
UFC Fight Pass (a paid service) is using your PC to mine cryptocurrency - mrguyorama
https://np.reddit.com/r/MMA/comments/7b4zdk/fight_pass_is_shady_ysk_ufc_fight_pass_is_using/dpf96js/
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mikestew
Imagine if you will that I do freelance work for a client. In addition to the
CRM system that they paid for, I also put a little mining module in there that
mines with otherwise idle CPUs.

My question is, would I simply be sued by the client, or do the Feds get
involved with some kind of “hacking”/“unauthorized use” charge? If not the
latter, how egregious does it need to be before da FBI comes a’knockin’?

Point is, if _I_ put unauthorized code on a machine I don’t own, _I_ go to
jail.

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evgen
Yeah, you are going to jail.

CFAA would definitely classify this as unauthorized access or exceeding the
access to which you were authorized and for personal gain. The client would
try to sue you for theft and breach of contract, but they would be in line
behind the government for what remains of your personal savings and retirement
money.

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drspacemonkey
I wonder if this might not be a viable revenue model for "premium" services.
IE: service is "free", but we're gonna use your CPU cycles for our own
benefit.

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lewisl9029
I honestly think this could be a great alternative to ad-funding once the
economics improve enough to start making it more feasible.

As long as browsers had a way to distinguish crypto-mining usage from regular
site functionality and is able to throttle it separately when the site opt-
into the appropriate APIs, and in other cases detect suspicious levels of
sustained CPU activity, perform site-specific throttling and warn users about
it.

I'd much rather support content creation on the web using processing power
than with my privacy and limited attention span.

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BayesStreet
I've seen coinhive scripts running on a few sketchy sites including tpb, but
to see it on a billion dollar enterprise e.g. UFC is pretty surprising. It's
not ethical at all considering running a cpu mining script which might cost
the user $1 in electricity might net the controller maybe a penny of that in
crypto.

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dvlsg
The ESEA client (counter strike anti cheat / server integration) did something
similar, recently. The community was super unhappy.

~~~
erronjason
That was a "rouge employee" back in 2013, if I'm not mistaken. Nothing like
that recently.

