21 Apr 2009 21:12:39 +0000

Why Google Is The New Pirate Bay

supermoose37 — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 18:42:34 +0000

From Forbes

“Google now can and does do what the Pirate Bay has always done,” Edelman says. “And if they’re prosecuted, they would have much more interesting arguments in their defense.”

By searching for pirated music or video, Google users can easily scan a range of lesser-known pirate sites to dig up illicit content. Those looking for the upcoming film X-Men Origins: Wolverine, for instance, can search for “wolverine torrent.” The first result is a link to file-sharing site isoHunt, with a torrent tracker file that allows the user to download the full film. In fact, searches for “wolverine torrent” on Google have more than quadrupled since the movie file was first leaked to peer-to-peer networks on April 5, according to Google Trends.

The Hillsborough Disaster (A History)

supermoose37 — Wed, 15 Apr 2009 12:17:48 +0000

Today marks the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster. Fans of all sides will gather at Anfield to pay their respects. This will culminate with a 2 minute silence at 3:06 pm. But first some History.

Via Wikipedia

It was reported that many fans arriving from Lancashire and around had been delayed by unannounced roadworks on the M62 motorway over the Pennines. Between 2:30 pm and 2:40 pm, there was a considerable build-up of fans in the small area outside the turnstile entrances to the Leppings Lane End, all eager to enter the stadium quickly before the match started.

So you can see that even before the match had started, things were looking hairy. So what happened next ?

A bottleneck developed with more fans arriving than could enter the two cages set in the middle of the Leppings Lane stand. People who had been refused entry could not leave the area because of the crush behind them but remained as an obstruction. A side gate was opened to ease the build up. With an estimated 5,000 fans trying to get through the turnstiles, the police, to avoid deaths outside the ground, opened a set of gates, intended as an exit, which did not have turnstiles. This caused a rush of supporters through the gate into the stadium.

This lead to a huge crush at the front of the terrace, where people were being pressed up against the fencing by the weight of the crowd behind them. At the time, the death toll was 94 people. This rose 4 days later to 95. The final death toll is 96, after a man died from being in a coma for 4 years.

To find out more, including why 44 ambulances turned up, but only one was permitted entry, see the full article.

Arnold may not be in Salvation after all

supermoose37 — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 18:25:28 +0000

From io9

McG addressed the Schwarzenegger cameo controversy, only to smash our dreams and tell us all that right now, Arnold is not in the movie

New “Doctor Who” Title is an anagram

supermoose37 — Sun, 12 Apr 2009 10:30:16 +0000

Seems the title of the next Doctor Who Special “The Waters of Mars” is an anagram for “The Masters of War” OR “The War of Masters”. Hmmm “He knocks 4 times” ay.

Conficker wakes up, updates via P2P, drops payload

supermoose37 — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 12:36:24 +0000

From CNET

The Conficker worm is finally doing something–updating via peer-to-peer between infected computers and dropping a mystery payload on infected computers, Trend Micro said on Wednesday.

However…

Conficker.C failed to make a splash a week ago despite the fact that it was programmed to activate on April 1. It has infected between 3 million and 12 million computers, according to Perry.

FriendFeed Is Cool, But No One Uses It.

supermoose37 — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 11:41:32 +0000

I really like FriendFeed, especially the new Beta. BUT…

According to Comscore Twitter is growing at approximately 33% a month and attracted just under 10 million unique worldwide visitors in February. Meanwhile, competitor FriendFeed, despite a continuous stream of innovative new features, is languishing. It has just 637,000 monthly uniques according to Comscore.

This Means

Twitter is adding more users every week than FriendFeed has in total.

[TechCrunch]