[scrawnybob]

hi

thanks for everyone's positive posts - It's great to see that we are getting more and more members who care about the forum and we are coming together as an open, active & co-operative forum

"freeroll whores" - different definitions

yes I agree the use of the phrase "freeroll whore" is maybe a bit misleading as it does mean different things to different people ...

so the problem is only - Members giving out passwords to other people / publishing them at other sites or blogs or generally not respecting the fact that the password is ONLY for their use and no one else - They are maybe more appropriately termed "password sharers"

we dont like people sharing our passwords - and I dont much like people who share other sites passwords (hence the fact that we do not allow any other sites private passwords to be posted here)

however

I have absolutly no problem with what some may term "password whoring" if by that you mean playing as many freerolls as you possibly can ... within the rules of any sites that maybe running them

ie. I dont see any problem with people being a member of 10 ... 20 ... 100 forums and wanting to play in their games ... so long as your a legitmate member of all those sites and have obtained their passwords entirely within their rules

so I guess its a case of teminology - bottom line ...

breaking any sites rules / giving out passwords / using passwords you shouldnt ... bad

joining lots of sites and following their rules to play their games ... good

copyright in passwords

lol we'll I'm pretty sure you cant copyright a string on numbers (ie a password) unless its a discovery of some formula / science etc - anyway I know US copyright law is different to UK law but

As a photographer for around 18yrs I'm pretty well versed in copyright law

Copyright theft of the internet is rampant - theft that is of clearly copyrighted material eg. articles / images etc but certainly in UK copyright law I do not have to display a copyright symbol for it to be protected under copyright law - any use of material that isnt yours without permission from the copyright owner / creator / author is a breach of copyright period and the author is under no obligiation to tell people they own the material ...

the obligation is on the person wanting to use something they didnt creat to seek out the copyright owner - if they cant that does not mean they can use it anyway

the current issues surrounding "ophaned works" in US copyright law is an absolute disgrace and will ruin alot of creatives businesses and livelihoods - where everyone will think and get others work for free

anyway back to the password think - I really think that given that protecting my own photography / copyright law over the years has proved less than effective against theft I wouldnt expect it to be effective on a password (my photography is far more valuable)

in UK law you can only gain the value of the infringment and NOT damages (US law is different) but I very much doubt under any legal system they would put much value on a password - you dont see microsoft persuing pirates on the basis of giving out a password - its on the sharing of the copyrighted software itself

anyway - bit of a pointless suggestion to just get a legal angle in afaiks

cheers scrawnybob