EVE General Discussion

We can neither confirm nor deny such underhanded activities. If we had spies, what would CCP do if they were caught and identified?

Weird, I'm not really having any issues ratting.

Please keep in mind that Goonswarm is not only a space guild, but also an IT infrastructure. Comparing IP addresses is a basic strategy to identify double accounts, bots, spammers, or otherwise bad guys on any forum worth it's salt. It's not illegal and in my book it's also not immoral.

CCP will use this method as well to identify your main account if you do bad things with an alt for example, and then ban you.

Look at it the other way: A Spy in goonswarm will leak information from a non public forum and jabber to third parties. This also happens outside of the game, and were it not for the game, I'd consider this highly immoral, and probably illegal in some countries. If you think trying to find the guy by all means this infrastructure provides is immoral, please think again.

Using an IP address to confirm that someone is a certain user of your own IT infrastructure is not only legal (except maybe in Texas), as said user does freely provide his IP address to the services he uses, but also crucial to maintain a basic level of security. Welcome to the internet.

The spy in question used the Goonswarm forum as his director persona, and he opened a document located on the same servers as his "whistleblower" persona, allowing for the two to be identified as the same user. No dedicated IP loggers were involved. But sure, if you feel like it, go ahead. I think you overestimate what you can do with an IP address.

If you want, I'll let you know mine. Just send an Eve-Mail.

The guy who took down eve networks few days ago had not the same opinions

Yet, the IP of the server is publicly known. See - the internet does not work without IP addresses. Communication cannot happen and a service will not work unless the IP addresses of both the client and the server are known to each other.

It's not finding out IP addresses that's a problem, it's what you do with them. Finding out that someone has a certain IP address is not a problem, neither is using that IP to identify someone breaking the rules. Flooding said IP with requests till the connection cannot keep up is. Now - if that had happened, though, this would be a topic for the law authorities, not for CCP or the Eve community. But it has not.

It's like if you came to me and said "Hi, I'm John Doe" and I was all like "Oh, you are the same John Doe that always keeps sending me creepy stalker loveletters, get the **** away from me!".

Simply by posting here, you make your IP address known to the people running this forum (CCP), and they will use it to identify you if they have reason to believe you are in violation of their rules somewhere. And it's likely somewhere in the Terms of Service you agreed to as well, same as it is on the Goonswarm Webservices:

Well In Europe your IP counts as a personal info. He had every right to do what he did, legally, but in Germany posting his IP would be a crime. Goonswarm isn't a business so there are no business infos. I have no problems with identifying some traitor while both are using out of game programs but posting the IP was simply wrong!
BTW: I think it's really bad style to post private logs. As the name tells you, they are not for the public without both sides accepting it.

hey Mario, (et al.)

RL could be "lowsec" sometimes. Everyone concerned should be aware of that and take measures.

Don't like or want to patronize you or someone else, but be careful on your digital footprint.

Now this is a juicy thread indeed.

I for one do not particularly like the goons but I have respect for them, they are a cunning group at times. What they did to oust the traitor was fair play in my opinion but the sharing and posting of I.P addresses is a dirty tactic for sure.

Then again its the goons, are they not infamous for this sort of thing?

Yet...