Thats why I put a question mark at the end .   You are probably right if this ever gets to court.
Bitcoin itself will be on trial. A court will have to decide what it is first before it can deliberate about the rest no? ( once more a question mark....)

That is in fact a concern. Some of us think of Bitcoin already as a digital commodity, but to have ANY court decisions related to values of property loss related to Bitcoin will be a dangerous territory to get into because it can set precedence for things we can't easily take back later imo.

No, I don't believe so. It will be treated as a digital commody, just like if someone hacked your account then stole facebook credits. I don't think they need to define it anything further than just "damaged incurred due to the illegal entry" etc. It might be pushed further than that but I doubt it. Disclaimer, I'm not a lawyer.


hehe. Don't worry about me. I am a dog. I chew bones.

The only individuals responsible for this are the criminals themselves, be they Linode employees or not. Linode has no moral responsibility to refund the victims. However, if they do not they risk gaining a seriously bad reputation forcing others to look for a VPS that assumes responsibility for loss or theft of a client's assets. Like all things, competition will allow for a diversity in quality of services. Some VPS's will be insured against theft, others will not. Some will refund victims, others will not. If Linode chooses not to refund the victims, so be it. If you don't like that about Linode, find a VPS provider that will.

I'm not talking about a government law. I'm talking about principle. You're talking to an anarchist, somebody who has zero respect for the government and its definitions of right and wrong.

I would be very surprised if any hosting company (VPS or otherwise) will assume responsibility in the form of economical compensation for incidents like this. Every Terms and Conditions I have read from virtually every hosting company I have worked with is very clear about no compensation for damages of any kind, for any reason.

If there is enough of a demand it will happen. Sure, the VPS premiums are likely going to be a lot higher, but it can happen. What we're really talking about here is insurance. If the VPS doesn't supply the optional insurance, then individuals will have to get it themselves. Take Tradehill. They could have gotten some insurance before this situation ever happened. They could have been insured up to, what was it, 45,000 BTC? In the case they got ripped off the insurance would have kicked in, and the insurance provider would have the most interest in catching the criminal and recovering the stolen bitcoins. Now, I'm sure no CORPORATE, "legal" insurance company exists like this right now. But there is definitely a need for one. Wasn't there a poll the other day asking people what is most necessary for Bitcoin? One of the poll answers was "insurance." I didn't participate in the poll, but my answer was "insurance" when I read it. Nobody else picked that one though. Perhaps it's time for a Bitcoin insurance company to pop up, preferably one that is totally underground, i.e. not sanctioned by the government at all.

Finally, someone who understand US legal precedings.

That would not be a problem if they charge in bitcoins.

I'm having trouble finding where I said he told anyone where he held his wallet....

We all knew where he was hosted (everyone in the community) though.


Also, I love being suspect.  

When you guys are ready for an interview, I'll start with the first time I ran away from home at 7.

Uhh. Yes. That's exactly what I'm telling you.

We were having a discussion related to collocation vs cloud in regards to general security for bitcoin applications.