[snip]

His PDF about the use of Open Proxies is interesting, as its a project I am working on right now.

It seems that if a company is denying you access to its resources (ie banning IP blocks) and you circumvent that (by open proxies or other means) that is a crime.

To my knowledge, using an Open Proxy is not illegal. There are very fine hairs here. The law mainly revolve around being authorized to use a computer (And services on that computer). If you need to provide some type of username or password, or there is some type of splash page stating who is authorized, casual users may not access it without commiting a crime. However, a system that is offering a public service is consenting to your use.

The easy way to think about this is a Daytime or echo service versus a telnet or SSH service. To use the telnet or SSH service I must supply a username/password. If I don't have one (or am using one not granted to me), that is illegal. But anyone can connect to the Daytime Service or echo service and use it. Anyone is an authorized user.

We really need a lawyer to pipe up here.

RE: Slashdot | Perl's Chip Salzenberg Sued, Home Raided