Lawsuit against cheating scum?

[walker 0]

Hi all

chefd261 there apears to be something wrong with your post

Kind Regards walker

[chefd261 0]

Hello all first and foremost I am sure this has already been suggested but what is the feasibility of going after the cheat sites on line aka fighting fire with fire but staying within the confines of the law as most of the cheat site do I know that this is a touchy subject but it would seem that even with a limited knowledge of the web one could monitor KFC sites and others to legally reek havoc on them with the use of posts and monitoring I regularly visit KFC not to cheat but to see what they are doing..It would not even require targeting the sites themselves just there users .Google is great bow to Google not an advertisement just planting an idea. It may seem far fetched but I believe it may be time to think outside the box.

Thanks Chefd261

[walker 0]

Already sent in a complaint, within 10 minutes  i got a call with a case number, case manager, they have the thee IP records already of the IP and using there website for info.

Case Manager is also handling all the cases  with "KFC" within the US so hope all is well

Hi all

As easy as that.

The ball has started roll so lets give them more evidense. Lets make November 5th 2007 action day for all games to strike a blow against the TK/Griefer/Cheater's and the web sites that conspire with and organise them.

More people should join in. Especialy Server owners remember do not make stuff up. Its the police! Real Denial of service, bringing down servers and proof of alteration of the data on your server without permission.

I think my original point bears repeating as we can already see that the TK/Griefer/Cheater web sites are getting scared and have told their members to stop bringing down servers or altering the data.

They also do not seem to understand that any file that purposely alters the normal stream of data to a server without the permission of the server owner is altering the data on that server and thus engaged in the commision of a crime.

BIS cannot pursue it because they don't run the servers that clans use, although some of them may play the game on line so they may be able to report the crime that way. They can report the TK/Griefer/Cheater website to the Czech police though.

Not very legal boilerplate

They also think that by placing an HTML page with agree disagree boilerplate on it is sufficient to protect them. This is not the case Because you can enter the website without going through the link. Use a search engine in Google then click on similar pages there are lots of links to other pages on their web site and you have entered their website without agreeing to their boilerplate which leaves you free to gather as much evidence as you need!

The only way their boilerplate would keep out the public but not the police or any person engaged in investigating a crime is to make the whole site members only. Incidentally making the whole site members only is what the police would do if they rolled over the TK/Griefer/Cheater website owner by threatening the RICOH act and were going to grab the lot for conspiracy.

And then of course there is Google cache so they cannot even hide the fact that they have changed things  

Its a crime Report it

First of all crashing a server or any DNS activity that reduces a servers availability or causes its data to be corrupted is criminal law not civil.

You don't need a lawyer, just report it as a crime, report it to your police. This means it costs you nothing

There is usually a specialist group in your country of origin that deals with Cyber crime, in the US I it comes under homeland defense. You can just report it to your local police but you may feel happier reporting it to your countries Cyber crime department.

In the US

http://www.ic3.gov/

In the UK.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-v....t-crime

In the Netherlands

http://www.meldpuntcybercrime.nl/english_information.html

Interpol is the place to report Cyber crime throughout Europe

http://www.interpol.int/

The link to do so is right there on the web page use it.

You can find your own countries cyber crime department by searching for "Cyber crime police" in your own language into Google.

Secondly conspiring with others to partake in the activity is conspiracy this usually twice or more the jail time.  

Thirdly organisations that encourage others to partake in the activity and provide resources to do so are organising cyber crime, organised crime also comes under additional laws in the US it is the RICOH Act

Fourthly any organisation such as Youtube or KFC's web space provider that allows its resources to be used for the support of criminal activity is aiding and abetting, criminal law again.

Fifthly Youtube or KFC's web space provider and any download location providing downloads of the cheats is legally liable so you can sue them if the do not take down the offending materials, a simple email and legal letter from lawyers is usually sufficient to get the website closed down and all KFC movies removed.

Sixthly A class action is probably the way to go if they do not obey. It would mean big bucks for any lawyers who brought the action, you should have all the ambulance chasers queuing up to do it and they will do it on a no win no fee basis.

Seventhly there is no such thing as anonymous on the net. Tracking the IP of any cheater is easy because of the amount of time they have to be connected for.

Building a case

Your First course of action is contacting the police of the country of each of places of residence of your clan members and most importantly your game server country of location and report the KFC website to the police, CC the letter to your Local political representative.

Tell the police about the KFC's website and their front page boilerplate go through it with their Lawyer you will be surprised to learn that their attempt at a boilerplate on their site is the most superb evidence against them When I read it I was amazed at how naive it was.  

Secondly record all activity and IP addresses with time of assault. A weeks activities should be enough but a months activity logs would be better, a legal witness such as lawyer and computer expert witness are all that are needed, FRAPS and your web server logs are needed.

Your web server provider has logs going back years as a customer you have rights to those logs.

Thirdly report the activity to your ISP they can then with police help log the activity. You may need to warn your clan members that you are logging server activity a simple boilerplate in the server onjoin is enough but check with the police.

Fourthly report the activity to CERT as a DNS activity this gets international police and cyber crime involved.

All the clans and ideally the game producers and developers need to join together to do this at the same time. November 5th 2007 would be a good date to all contact ISP's, Police, Lawyers, Politicians, and Media. But start the ball rolling by contacting you police service now. The sooner the police start investigating the better. On November 5th 2007 a mass of people emailing the police to question what they have done since you reported the crime will create a buzz.

A nice pro-forma letter or email is needed that includes the

Previous version of the bolierplate from the TK/Griefer/Cheater website in a screen shot and a signed afidavit sayin when it was taken The best evidence is the TK/Griefer/Cheater's own website. A lawyer taking a copy would be good but the police visiting the site and taking their copy is best.

Why even running a cheat mod such as a speed hack is a crime

Deliberately altering the way data is sent by the game once it steps from game on their PC on to the internet to the target Game server is the point where a crime is committed.

Servers are black boxes that expect certain inputs. Altering the way such data is sent by for instance increasing the speed of an avatar outside its server addon config speed is altering the data on the program from its normal running. That is all that has to be proved.

Gathering evidence

Start by taking logs and FRAPS plus witness statements etc.

Establishing the TK/Cheater/Griefer Intention

It is the inherent desired action of the TK/Cheater/Griefer to make their avatar move faster than the speed set in the game as set on the Server version addon in order to gain an advantage over other players. Unless they have got the permission of the Server owner to alter this data, then they are breaking the law.

Establishing the Conspiracy

It should be no problem for the public prosecutor to get one of a group of as few as three people to roll over on the others and any TK/Cheater/Griefer websites in order to cut deal for a lesser sentence. In fact the TK/Cheater/Griefer websites would probably be the first to roll over and would give up all their clients so the police and prosecutors could get them selves a big haul.

Establishing the organised crime RICOH act

The threat alone of this would make any TK/Cheater/Griefer websites roll over on their clients for the other crimes. The TK/Cheater/Griefer will not even know when the police take over the TK/Cheater/Griefer website

That is a basic plan of action I am sure others will contribute.

Why not distribute the plan to all game sites?

Report the crime

Now it has started working lets get the other games to do it!

As Victor said if you play these games

Quote[/b] ]---- Vietcong 1 & 2

---- Armed Assault

---- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

---- Battlefield 2/2142

---- Call of Juarez

---- Counter Strike: Source

---- WarRock

---- Americas Army

---- Call of Duty

---- Soldner: Secret Wars

---- Jedi Academy

---- Grand Theft Auto (MTA)

---- FIFA 07

---- SOCOM 3

---- Splinter Cell 3

If you know of a thread on their forums tell them how to report any crime that takes down a server, denies service, or alters data on a server.

If you have experienced TK/Griefer/Cheater activity that has taken down a server, Denied service to you or your customers/clan mates/ and most importantly purposely and without the explicit permision of the server owner caused the data to be transmited to the server to be outside the norm and thus corrupted the data on the server. That is altering the Data on a server and is a crime.

Gather evidense IP adresses, FRAPS, Server Logs

Remember Report the crime

Remember Report any web site conspiring with those who commit the crime

Remember Report any web site or forum that is providing a service to organise the crime

Remember Report any web site that is organising the crime

Kind Regards walker

[Rocco 0]

good idea victor, but im sure you live in USA, only there its possible to get a lawsuit for such things. reminds of the guy that got millions because the coffee was served too hot!

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

Good luck lmfao.

Maybe you should inform these lawers and other cyber crime places. That they are in fact NOT modifying data on the server but are modifying in on their own computer, or running scripts on their own computer ALLOWED by the SOFTWARE that the server is running that arent directly to crash servers.

BIS made it so you could run scripts to spawn objects.

BIS made it so you could lock up other players keyboards.

BIS made it so you could do all these other things with their scripts.

BIS is responcible for the crash that comes from BUGS in their SOFTWARE.

Speed hack is a crime? lol

Seriously you think you know what your talking about but you dont.

Lets all stop wasting time on something that going to get NOWHERE, all your doing is helping the cheaters. Only way to stop anything is BIS or a good anti-cheat made by users.

[walker 0]

Hi all

In reply to oChaos.DNJ

The crime happens when you feed incorrect data on your machine via the internet to someone else's server. Yes you can run a cheat on your own machine but you cannot deliberately use it to feed incorrect data into someone else computer. That is altering the data on some elses computer without their explicit permission. I cannot create or use a program that fills a web server with malformed packets that is a crime dito malformed data of any kind.

In reply to your BIS made it so you can lar-di-da...

The internet was made so you can send malformed packets but that is not a defense.

It is still a crime to deliberatly send malformed data of any kind in order to alter the data on another persons computer where you do not have the express permission of the person owning that computer.

In Reply to -=[Rocco]=-

No it is no longer a lawsuit which cost you money, unless you can get a class action against a big company and the lawyer will do as contingency payment.

No this is now using criminal which cost you nothing

you just report them to the police and you can do it in most countries in the world see my post above to see how you -=[Rocco]=- if you run a server can do it in your country!

If you want to get involved and you do not run a big server ask the person who runs your server.

Of course even if you run a home server and you have been plagued by TK/Griefer/Cheater's you can get their IP from your log files record their activity. The post above tells you how!

As Hyrax0740 says the US internet police force has already assigned an officer to look in to TK/Griefer/Cheater's web site and the IP addresses he reported.

It really is that easy!

Kind Regards walker

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

Hi all

In reply to oChaos.DNJ

The crime happens when you feed incorrect data on your machine via the internet to someone else's server. Yes you can run a cheat on your own machine but you cannot deliberately use it to feed incorrect data into someone else computer. That is altering the data on some elses computer without their explicit permission. I cannot create or use a program that fills a web server with malformed packets that is a crime dito malformed data of any kind.

In reply to your BIS made it so you can lar-di-da...

The internet was made so you can send malformed packets but that is not a defense.

It is still a crime to deliberatly send malformed data of any kind in order to alter the data on another persons computer where you do not have the express permission of the person owning that computer.

What incorrect data are they sending?

What malformed packets are they sending?

They arent sending anything.

arma.exe is

and theres nothing malformed or incorrect about them.

They are just running scripts to do commands in the software. Software in which the server agreed to run.

Nor is the server even crashing. The software .exe is crashing due to a bug in its coding.

What they are doing is no more illegal then running mods like XAM1.3.

[XeLSiS 0]

=- @ Sep. 12 2007,15:56)]good idea victor, but im sure you live in USA, only there its possible to get a lawsuit for such things. reminds of the guy that got millions because the coffee was served too hot!

I thought that was an old lady?

[DBO_ 0]

Quote[/b] ]They are just running scripts to do commands in the software. Software in which the server agreed to run.

Nor is the server even crashing. The software .exe is crashing due to a bug in its coding.

What they are doing is no more illegal then running mods like XAM1.3.

complete and utter tosh .

this isnt about the arma .exe , because it is not the arma .exe that creates 10 digit ids in order for the once banned "for cheating" kiddies to return to servers.

Its not true either that the constant crashing of the arma .exe during the endorsed 10 day spam fest in august did not crash whole servers .

[Dwarden 1125]

crashing server and kicking out owner is done server side in server's memory

in theory modification of anything what affects server is done server side

i can imagine that actual memory 'copy' of ArmA server from moment of incident would be needed as proof for court ...

ofcourse for server crashing logs should be enough

{this is just example and bit exaggerated

but let say this is online banking operation

you got the client software, the server side software and so on

now You cheat bit and add some billions to your account

plus You crash off the bank security guy

and in the end You crash the bank server system just for sure,

i'm quite positive that looks like crime ...}

[Shashman 0]

Mullah Omar

Quote[/b] ]Anyway, due to all this we've decided to release some new cheats for ArmA soon. One of them being the ID-Changer. We've also begun publishing our cheats to bigger audiences on bigger cheat databases like gamecopyworld

Isn't an ID changer illegal?

Oh and if you ever wanted any more legal ammunition, there you have it.

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]Anyway, due to all this we've decided to release some new  cheats for ArmA soon.

Lol…These people would have a guaranteed career in Pantomime in the UK.

It’s not that they pursue cheats because of sociopathic tendencies,  it’s because they are forced to by others

I think certain people should try and resist, being their mouthpiece.

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

Quote[/b] ]They are just running scripts to do commands in the software. Software in which the server agreed to run.

Nor is the server even crashing. The software .exe is crashing due to a bug in its coding.

What they are doing is no more illegal then running mods like XAM1.3.

complete and utter tosh .

this isnt about the arma .exe , because it is not the arma .exe that creates 10 digit ids in order for the once banned "for cheating" kiddies to return to servers.

Its not true either that the constant crashing of the arma .exe during the endorsed 10 day spam fest in august did not crash whole servers .

Actually yes it is arma.exe that creates 10 digit IDs.

KFC* Did not write the keygen either though.

ID changer isnt illegal. Its not the same thing as a keygen.

I dont know how they are kicking out server owner and directly crashing the server. Did they not release these things?

What they have released isnt illegal.

[Shashman 0]

oChaos, why hide? Why don't you just come out and admit what/who you are?

The energy that these guys put into disrupting other peoples' enjoyment is just, incomperhensible.

It's like going to watch a football match and throwing bottles at the players, because you don't like the rules of football and you think you should be able to do what you please in a stadium

[kronzky 5]

@walker: Since you keep handing out a lot of legal advice here, I have a few questions:

What are your qualifications in regards to the law?

[*]Did you study law, or are you actually a lawyer?

[*]Or did you just watch a lot of Judge Judy on TV?

Definition of "crime"

[*]You keep calling game hacking a "crime", but how do you come to that conclusion?

[*]Do you know of a particular law that would apply to these situations, or do you know of any precedent that determined cheating/game hacking to fall into the "crime" category?

Report hacking/cheating to the police.

[*]What exactly should somebody report there?

[*]The first thing the police is probably going to ask is which law you think the hackers violated, and why the state should pursue this activity.

[*]Then they will probably want to know who you are accusing of this crime? A whole hacker clan? A website owner? Or some random guy who's running cheat scripts?

[*]And last but not least they will very likely want to know what the monetary damages are that resulted from this activity, to judge whether it is worth their time or not.

Precedent

[*]Do you know of any successful previous lawsuits (criminal or civil) that have been brought against cheaters? This kind of activity has been going on for a long time, with development of counter-measures costing developers a lot of money, so one would expect them to have initiated a lawsuit already if there were any chance of succeeding with it.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see hackers/cheaters go to jail, but I think we should also be realistic, and not fall into wishful thinking mode.

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

oChaos, why hide? Why don't you just come out and admit what/who you are?

The energy that these guys put into disrupting other peoples' enjoyment is just, incomperhensible.

It's like going to watch a football match and throwing bottles at the players, because you don't like the rules of football and you think you should be able to do what you please in a stadium  

Hi Im oChaos.DNJ I didnt know I was hiding....

I guess Im someone with more understanding of what they are doing then some here and not going to jump on the bandwagon because it sounds good. Id rather go on my own rational thinking.

....anyways what kronzky said !!

[SWAT_CDN 0]

I am sure people have checked this out, I post anyhow.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cybercrime

@ Kronzky

I agree with some of your observations and statements, however,

If enough people complain and file complaints it will not be ignored and will eventually become an issue of legality as certain "X" sites have fallen into.

One of the activities could be "harassment" which is a crime when talking about cyber crime.

Enough software companies and consumers complain then the laws will be enforced and the kiddies will get back to some sort of social reality.

[shinRaiden 0]

@walker: Since you keep handing out a lot of legal advice here, I have a few questions:

What are your qualifications in regards to the law?

[*]Did you study law, or are you actually a lawyer?

[*]Or did you just watch a lot of Judge Judy on TV?

Definition of "crime"

[*]You keep calling game hacking a "crime", but how do you come to that conclusion?

[*]Do you know of a particular law that would apply to these situations, or do you know of any precedent that determined cheating/game hacking to fall into the "crime" category?

Report hacking/cheating to the police.

[*]What exactly should somebody report there?

[*]The first thing the police is probably going to ask is which law you think the hackers violated, and why the state should pursue this activity.

[*]Then they will probably want to know who you are accusing of this crime? A whole hacker clan? A website owner? Or some random guy who's running cheat scripts?

[*]And last but not least they will very likely want to know what the monetary damages are that resulted from this activity, to judge whether it is worth their time or not.

Precedent

[*]Do you know of any successful previous lawsuits (criminal or civil) that have been brought against cheaters? This kind of activity has been going on for a long time, with development of counter-measures costing developers a lot of money, so one would expect them to have initiated a lawsuit already if there were any chance of succeeding with it.

Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see hackers/cheaters go to jail, but I think we should also be realistic, and not fall into wishful thinking mode.

You're missing the point, Walker's getting frustrated trying to explain the simple things to the n00bers here.

The basic points are simple :

* Unauthorized access to a system, even an insecure and publicly accessible one, can be prosecuted as a cybercrime in many jurisdictions.

* The deliberate and unlawful activities of the vermin filth result in real financial effects, ie loss of anticipated usability. If the hosting provider were negligent or in collusion, then they would be liable, otherwise it's just the unwarranted loss of use of the paid for services.

* There's libel and slander in there too, but that get's messy, and really is more BIS's turf than the community's. Doesn't matter how sloppy BIS is, when you have the vermin filth dedicated openly to the malignment of a legal commercial product, then there's grounds for a libel/slander case.

* Conspiracy to commit all of the above.

Now what's the practicality of all this? Meh, pretty nil. There's not enough revenue spread all around to make it worthwhile. That's part of the reason Walker's pushing the criminal aspect.

Besides, there's a bigger news item here. Suppose this does all work as a class action civil suit. (There's a couple juicy details that would actually make this very practical imho) You think this is the only game with a cheating problem? You'd have a bunch of lawyers from the other game corps interested as well in helping out. Or if you go the criminal route, you can just start racking up the 'dings' per each hit, then get a plea bargin including a lifetime ban from all computers.

[Heatseeker 0]

Forget their crappy cheats, they can get away with that and have done so for years, it would only be a distraction from the real/possible crime.

If they created, distributed the means to and promoted server crashing or abuse then this should be the main point of atention and where things could get serious.

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

When did they gain unauthorized access to any system?

They are NOT HACKING in the sense that you think they are.

[Junker 0]

When did they gain unauthorized access to any system?

They are NOT HACKING in the sense that you think they are.

I am part owner of our server, I have had my keyboard locked up by a cheater, Thats like me coming around your house and locking you out while i trash the place.

Personal note: If ya paid money for a server and people started trashing it you would soon change your tone.

[oChaos.DNJ 0]

and its terrorible that they do these things. BUT its not illegal.

disabling input is a command in a script that BIS made to be used.

They are taking advantage of it but its not illegal.

You could probably put a script on the server so it would make it so disableinput would always be false.

But Im not much of a scripter but Im sure its possible if they can do it.

[Dwarden 1125]

i'm gunna post this for last time ...

if someone crash the server or preventing it's owner to work there crashing him out or locking him out etc

or messing with server operations in general against what it was set for by owner / hoster ...

are "cyber" crimes ... ofc it may be just minor one but IT's one

EU countries, USA, UK, Canada, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, South Korea, Australia and many others got laws covering this already ...

it don't matter IF IT's game or banking or web server ...

definition equals them all

normal cheaters were safe as all they done was CLIENT side (memory modification of game client process etc)

but now we speak about something what's relayed somewhere else and cause something elsewhere

but You need to be able provide proofs for police or other law authority and ofc court

run good IP and packet logging software / firewall with 24/7/365 monitoring enabled

run game servers with maximal possible logging details

and ideally be able to copy image of game server complete memory in moment of incident

[UNN 0]

Quote[/b] ]You could probably put a script on the server so it would make it so disableinput would always be false.

But Im not much of a scripter but Im sure its possible if they can do it.

In theory yes, you can make it slightly harder for a mission hacker to do that. But that’s about it. If you don't want to drastically reduce the functionality of mission editing and scripting in Arma, then BIS need to beef up the functionality of Server Side scripting. The reason why Arma appears to be more vulnerable to hackers compared to OFP, is because, it now offers much more powerful options for genuine mission makers and scripters. But this also leads to abuse

[walker 0]

@walker: Since you keep handing out a lot of legal advice here, I have a few questions:

In reply to Kronzky's general point

I am not handing out legal advice I am apprising the thread of the Law and how to contact the correct police department.

You do not need a lawyer to report a crime be it a thief or a crack dealer!

Ditto in any other criminal case including Computer Misuse.

The key factor here is you do not have to be a lawyer or use one, you are just a citizen reporting a crime to the police (see below) which is free!

Quote[/b] ]What are your qualifications in regards to the law?

[*]Did you study law, or are you actually a lawyer?

No I am Not a lawyer

My combined honours degree is a BSc. (two subjects, Business and computer science so four years rather than the usual three) in Business Information Technology. 2 semesters of Law as part of that specifiably one on business law and one on laws as they pertain to using computers, ranged from health and safety to cyber crime, also a cyber security course which went over the same areas of law as the computer law course but from a slightly different perspective. An understanding of such law is needed so you do not run foul of it.

Experience of the Law

Worked as a volunteer for a homeless persons charity advice centre on Laws pertaining to loosing your home; particularly in the equity crisis in the late 1980s, persons renting council houses from the official tenant, disabled and elderly people who got behind on rent due to not claiming benefits they were entitled to, squatters, tenancy inheritance for non spousal cases unmarried partners, intentionally homeless (not what it appears to mean at first glance) you can be treated by a local council legal department as intentionally homeless if your mortgage owner or land lord sends you a notice to quit and you do not fight it right up to the point where the bailiffs coming round or if you have not used the money you would use to feed your kids to pay the rent. I kid you not!

I worked there 3 years 3 days a week without fail mostly evenings but once every two weeks I would do court duty attended the High Court in London to give advice and direct persons on how to go about either preventing eviction or arguing for council accommodation in the event of homelessness. I worked on as many as 300 cases in a day. At the time local council solicitors would try to argue that people, who had lost their home due to the massive rise in mortgage payments, was them making themselves intentionally homeless, I kid you not.

I worked in the legal advice team. The area of law is quite complex far more so than cyber crime; criminal law is usually much more simple and straight forward than civil law which is based on torts and precedent. One of my key jobs was finding precedent case law on which to base a legal argument to prevent eviction in the first place, so that we could then negotiate with the mortgage lender stay of execution of the writ or for the former owner to become a tenant of their house and pay the mortgage owner rent (Selling the house in the such a bad market made less sense than renting it, took a while but they came round to our way of thinking)

Worked as part of the Legal team on only one Judicial Review case which we won, it made the news.

The research involved looking through something called the white book and the green books. The White book is for the high court and The Green books are for county court. Then I would go down to the High Courts library and do standard research. My full time job at the time was as a Librarian dealing with the computer section of the London Special Collection of computer books for Southwark libraries so I have good research skills. I would put together a group of arguments then we had some solicitors who would do pro bono work who would come in and look over the argument and tell us which ones would float. We would then turn these into advice packs on how to write a legal defense in the form of an affidavit. The person would look through it and tick various boxes. This would give them an argument that they could then go straight to a lawyer with in most cases all they needed was a stamp from the lawyer or the high courts records department.

By the end of the three years the defenses were so good that 99% of people were winning their cases.

The senior court clerk at the High Court in London used to bring me an apple when I would sit down in the morning and write out all eviction cases for the following month. We would mail them all our pamphlets and the details of friendly lawyers or how to find a lawyer. I served as a McKenzie friend for several cases where the person through leaving it too late had not got a solicitor or was too poor or afraid to speak to a lawyer. And as part of the charity where the court might need some information that might affect a case we have acted as a Friend of the Court (Amicus curiae) I helped write such briefs.

Quote[/b] ]

[*]Or did you just watch a lot of Judge Judy on TV?

The sarcasm is I think needless and a bit below you; as well as seriously weakening any arguments you make

Quote[/b] ]

Definition of "crime"

[*]You keep calling game hacking a "crime", but how do you come to that conclusion?

Sorry I should use the word cracking not hacking which has a long and honourable name in the computer world. I do not remember the specific place where I used hacking in my post but I must admit to being infected by the media misuse of the term.

Quote[/b] ][*]Do you know of a particular law that would apply to these situations, or do you know of any precedent that determined cheating/game hacking to fall into the "crime" category?

The basic laws are enacted in virtually every country in the world.

Most countries also specifically include these laws in their international extradition treaties so they apply equally both in and out of the countries.

I will deal here with the laws in the UK they are the country I live in.

The Computer Misuse Act 1990

Quote[/b] ]Computer misuse offences

1 Unauthorised access to computer material (1) A person is guilty of an offence if—

(a) he causes a computer to perform any function with intent to secure access to any program or data held in any computer;

(b) the access he intends to secure is unauthorised; and

© he knows at the time when he causes the computer to perform the function that that is the case.

(2) The intent a person has to have to commit an offence under this section need not be directed at—

(a) any particular program or data;

(b) a program or data of any particular kind; or

© a program or data held in any particular computer.

(3) A person guilty of an offence under this section shall be liable on summary conviction to imprisonment for a term not exceeding six months or to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale or to both.

http://www.opsi.gov.uk/acts/acts1990/Ukpga_19900018_en_1.htm As always follow link to the original materials and to read more

Also see the Computer Misuse Act 1990 as ammended by the Police and Justice Act 2006.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa....-i.html

That makes an even nastier punishments and easier cases to use on people abusing your server/computer.  

Quote[/b] ]Report hacking/cheating to the police.

[*]What exactly should somebody report there?

[*]The first thing the police is probably going to ask is which law you think the hackers violated, and why the state should pursue this activity.

See above for UK

In the US I believe it is under section five of the COMPUTER FRAUD AND ABUSE ACT. 18 U.S.C. § 1030

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode....0-.html

Have a read if you are a US citizen.

And follow this link to find the laws for your own country

http://www.cybercrimelaw.net/laws/survey.html

Quote[/b] ]

[*]Then they will probably want to know who you are accusing of this crime? A whole hacker clan? A website owner? Or some random guy who's running cheat scripts?

Both

The person who actualy missuses the server who you get the IP of and log files from when they missused your server.

And any organisation, website, website owner who is involved in encouraging or aiding someone to commit a crime (a crime in itself) and anyone conspiring with the person.

Let the police take care of this by getting three or more people in then getting on of them to testify against the others for a lighter sentense.

Quote[/b] ][*]And last but not least they will very likely want to know what the monetary damages are that resulted from this activity, to judge whether it is worth their time or not.

Lawsuit is civil law, we are talking about criminal law Please try to understand the difference or at the very least stop bringing it up.

Quote[/b] ]Precedent

[*]Do you know of any successful previous lawsuits (criminal or civil) that have been brought against cheaters? This kind of activity has been going on for a long time, with development of counter-measures costing developers a lot of money, so one would expect them to have initiated a lawsuit already if there were any chance of succeeding with it.

Lawsuit is civil law, we are talking about criminal law

Yes the precedent exists for computer misuse which is what you are reporting to the police but Precedent does not need to exist it is Criminal law where precedent only refines the existing law it does not set it as such as it does in civil law.

I set out in my previous post how you go about gathering the evidense. And it takes mere minutes to fill in the online forms or send an email.

Quote[/b] ]Don't get me wrong - I'd love to see hackers/cheaters go to jail, but I think we should also be realistic, and not fall into wishful thinking mode.

I believe I am being totaly realistic the fact that peoples have already been accepted by the police and that the police are already investigating the TK/Griefer/Cheater's and the web that organise and provide sites proves my point.

Let us get the info out to all the gamer communities.

May I say, I thank Kronzky for his excelent question that alowed us to show the community how we can get such criminals behind bars.

Once again here are the important links to the police cyber crime units of different coutries.

In the US

http://www.ic3.gov/

In the UK.

http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/crime-v....t-crime

In the Netherlands

http://www.meldpuntcybercrime.nl/english_information.html

Interpol is the place to report Cyber crime throughout Europe

http://www.interpol.int/

The link to do so is right there on the web page use it.

You can find your own countries cyber crime department by searching for "Cyber crime police" in your own language into Google.

Remember also let us make November 5th 2007 action day for all games to strike a blow against the TK/Griefer/Cheater's and the web sites that conspire with and organise them.

As Victor said if you play these games

Quote[/b] ]---- Vietcong 1 & 2

---- Armed Assault

---- S.T.A.L.K.E.R.

---- Battlefield 2/2142

---- Call of Juarez

---- Counter Strike: Source

---- WarRock

---- Americas Army

---- Call of Duty

---- Soldner: Secret Wars

---- Jedi Academy

---- Grand Theft Auto (MTA)

---- FIFA 07

---- SOCOM 3

---- Splinter Cell 3

If you know of a thread on their forums tell them how to report any crime that takes down a server, denies service, or alters data on a server.

Remember also let us make November 5th 2007 action day for all games to strike a blow against the TK/Griefer/Cheater's and the web sites that conspire with and organise them.

Kind Regards walker