Within the bitcoin economy it's obviously equivalent to stealing money, however this "worth x" is only assuming the judge will recognise whatever MtGox or any other exchange valuation provides as official value.
If I give you 10 BTC just for laughs then the cost for you was 0. To consider them "worth X" is giving exchanges valuation legal status, regardless the fact that they pretty much can be sold for the price quoted in the their "bid" column at a particular time (not so much 50K BTC though, if you put them all for sale at once you'd be betting significantly less).
I have no doubts that this is criminal behaviour but AFAIK we have no precedent of stolen BTC being given the same status as stolen government backed fiat currency, and being valued whatever the exchanges were quoting at the moment of the stealing. That would be massive news for bitcoin IMO. The point was that one has to go to the police and be careful with the terms used because if I go and say "robbery of items valued X US$" then that can be challenged. Every single word can and is challenged by lawyers.
Topic: Linode and the law. - page 2. (Read 3826 times)
It's funny to observe people who didn't lose any money urge Zhoutong to put a legal blame on somebody other than himself or the perpetrator. While he chooses not to.
IMO at 17 (or so) years he seems to be more farsighted than most, and more
vigilant at playing the game according to new rules, probably knowing that the future value of his business heavily outweighs an initial loss of $250,000.
If lawyers didn't exist they wouldn't be necessary.
Actually the only crime here was the unauthorised access and modification of VPS accounts. BTC are not legal tender/currency and Linode already covers up to whatever the hosting costs they are paying... which is very little because Linode is cheap.
I don't have any reference at the moment, but I read somewhere that if anything worth a certain amount of money is stolen, it's considered a serious matter by law enforcement, even though it's not directly classified as anything. But I'm no lawyer, so don't take my words for granted.
I would think this to be the situation also. If i have piece of equipment that is worth x amount of money and its stolen its still theft. no matter hwo you look at it..
reminds of the would you steel a car piirate campaign. if thats illegal, this CERTAINLY must be.
Actually the only crime here was the unauthorised access and modification of VPS accounts. BTC are not legal tender/currency and Linode already covers up to whatever the hosting costs they are paying... which is very little because Linode is cheap.
I don't have any reference at the moment, but I read somewhere that if anything worth a certain amount of money is stolen, it's considered a serious matter by law enforcement, even though it's not directly classified as anything. But I'm no lawyer, so don't take my words for granted.
I would think this to be the situation also. If i have piece of equipment that is worth x amount of money and its stolen its still theft. no matter hwo you look at it..
reminds of the would you steel a car piirate campaign. if thats illegal, this CERTAINLY must be.
Actually the only crime here was the unauthorised access and modification of VPS accounts. BTC are not legal tender/currency and Linode already covers up to whatever the hosting costs they are paying... which is very little because Linode is cheap.
I don't have any reference at the moment, but I read somewhere that if anything worth a certain amount of money is stolen, it's considered a serious matter by law enforcement, even though it's not directly classified as anything. But I'm no lawyer, so don't take my words for granted.
Wait, so they lost ~$250k US, and have at least another $250k stashed somewhere else since Z said he was covering it. Ok that means they had at least $500k on hand, and they lost the bitcoins they did because they were on a cheap linux vps?? They couldn't afford their own server??? WTF?
Those coins weren't stolen. They were given away.
Those coins weren't stolen. They were given away.
Im sorry if this has already been covered else where. Will those who lost substantial amounts at Linode fiasco be forwarding legal proceedings against them?
Im going to the shop so wont respond for a while but im very curious as to what peoples stance is on this.
I personally feel that this is certainly court worthy. Looking forward to hearing all your views.
Im going to the shop so wont respond for a while but im very curious as to what peoples stance is on this.
I personally feel that this is certainly court worthy. Looking forward to hearing all your views.
This is the hottest topic in the forum for 2 days. Please, just look at the most recent threads and post there...
From what I heard, 8 customers lost their bitcoins. I assume Bitcoinica lost the most. 43K BTC is a lot of money to lose. If I lost that amount of money, I'd certainly get law enforcement on the case. But it's important to act quickly, while the leads are still hot. Linode's reputation is already suffering and I think it would be in their best interest to be upfront about what really happened. And I still think the insider theory is a good one..
Actually the only crime here was the unauthorised access and modification of VPS accounts. BTC are not legal tender/currency and Linode already covers up to whatever the hosting costs they are paying... which is very little because Linode is cheap.
The only reference we have is past litigation over online credits in Everquest, Eve Online, World of Warcraft, Facebook, Farmville and the like.
From what I heard, 8 customers lost their bitcoins. I assume Bitcoinica lost the most. 43K BTC is a lot of money to lose. If I lost that amount of money, I'd certainly get law enforcement on the case. But it's important to act quickly, while the leads are still hot. Linode's reputation is already suffering and I think it would be in their best interest to be upfront about what really happened. And I still think the insider theory is a good one..
Im sorry if this has already been covered else where. Will those who lost substantial amounts at Linode fiasco be forwarding legal proceedings against them?
Im going to the shop so wont respond for a while but im very curious as to what peoples stance is on this.
I personally feel that this is certainly court worthy. Looking forward to hearing all your views.
Im going to the shop so wont respond for a while but im very curious as to what peoples stance is on this.
I personally feel that this is certainly court worthy. Looking forward to hearing all your views.
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