
Gaming Company Fined $1M for Secretly Using Players' Computers to Mine Bitcoin - comice
http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/11/19/brilliant-but-evil-gaming-company-turned-players-computers-into-unwitting-bitcoin-mining-slaves/
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Pinckney
>The program was also designed to give E-Sports employees full administrative
access to users’ computers; they could access files, capture screen shots,
track mouse movements, and monitor computer activity even when users weren’t
logged into the E-Sports servers.

Is there any indication that the large fine stemmed from the bitcoin mining,
rather than the spyware? This seems like journalists focusing on bitcoin,
because that's the buzzword of late, but it's not the part that seems overtly
malicious here.

~~~
rgower
This kind of invasiveness is standard for good anti-cheat protection. The fine
stems entirely from stealth bitcoin mining.

~~~
r00fus
Standard - Screen captures? I must've been out of the gaming scene for some
time now.

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MichaelGG
Screen captures while not playing seems excessive. But a screencap while
you're playing seems like a quick and easy (albeit manual) way to determine if
someone has gotten a render hack past detection. Right?

~~~
ulrikrasmussen
Still seems pretty invasive to me! Especially considering that platforms like
Steam has integrated in-game social networking features like chat, meaning
that the game company could potentially pry into your private conversations.

~~~
MichaelGG
Well the whole point is to be invasive. The idea is to lock down the PC into a
console-like platform. Without turning on TPMs, secure boot, and remote
attestation, the only way to make sure the user isn't running modified code
somehow is to effectively rootkit their system and spy on everything.

The anti-cheat stuff runs as part of the OS, so the company can do pretty much
anything they feel like. I'd assume they only bother with screenshots on
suspected cheaters, while they're playing. Otherwise it's a waste of effort on
their part. But if you don't trust them to handle screenshots possibly
containing snippets of IM, then you shouldn't be running their binaries as
root.

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comlonq
I hate these kind of arguments.

What OS are you running? If you trust your OS vendor enough to run their
binaries as root then you shouldn't be too worried when they screenshot your
machine every minute and post the images online so your family can see the
kind of porn you watch...

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frisco
That's actually a very interesting use of Bitcoin: post-advertising
monetization. Eyeballs are directly monetizable by mining, which of course
continues even after all BTC has been "mined" via transaction fees. I've been
working under the thesis that "programmable money" will be interesting even if
I can't see the applications now for a while, and this is the first real use
not possible with a traditional currency that clicks for me.

~~~
sliverstorm
Seeing as electricity is not free, you're basically just reaching into their
wallet in an extremely indirect and dishonest way.

~~~
Yrlec
However, that electricity gets converted into heat, so your heating bill gets
reduced.

~~~
camus2
> However, that electricity gets converted into heat, so your heating bill
> gets reduced.

Do you really think heating a room with electricity is efficient? why do you
think people use coal or gaz for that purpose ?

Edit : you are being sarcastic i hope.

~~~
Yrlec
Where did I imply that it was efficient? I was merely saying only looking at
your electricity bill doesn't provide an accurate picture of the cost of
mining.

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idupree
I imagine it's sketchy enough to be illegal, but what specific laws were they
accused of violating? I read the consent judgment to find out:

"3\. Defendants' conduct constitutes deceptive and unconscionable commercial
practices pursuant to the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, N.J.S.A. 56:8-1 et
seq. ("CFA") and unauthorized access pursuant to the New Jersey Computer
Related Offenses Act, N.J.S.A. 2A:38A-1 et seq. ("CROA"). The Attorney General
and Director (collectively, "Plaintiffs") submit this Complaint seeking
equitable relief, to prevent any more consumers from being victimized by
Defendants' practices, as well as penalties, restitution, investigative costs,
and attorneys' fees." \- p.2
[http://nj.gov/oag/newsreleases13/E-Sports_Complaint_Consent-...](http://nj.gov/oag/newsreleases13/E-Sports_Complaint_Consent-
Judgment.pdf)

p.9 (item 38) lists the alleged "unconscionable business practices and
deceptions".

Also: ESEA is a New York company (p.3 / item 6). The laws are New Jersey laws.
"Venue is proper in Essex County [, New Jersey], pursuant to R. 4:3-2, because
it is a county in which defendants have otherwise conducted business." (p.3 /
item 5)

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girasquid
I'm curious: if a gaming company were to distribute a game that had an option
where you paid for it and an option where the client partitioned 10% of your
capacity for mining (only while playing the game) - how many players would go
for the free-but-mining-bitcoins option? If the game client was less greedy
about the resources and everything was communicated up front, could this be a
way to monetize free to play games without charging the player any real money?

~~~
esrauch
It's my understanding that consumer desktops consume more power than the value
of bitcoins that works be mined, so the only advantage to a consumer under
that scheme would be not giving payment info to the company.

~~~
lsc
>It's my understanding that consumer desktops consume more power than the
value of bitcoins that works be mined, so the only advantage to a consumer
under that scheme would be not giving payment info to the company.

Not giving payment info /is/ a huge advantage, especially for small payments.
I mean, even when everyone pays for their own power, I think for payments up
to a few dollars a month, people would pay twice as much to not have to deal
with giving payment info. (this is different from, but similar to the old
payment process of having your computer dial a toll-number to get access,
because you have a lot more control over and understanding of how much power
your system is drawing. It also won't show up on your phone bill.)

Then, think of the large number of gamers who don't have credit cards, and how
many of those folks who don't have credit cards /also/ don't pay for their own
electricity.

This sounds like the perfect way for a company that doesn't care about ethics
to get children to pay for things.

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tehwebguy
Wow, I am genuinely surprised at how fast that was. Maybe that's the
difference between someone like Google getting into trouble and dragging the
case out for 3 years and someone who can't afford to do that?

~~~
camus2
you are spot on ! with the right friends at Washington, most of your problems
will go away.

~~~
tehwebguy
That's not really what I meant though. Google, Facebook and others have paid
plenty of fines, but it seems like they drag the cases out for years first
(probably at great expense).

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bsamuels
Under this ruling, wouldn't the guys who create league of legends be liable
for secretly using people's computers as p2p seeds to distribute copies of the
game to other downloaders? Both that and what's described in the OP taxes the
user's machine/bandwidth for monetary gain for the software developer.

~~~
drawkbox
Probably not since it is known that is what they are doing, torrenting the
game is usually faster as well and users choose it. I wonder though if they
just told the user and also gave them a piece if any at least in game but also
bitcoin them maybe people would do it. However the stress on a normal gpu/cpu
probably isn't worth it for the output as it has gone way past that. GPUs
might start failing also and causing refunds/complaints.

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downrightmike
It really isn't nearly as bad as Sony creating rootkits.

~~~
infra178
Haven't you heard? We're supposed to hate Microsoft again and buy PS4s. You
must have missed some meetings of the internet trendy hate club.

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kozikow
I have been suspecting redtube is doing it. If I accidentally enter their
website (hehe) my CPU jumps through the roof to level rarely seen in other
places, even playing Diablo 3. I didn't look into what they are doing, but
this seems like the most possible outcome.

~~~
nyar
bitcoins are mined with gpu

I mean, they could be mined with cpu but it would be nothing.

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themichaellai
Looks like it was reduced: [http://arstechnica.com/tech-
policy/2013/11/e-sports-site-set...](http://arstechnica.com/tech-
policy/2013/11/e-sports-site-settles-covert-bitcoin-mining-case-
for-1-million/)

~~~
asdb
I don't believe it is an outright reduction. It looks like the fine was $1
million PLUS $350,0000. The potential reduction comes from E-sports paying the
$350,000 and complying with the terms of the agreement over the next ten
years. If they pay and comply, then whatever unpaid balance on the $1 million
fine will be forgiven.

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cowstwo
Gaming company fined $1M for secretly installing malware? Color me surprised.

