Website Pirated

[Aardpsymon]

oh joy, heres a fun one for me to find when I want to go home.

our website:
www.cardinalallen.lancs.sch.uk

latest addition to our hit counter:
www.cardi.bravehost.com

Clearly someone in the school.
Clearly someone with SOME technical skills but hardly "l33t h4><0r" since not only did they miss the style sheet they copied the hit counter too.

Now my task for next week is to track down WHO did it. Isn't life fun.

I know nothing on there is particularly offensive outright, but this is a school. Things like this quickly turn into bullying and most important of all, this means more work for me to do.

[oofki]

Anyone who goes to the fake site is an idiot but anyways..

I doubt bravehost will tell you who registered it and such and even if they give up their ip and/or email all you can do is file a complaint with their ISP and they most likely wont do anything about it

[Aardpsymon]

well, this is a school. So heres how it will go.

"hey guys, look at this website!"
"hey, thats funny I'm gonna show all my friends!"

and so on. Then someone else copies it, does something that is really offensive or picks on one person in particular. Then parents are phoning the school asking why we didn't stop this sooner......

[nihil]

Hmmmm,

I don't really see it as much of an issue, it seems just some sort of prank to me. You won't find that site by using a search engine..........only people who know about it will do so?

"cardi" will put it n-millionth behind knitted garments and geographical locations in Wales?

You could just block the site from the school's network?

There is the issue of the copyright of a website perhaps, but there is also the one of the school's authority over pupils in the privacy of their own homes? You are not a boarding school.

I would advise my academic colleagues that they will need a court order, of which they have little chance (nothing criminal or damaging so far?) and the attempt would be expensive.

Braveheart might take the site down if you complained?



EDIT: The law is still pretty clear.............the offence has to come before the reaction.

[SirDice]

The fake site could be used in emails send around..
Maybe use a little URL obfuscation or XSS to make it look like it's the real site...
Look how 1337 I am, I've hacked the school's site..

A prank.. or at least a feeble attempt at one..

[nihil]

Hi SirDice,

A prank.. or at least a feeble attempt at one..

Exactly my thoughts. If you shut down the site or block it you are advertising that you are aware of it. the law and the host will be totally uninterested I am sure.

My strategy would be to monitor who accesses the website from within school and just keep quiet. If it turns nasty, as Aard~ is afraid of, then you can have them............whilst they are in school, and under your jurisdiction...............

And I can assure you, as a former head prefect at a Roman Catholic Grammar school..............there will always be one who cracks under interrogation

[Drakain Zeil]

Just tell bravehost that they have your copyrighted material. I'd imagine free hosts don't exactly care about their users.

[oofki]

Yeah that isnt a bad idea...Bravehost probably wont tell you who "did it" but they probably will take it down for you if you explain what that person has done.

I also agree with Nihil... I would block it from the school network as well :-)

[Aardpsymon]

yeah, they have taken it down at least.

I'm not going to block it just yet, I'm going to be sneakier than that. Keep an eye out in the web tracking for the URL and bust the first person to visit it.

bravehost.net is already blocked by the smart filter as personal pages. Shame they missed .com

[oofki]

Oh nice, bravehost was pretty prompt with helping you then huh?