Is it illegal to download...?

[do5000]

A co-worker has a website (not porno) with instructional videos on it for pay. I wont say the site, but its in the area of "home improvement/DIY/construction".
there are a few free sample videos and many pay videos.

over the past few months some of the pay videos have been downloaded without being paid for. apparently if you play around with the URL you get to the "directory" that shows all the webmaster/admin full video files. theres NO hacking involved, but the url isnt advertised, you have to use trial and error around to get to it. the "directory" url was easy enough to guess, so no hacking (if thats the right word)

Is this illegal? or just terrible web page design?
The downloads didnt show up as suspicious since they were from the webmaster/admin folder and not the "pay section", so they werent tracked the same way.
im not sure on all the details.

[RubberKettle]

Exploitation of a backdoor entry to content download. This is not a big deal, but I would not steal from co-worker.

If cow-worker wanted to they can find the IP's of individuals who downloaded the videos through the backdoor.

[sideloaded]

and do what? Take them to court? What a waste of time.

[do5000]

Exploitation of a backdoor entry to content download. This is not a big deal, but I would not steal from co-worker.

If cow-worker wanted to they can find the IP's of individuals who downloaded the videos through the backdoor.

thanks for the info.
i wasnt clear above. i dont want to steal from a co-worker, my co-worker asked me for my advice, wants to know if he can sue the person who has downloaded.
he said the IP address was faked (?) to make it seem like the person who downloaded was from another country (although i guess it could have been somebody in another country)

[sideloaded]

he has no case

[RubberKettle]

thanks for the info. i wasnt clear above. i dont want to steal from a co-worker, my co-worker asked me for my advice, wants to know if he can sue the person who has downloaded. he said the IP address was faked (?) to make it seem like the person who downloaded was from another country (although i guess it could have been somebody in another country)

Unless the person who 'stole' the videos went through some excessive trouble to hide their IP it can be found. They can trick and spoof their IP, but unless they're on a VPN or a educated hacker they can be caught.

[sideloaded]

caught for what? They did nothing illegal. The videos were published. The only way they get judgments with bittorrent is because they were sharing the file, distributing it. How many lawsuits have you seen of people downloading copyrighted videos from youtube? It doesn't happen.

[sideloaded]

Short story it is not illegal to download. Or all the people on Ustream watching a copyrighted video being streamed would have been sued.

[chilidog]

caught for what? They did nothing illegal. The videos were published. The only way they get judgments with bittorrent is because they were sharing the file, distributing it. How many lawsuits have you seen of people downloading copyrighted videos from youtube? It doesn't happen.

So what you're saying is that if a store owner forgets to lock their front door at night, it's okay to steal their merchandise? Or what if they did lock the door, but they had a keypad entry to unlock the door, and you just punched '1234', and it unlocked the door? Could you take what you wanted from the store, since they failed to properly secure the store?

[sideloaded]

You're an idiot

[sideloaded]

This wasn't even piracy. I can say that everyone who downloads the above images owes me 10.00 dollars. So can I sue you for not sending the 10 dollars?

[sideloaded]

Jesus Christ I'm done posting here, SBR is really the bottom of the fukking barrel.

[WvGambler]

Exploitation of a backdoor entry to content download. This is not a big deal, but I would not steal from co-worker.

If cow-worker wanted to they can find the IP's of individuals who downloaded the videos through the backdoor.

I've dealt with cow-workers before. Much more intelligent than pig-workers.

[RubberKettle]

[chilidog]

This wasn't even piracy. I can say that everyone who downloads the above images owes me 10.00 dollars. So can I sue you for not sending the 10 dollars?

LOL. This is your rebuttal?

Intellectual property is just as real as physical property. The OP said that the videos were in a directory that wasn't visible to the public. They were made for purchase only. Just because somebody circumvented the security (very poor security, but that's irrelevant) and downloaded the videos anyway, does not mean that they had the right to do so.

This wasn't a case of somebody finding the videos via Google's search results, nor of the videos being viewed on Youtube. The files were secured, that security was circumvented, and the files were downloaded. A theft did occur. The author was not paid for his work.

[Boner_18]

If the person downloads it knowing or should know it is a paid product then yes it is potentially criminal and more importantly to your friend actionable in a civil suit. He needs to weigh the cost of litigation versus the potential benefit of recovery (discounted by the likelyhood of obtaining and receiving judgment).

Just my amateur opinion based on the limited hypothetical facts.

[do5000]

thanks for the advice guys, still working on it.