Apart from the big Twitter hoohah, have any other bot writers received a letter from the legal lapdogs?
Only asking as I received a hand delivered letter today that is supposedly from a website owner that I have written bots against (via their solicitors).

The company is UK based and so is the solicitor so that seems pukka. They have my proper address (obviously if they got a letter to me!) but thats not listed anywhere, even the paypal address is not my current one, just the place I was staying when I set up the account.

50 / 50 at the moment as to whether the letter is genuine but thought I would see if any other botters have had letters (I am only a small bot maker!)

Cheers
FB

I'm not a bot creator, but you need to find out how they found your address.

Do you have domains not using WHOIS or is your email in a national email database?

If you haven't, Google your email account and see what comes up.

I know there are legal ways of getting addresses, thats the only thing that makes me wonder if this is actually true.
Will have a dig about on the web to see if I can find anything.

Cheers!

Yikes, never good when someone delivers legal papers and you're not sure how they got your address, good luck to ya!

Couldn't hurt to just ask how they found you. We're as curious as you. As far as the bot thing, there's the CL precedent....

Erm, if you used any legit information anywhere, that is how they found you I guess. My guess is paypal sold you out if other than the address the information was accurate.

In The Netherlands, unless your address is officially listed as "Secret" a lawyer, amongst others, can find you without notice to you at all. Having a secret address will only stall them and give you a heads up. Probably works the same in The UK.

yeah, we get them all the time....it usually starts with an email from a lawyer they have hired. It rarely is a physical "letter"

The physical address thing gets me. How do they find that out? Maybe you sold a bot to an agent?

Old domains with whois details left open?

Ditch the bot and deny that you made it -

When did you make Jr Exec VIP??
I don't have old domains associated with the one I sell bots from at the moment. My solicitor is following things up with the people named on the letter, again he is not sure what to make of it either.

No sweating it at the moment, just keeping my head down until it blows over

Originally Posted by fatboy

When did you make Jr Exec VIP??
I don't have old domains associated with the one I sell bots from at the moment. My solicitor is following things up with the people named on the letter, again he is not sure what to make of it either.

No sweating it at the moment, just keeping my head down until it blows over

Did you give the bots away or sell them?

oh, and I'm totally awesome

I would not worry too much about the letters as you are based in the UK which gives you the opportunity to twist the knife back on the sender as for sure they will not be whiter than white --- get something on them - send a letter from your brief showcasing the findings accompanied with a footnote saying the tardy tabloids are interested in your story - very quickly you will get a reply withdrawing the original letter to you - touche!

In the UK you have RIPA. This means that anyone in or related to the government (including your local councils) can make a RIPA request to find out your personal information. Say, for example, you had an 0844 number which you mapped to your mobile. You might think this is anonymous. Unfortunately if someone sends a RIPA request to the 0844 company they legally have to hand over all information they have, including call records, where the calls were routed, IP address that was used to signup for the service etc. The 0844 company is legally not allowed to inform you that thay have provided this information to a third party.

RIPAs can be requested by pretty much anyone in any "official" capacity and I imagine a solicitor's firm would have a way of issuing a RIPA. For a more detailed and very scary explanation of how RIPA works for electronic communications check out the home office's handy guide (search google for "Code of practice for the acquisition and disclosure of communications data")

I forgot to add that RIPA also covers email so if you have used an email provider in the UK then a UK council member could easily send a RIPA request to the email company and get your IP address. They just need to send another RIPA to your ISP with your IP address and date/time used and they would have your home address.|

Well, its over as of about 4 or 5 hours ago. Signed a little of my life away and my wallet seems a lot lighter so just cheap Tesco lager to celebrate with tonight. A big huge thanks to everyone for their help and advice, either in the thread, via PM, phone call or Skype, its been greatly appreciated!

I have had to stop developing a couple of bots as part of it all but I have had the last laugh on that one, as anyone who received an email from me knows about!

To celebrate I have just uploaded a free bot for people to use!!
http://www.blackhatworld.com/blackha...l-creator.html

Friday, I love you!

Good luck man. Wouldn't worry too much - it's probably just a scare tactic.

If you run out of beer, Sainsburys are doing 20 cans of Carling (I know, I know) for £13. Win.

So we're all left hanging here. Who sued? Did anyone sue? What was the allegation? Were any laws broken? is it illegal to make a bot that "does something"? What bot? What was it going to do? How can they prove it was you that wrote it? Did you confess? Or did you just pay the lawyer?

If the bot was worth suing over, it would be worth having someone harder to prosecute make the bot. I've heard you were a good bot maker, but you aren't the ONLY bot maker. Seems to me that the best revenge is to pay someone in indonesia $100 to implement your bot as "theirs" and then give it away from free.

This story sucks. Don't even think about making it into a movie, because I'm not watching it. I don't care how many hot chicks it has in it. I'm not even going to download it illegally via P2P. I feel like I should get my money back, even though I didn't pay any. You might be good at writing bots, but you absolutely SUCK at writing hollywood screenplays. Don't quit your day job; you'll starve.

I stopped reading at "Ubot God "

Originally Posted by phatzilla

I stopped reading at "Ubot God "

That's nice for you......another ubot hater?