Lightspeed Lawsuit Puts Password Traders on Notice

You know there is more money in suing thieves than in running teen solo girl sites, when Steve Lightspeed goes after password traders in court instead of plugging the hole the easy way by installing StrongBox.

According to YNOT, Illinois Judge Robert P. LeChien denied motions from 9 ISPs to quash subpoenas seeking the identities of subscribers who allegedly used stolen passwords to access membership websites owned and operated by Lightspeed Media.

The case, Lightspeed Media Corporation vs. John Doe, seeks financial damages and other penalties from more than 6,500 U.S. residents accused of conspiring to commit computer crimes, steal digital content and defraud the company out of millions of dollars.

LeChien ordered ISPs including AT&T, Comcast and Verizon to divulge the personal identities of customers associated with specific IP addresses uncovered by Arcadia Security on behalf of the plaintiff.

When news of the lawsuit reached PornBB.org, the forum's admins closed PornBB's password-trading sub-forum with a notice telling users the risk of trading passwords wasn't worth any benefits they might gain.

The case is no. 11L683 on the docket in the Circuit Court for the 20th District Judicial Circuit in St. Clair, Ill.

Tough times for affiliate programs that advertise on piracy sites

Yesterday, the German police raided the offices of several affiliate program owners and arrested 2 people. They apparently advertised on kino.to, a piracy website that was shut down last year. Source: Der Spiegel (German).