Legal Question in Technology Law in Australia

Fake hacking site

Hello,

I am keen to develop a site that appears to be a service for hacking another popular site (Eg. Hotmail or Gmail). My intention is to output a randomly generated, fake password after the user inputs an email address.

This is to play a joke on the people who believe this is possible, and I plan for it to deceive those users. My question is: Could I run into trouble with the ''victim'' site (Eg. Gmail) by doing this?

I was thinking of adding a small ''legal disclaimer'' link and a warning before entering the site to read it. Inside it would explain that the site is bogus. I expect most users would skip over this, but would it protect me legally?

I appreciate the help.


Asked on 6/27/07, 8:34 am

1 Answer from Attorneys
Jeremy Malcolm iLaw

Re: Fake hacking site

It sounds pretty risky. By using the name of the subject site and pretending to be associated with it, you could be committing a breach of their trade mark in the name, and also what is called "passing off". A disclaimer would help, but because you intend not to make the disclaimer prominent, a court might find that it was not enough. For example in one case Netscape had a link at the bottom of the page but because you didn't have to click that link before downloading their software, the court found that the conditions on the linked page didn't apply. If you did put up the site that you are proposing, you would probably be receiving a take-down notice sooner or later.

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Answered on 6/27/07, 9:41 pm


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