Could BugMeNot face legal action?

An Australian website that allows users to bypass registration details on other websites using communal usernames and passwords could be shut down for breaching terms and conditions of other sites, a law expert says.

Deacons partner Nick Abrahams says BugMeNot.com, which was created by former realestate.com.au employees Guy King and Bevan Clark (King spoke to SmartCompany in depth yesterday) has put safeguards on its site but could still face legal action.

“They’ve clearly designed a strategy to avoid legal problems, as they will allow sites to come on and block the use of BugMeNot. Provided the site satisfies a couple of criteria, one being if the site allows users to edit content on the site itself, so Wikipedia for example. The site must also be free, as you could imagine a paid site would be unhappy with people sharing passwords and usernames.”

“However, what BugMeNot probably does is constitute a breach of the relevant website’s user terms and conditions. Now I haven’t looked at every single website’s terms, but there’s probably a way you could say what’s happening with sharing passwords is contrary to the conditions of some.”

BugMeNot provides users with communal usernames and passwords to access content on other websites, negating the need to fill out lengthy registration forms.

Abrahams says while the affected sites aren’t losing any money – only free sites can be circumvented using the BugMeNot.com system – the use of communal registration details could rob sites of important demographic data.

“The question is really, what is the damage? It’s not like people are circumventing legal obligations, so the only real issue left is the information that is being lost that could be used for marketing materials.”

“If this was a big enough issue, you could look at how much financial value could be ascribed to that data. If it was a massively popular site, then they could do something about it. It would require a degree of expense…but it is certainly achievable.”

But despite the legal avenues for sites to take down BugMeNot, Abrahams says it isn’t likely as the site is more of an “annoyance” than a major problem.

“I think it’s the sort of thing which the big sites regard as an annoyance, yet probably not worth chasing. But they certainly could if they wanted to.”

But Guy King says he isn’t convinced sites would take legal action, arguing they would have to sue every person who has ever given fake registration details.

“The first thing that comes to mind is that users who give false registration details are probably in breach of those terms of service as well. Are they going to sue everyone? On Facebook, they say users must keep their details accurate and up-to-date, which is fairly ridiculous when you think about it.”

King also denies sites could ascribe financial value to demographic data lost through members using communal registration details.

“Would they take legal action against every user who has logged in to their site using false details? I’m no lawyer but I’d argue they weren’t going to make that money anyway. I think it’s a grey area in terms of the law.”