🚀 go-pugleaf

Harry Lime wrote:
> 
> My telephone is connected to a global telephone network too. Should we
> make telephone tapping legal for all and sundry?

Port scanning is more akin to trying phone numbers to see if someone
will answer them than like tapping the lines.  It's not illegal for me
to try to call a phone number to see if it works.  (That's the
"attempting to connect" people here have been taking about.)  However,
if I'm calling to see if you are gone so I can break in, then it is
illegal and is a separate crime from the actual breaking and entry. 
Intent is everything.

There is also a big difference between calling a number (pinging) and
calling a lot of numbers (scanning.)  If I call your phone once and say
"Sorry, wrong number," you won't get action by complaining to the phone
company.  If I call you several times a day and say "Sorry, wrong
number," you can get action.  

I heard that the phone companies have systems to detect people calling
blocks of numbers scanning for open modems.  That would get the phone
companies attention; however, if it was someone phone soliciting, it
wouldn't get them disconnected.  If they were doing this to solicit for
a business from a residential line, they may be in violation of their
contract with the phone company.

Someone looking in a store front when the store is closed may constitute
reasonable suspicion for questioning or even a search; however, it isn't
a crime itself.  Neither is trying to open the front door to see if the
store is open.  I've accidentally walked into a closed store because the
people didn't lock the door when they left.  It triggered the alarm.  I
waited for the police to tell them what happened.  Even if I had left, I
wouldn't have committed a crime.  Intent is everything.

I've tried to connect to sites via ftp when I had difficulty getting a
file from their web server.  In every case, this was for files that I
believed I was "authorized" to have.  It was just difficult for some
reason to get the file from the web.  When I try to get an ftp server, I
may try several addresses before I get one that works.  Sometimes
www.x.com works, sometimes ftp.x.com, sometimes something else.  I would
call that "port scanning," since I am hitting the same port on possibly
several machines, or maybe hitting the same port on the same machine
multiple times.  So, I was "port scanning," but for legitimate reasons. 
Again, intent is everything.

When I have a URL to a web page, but intentionally omit the file name to
try to get a higher-level page or a listing of the directory contents,
am I performing an act that you deem should be illegal?  For example, if
I have an off site link to "http://www.x.com/~user/weather/map.jpg", and
I try "http://www.x.com/~user/weather" to see if there is "wider"
content available, do your think I am doing something wrong?

My opionion: "port scanning" may constitute suspicious activity, but
unless a criminal intent can be proven, it is not a criminal act.

-- 
randy c ford
randy@null.net