
Threadless offering $1000 for positive ID of Chicagoans in these photos - brandnewlow
http://www.windycitizen.com/chicago/crime/2009/12/21/threadless-offering-1000-to-anyone-who-can-identify-2-chicago-men-captured-
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icey
This whole idea is creepy as hell - someone from threadless just says it's
"serious" and refuses to give any details as to who these people are or why
they want to suddenly play net-nanny. In the meantime, here's a handful of
cash for whoever decides to play big brother. It's a bad thing to start, and a
bad thing to encourage.

~~~
simon_
This sentiment seems a little silly to me - there's no implicit right to
anonymity in RL, especially if you go around pissing people off by stealing
from them.

~~~
kordless
> no implicit right to anonymity

Check the privacy laws of the United States - they clearly do protect our
right to anonymity:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_laws_of_the_United_Stat...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Privacy_laws_of_the_United_States)

In this case I see both violations of False Light and Appropriation being
possible, if these guys didn't do anything, and didn't agree to be involved in
this stunt.

Personally I like the idea of vigilantism, but these things are better left to
law enforcement and the legal system. They are in place for a reason, after
all.

~~~
jellicle
You know that that Wikipedia article doesn't even have the word "anonymity" in
it, right?

There's no general privacy law in the U.S. There's some minor right to write
anonymously, extrapolated from the First Amendment, but absolutely no right to
be anonymous in general, and in fact the First Amendment goes the other way:
Threadless has the right to publish those photos and to make any truthful
statements about them whatsoever. In many cases Threadless can even make
untruthful statements about the photos and still be perfectly legal.

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dschobel
Harper (ex-Threadless CTO) just tweeted:

 _Threadless got robbed again - but there are pictures! $1000 to anyone who
can identify these two Chicago jagoffs:<http://bit.ly/7C8XHn> _

<http://twitter.com/harper/status/6908083982>

~~~
harper
whoops ;)

------
harper
I had just finished reading "This is not a game" about crowdsourcing crime
solving using ARG techniques. It was a decent read. When i heard that
something terrible had happened to the threadless tech dept. It seemed like a
great way to possibly find the alleged crooks.

Luckily the dudes who remain at threadless were quick on the execution and had
already appealed to the community. They are attempting to use the same method
that MIT used to find the red balloons (i.e. a tiered reward for reporting
info).

Here is some info from threadless:
[http://www.threadless.com/news/536659/Identify_these_Christm...](http://www.threadless.com/news/536659/Identify_these_Christmas_elves_for_a_reward)

Here is photos from scottv's flickr stream:
[http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottvdp/sets/72157622921219371...](http://www.flickr.com/photos/scottvdp/sets/72157622921219371/)

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drc1912
Reminds me of the "Human Flesh Search Engines" that form on Chinese BBS's.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_flesh_search_engine>

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aresant
Tell me that's not Jay & Silent Bob in real life. . .

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brandnewlow
Sorry our servers are struggling today...

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GrandMasterBirt
I don't like it. I don't like going on a manhunt for no good reason.

Are they ex-employees who must be punished dearly?

Are they thiefs? Alleged thiefs? Being hassled by the company?

~~~
adatta02
I don't like it either. Doing this without any context is creepy and a little
un-nerving. People would probably go to some length for $1000.

