a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by b_b
b_b  ·  3726 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Finding a video poker bug made these guys rich. Then Vegas made them pay.

    What does it say about responsibility for losses due to manufacturing defects?

Well it depends. I haven't read the story, so I don't know if it's a good analogy, but if a safe company made a lock that was easy to pick, it doesn't give me the right to steal what's inside. If it's your safe that's been compromised, and you find that many other people who have the same safe have also had thefts occur, you might try suing the manufacturer, but that doesn't mean you wouldn't want your property returned and those who stole it held to account. Again, I don't know the particulars here, but there seems to be a perception that stealing things online isn't really stealing.





user-inactivated  ·  3724 days ago  ·  link  ·  

Casinos are telling you, "Here is a safe. Try and pick it." That small chance that you can "pick" the safe and take a meager amount of money is what brings gamblers in each day. It's encouraged. People do occasionally get to withdraw from the safe.

These people pressed the buttons on the slot machine exactly as they were allowed to attempt to pick locks normally, and they simply found a way to exploit the machine without doing any hacking or fiddling, just in the sequence of button-pressing. Is it still stealing? They had all charges acquitted (so essentially they legally did no hacking, did no stealing), and yet they did not get their money back. All they got out of it was back taxes they can't pay.