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World Community Grid Forums
Category: Support
Forum: Suggestions / Feedback
Thread: An "ethical" question: WCG downloaded on internet cafe computers. Your opinion? |
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Thread Status: Active Total posts in this thread: 11
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
Hi there!
I wanted to ask your opinion about a "bad" (or good) habit I developed recently: whenever I travel and I need to go to an internet cafe, I try to donwload the WCG program on that computer. Most of the times, the computers are blocking un-authorized downloads. In fact, I only managed TWICE to install successfully a device. meanwhile one device has "died" and the other one is just doing an amazing job! how ethical or un-ethical do you guys think it is to do such a thing? after all, I am "stealing" CPU, isn't it? and on the other hand, those computers are running anyway and mostly they run 24/7. Moreover, if they don't have a download-blocking program, it is "their problem". I will go on with that habit and hope to hook up many more CPU's on an upcoming trip to Africa. Yet, I'd be happy to hear your opinions! How ethical is it in your eyes? Would you do such a thing? |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Simple, it's not your computer. You hired the permission to do internet use for the time you paid for to operate the computer.
----------------------------------------As for it being found. What's gained if BOINC gets reported once again as malware and World Community Grid on the face. Lost credit! So, don't.
WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
you are right. in fact, that is why I asked here openly the question. because when i did it (maybe half a year ago), I thought it was a cool idea and I didnt think further. but then I had my doubts.
So your answer actually confirm my doubts, that it might be rather problematic. Thanks! |
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uplinger
Former World Community Grid Tech Joined: May 23, 2005 Post Count: 3952 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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World Community Grid should only be run on computers you are allowed to run it on. This means that either own the machine or have permission from the owner of the machine to run World Community Grid on. This method of installing it is very unethical and can bring lots of negitive reactions towards World Community Grid.
The best approach would be to ask the internet cafe to run World Community Grid on all the machines since they all have internet access and are usually powered on many hours during the day. https://secure.worldcommunitygrid.org/endUser.jsp -Uplinger |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
thanks! so it is good I brought up this question!
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
on top of all the above, there are some legal aspects, which, should you be determined to be the culprit who installed the software, could face some fairly stiff prosecution potentials.
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
on top of all the above, there are some legal aspects, which, should you be determined to be the culprit who installed the software, could face some fairly stiff prosecution potentials. well if the caffe does take it as malware they'll probably assume someone didn't put it on there intentionally and take it off and leave it at that. |
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Former Member
Cruncher Joined: May 22, 2018 Post Count: 0 Status: Offline |
on top of all the above, there are some legal aspects, which, should you be determined to be the culprit who installed the software, could face some fairly stiff prosecution potentials. well if the caffe does take it as malware they'll probably assume someone didn't put it on there intentionally and take it off and leave it at that. If I was the owner of an Internet Cafe, I would prefer that I was asked to do something like this, not just have it arbitrarily installed on my machines. Just doing it without asking would not leave a good impression of the WCG and WCG users/crunchers. When my new server goes up here, I will check with the IT manager if I can load WCG on it first, as you should. I have already asked previously if I could run it on my work PC, and they were fine with that, so the server shouldn't be a problem either. Also note that internet connectivity is Africa is not up to world standards, and it's expensive in comparison. So not only would you be stealing CPU time, but bandwidth as well. Ask yourself how you would feel if someone did this to you?. B |
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mikey
Veteran Cruncher Joined: May 10, 2009 Post Count: 826 Status: Offline Project Badges: 
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on top of all the above, there are some legal aspects, which, should you be determined to be the culprit who installed the software, could face some fairly stiff prosecution potentials. well if the caffe does take it as malware they'll probably assume someone didn't put it on there intentionally and take it off and leave it at that. Alot fo Cafe's are going to a reload of the whole pc periodically so anything put on the pc is wiped out. This prevents any long term goal you may have had AND leads to the whole idea of asking permission first. You may just find that some Cafe owners are just not knowledgeable of Distributed Computing in general and may embrace the idea when asked. Their pc's are on anyway! Most have a user partition that gets wiped out when the pc is reloaded and Boinc could be put on a different partition. A few actually wipe out and reload the whole pc and then it would not be feasible.   |
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Sekerob
Ace Cruncher Joined: Jul 24, 2005 Post Count: 20043 Status: Offline |
Well, WCG's version has features to deal with daily wipes and reloads, such as signaling any unfinished work can be canceled at days end... else it would sit on the server tables waiting till deadline before being send for a make up copy... the setup though requires more than just out-of-the-box.
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WCG
Please help to make the Forums an enjoyable experience for All! |
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