In need of some legal help.

[voogru]

Hello,

Over the past few months I been getting constantly harassed by a 40 year old.

To make a long story short, He offered to host servers for me, I went ahead and took this offer, while it worked okay for 6-7 months, when I wanted out I kindly told him "thank you for your servers, goodbye".

Since then he been sending me threats, insults, and generally harassing me via email, IRC, and any other means that he could find.

I have been trying to do something about him for a few weeks (I been ignoring him most of the time, but he isnt gonna stop causing me problems so I have no choice). He harasses my users, calling them random names, as well as trying to either turn them agaist me or just try to get them to say stuff to him (which in most cases they did

But anyways, I have several logs + screenshots of this guy harassing me and my other users, and Im trying to find anyone who could give me any information on what I can do about this guy.

This is a 40 year old harassing a group of 15-20 year olds (Im 17)

Now, is there anything I can do about this guy? Im getting tired of this guy harassing me. I have contacted the ISP with no luck whatsoever they dont have a phone number for abuse, just an email that I get no reply from.

Thanks

- voogru.

[wju425]

Go talk to the police. I think they'll be interested in that guy since it involves minors.

\o/ Billy

http://www.safetyed.org/help/wherereport.html

might want to check out

http://www.ccmostwanted.com/reporting1.htm

Harassment - Online Persistent

Cybercrime Unit - local
Federal Bureau of Investigation - Office
Local Prosecutor's Office (in local telephone directory)

If you know where he lives, i suggest you make a report with the local police department in his area like wju425 suggested.

Did you leave on bad terms or something?

keep saving everything, from emails, irc logs and have everyone else save there convos. build as much evidence against him so you can take this idiot out. Don't respond to anything, dont give him any reason to want to continue harassing you (i would also encourage your friends to do the same). That way if you are questioned you can at least say i did no provoke him in any way to act like this.

Jason

btw you got pm

[voogru]

When I left, I simply said this:

k im gonna make this short and sweet, I removed CD from "Server #1", as well as NSAdmin from BOTH servers, I left the users.ini file on "Server #2" so you know the wonid's of players who donated. I left the server is fully operational (Running stock NS). I thank you for hosting me, I do not want to be hosted by you anymore. If I see NSAdmin running on either of the servers, remember that they have backdoors. Thank you for your servers, and for your time. Im sure you will be able to find someone to put the mods on.

- voogru

With in mins he started calling me names, I promptly banned him from my forums, IRC, etc.

Then he put my software back on, I had to use the "backdoor" to remove the software, after this he released my software without my permission. My software is NSAdmin. (NSA for short).

[Mntsnow]

had to use the "backdoor" to remove the software

Sounds like you might have yourself in hot water too as you did illegally access his servers..... At this point I would consult a lawyer before a law enforcement official....

[voogru]

Thing is, If he knew about the backdoor, and ran the software knowing there was a backdoor, why would that cause me any trouble?

Now the backdoor was thru the game, Not thru FTP/TS or anything else, all the backdoor would do is cause the game server to "pause" (Again, This would be Half-Life dedicated server, not the auctual server).


Technically, no damage was done. (No files deleted) Just if he ran my software the servers could be "paused" by anyone knowing the backdoor commmand.

The backdoor only served as a protection for the software to prevent people from using it without permission, my software isnt publicly released.

[ShawnD1]

If you can prove that he distributed your software without legal permission from you, you can sue him.

Whatever you do, don't ever resort to anything illegal. Contact the police like the others have said above then contact a lawyer about illegal distribution of your software; you might have a case

Good luck

You likely are in the clear then, as this is a "feature" of your software. Most courts will side with those attempting to protect their intellectual property. You did not exploit any security measures to gain access, plus you made the other party aware of the backdoor prior to your actions.

However, you may need to create a lisence stating the existence of this feature to avoid future problems.

There may be little you can do about the guy's harrassment, but I would assume you could take certain actions to protect your intellectual property, namely your administration application. You really need to draft some sort of software lisence if you have not already, thus allowing you to have more control over these types of sitations in the future.

Robert Richmond

[ShawnD1]

Well first off, is this guy even in the US?

Who is his ISP?

[voogru]

Yes the guy is in the US, and his ISP is BellSouth. (Same ISP I use).