Violation of Security/Privacy...

Tue Oct 11 22:43:28 PDT 2005

Gwendolynn ferch Elydyr wrote:

>> You could argue that if all that gets passed is hashes, then its 
>> harmless. However, what if thoses hashes are of files that are 
>> considered subversive, or key phrases that are related to terrorist 
>> activities, or any number of 'lawful intercept' reasons.

> Actually I don't see why they'd pass anything other than a binary
> pass/fail.  Either there's a match, against -something-, or there isn't.

> In a game context, any match would mean you were cheating.

And then there's the way Mythic handles this situation -- any file not 
matching the "current" hash is updated via a pull from the server.

All of this is handled on the client side so the servers only see a pull 
request for the current file.

This has the side-benefit of allowing users to zip/rar/tar/cpio the 
install area on one computer and extract archive on another computer to 
shorten the update time on a fresh install.

IMO, if you've installed someone's software and agreed to their explicit 
EULA, you've accepted your fate.  Otherwise, uninstall and vote with 
your money.  (WoW isn't the only gui-MUD [er.. "MMORPG"] out there, if 
you're adamant about wasting time on a computer.)

Rob++
-- 
Internet: windsor at warthog.com                             __o
Life: Rob at Carrollton.Texas.USA.Earth                    _`\<,_
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"They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance."
   -- Major General John Sedgwick