Convert old DB (2 Viewers)

[pdanes]

Suddenly, something you described about this database trips a red flag for me. Are you sure that your old database that someone gave you was theirs to give?

In the USA, we have a variety of laws about databases because the relevant laws fall into states' rights issues. In Louisiana, breaking into someone else's database is a low-grade felony.

I'm NOT accusing anyone of anything because it sounded pretty innocent at first. However, getting into someone else's database - particularly if it contains personally identifiable information - could be considered a criminal act. And if this is a police criminal records database, the content almost certainly will have PII to consider. Therefore, before following through on breaking into the DB, verify the legality of what you are doing.

The author claims to be in touch with the police department over it, and has promised to send my questions to their IT department and get back to me with their answers. It's not encrypted or anything like that, it's just in some old and so far unidentified format. I'm not breaking into anything, I'm simply trying to identify and open a file that someone sent me and asked me to open. I doubt they came by it illegally, but if so, it's their problem and I'm not going to worry about it.

 

[tvanstiphout]

At the very least I would take down that link.

 

[Isaac]

I once worked with a guy who contracted with the local police department and legally possessed all kinds of lists about people who had received various types of citations. It was quite fascinating to look through. This could be similar and not necessarily illegal just because.

Plus, any breaking-in type of crime surely requires a mental state as 1 of the elements, and you're just doing what someone asked you to do with no prior knowledge and not even a stick-your-head-in-the-sand type of reckless shouldda known type of knowledge.

 

[Isaac]

At the very least I would take down that link.

That's probably a good idea regardless of the rest of it

 

[The_Doc_Man]

I once worked with a guy who contracted with the local police department and legally possessed all kinds of lists about people who had received various types of citations. It was quite fascinating to look through. This could be similar and not necessarily illegal just because.

Plus, any breaking-in type of crime surely requires a mental state as 1 of the elements, and you're just doing what someone asked you to do with no prior knowledge and not even a stick-your-head-in-the-sand type of reckless shouldda known type of knowledge.

True, most crimes should include mens rea as part of the prosecution. However, Louisiana's laws do include a "negligence" variant as well, which does not require specific knowledge beforehand. Can't tell you what the other 49 states do, but to my understanding, by now they ALL have some kind of charges.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Suddenly, something you described about this database trips a red flag for me. Are you sure that your old database that someone gave you was theirs to give?

In the USA, we have a variety of laws about databases because the relevant laws fall into states' rights issues. In Louisiana, breaking into someone else's database is a low-grade felony.

I'm NOT accusing anyone of anything because it sounded pretty innocent at first. However, getting into someone else's database - particularly if it contains personally identifiable information - could be considered a criminal act. And if this is a police criminal records database, the content almost certainly will have PII to consider. Therefore, before following through on breaking into the DB, verify the legality of what you are doing.

Although the file's timestamp is more than 30 years old, according to the OP it contains personal information. Would AWF be liable if we discover the file was illegaly obtained, helped the OP to open the file , and then something bad happens to people mentioned in that file?

 

[The_Doc_Man]

Although the file's timestamp is more than 30 years old, according to the OP it contains personal information. Would AWF be liable if we discover the file was illegaly obtained, helped the OP to open the file , and then something bad happens to people mentioned in that file?

Only if you actually directly downloaded the file to the forum. Please don't do that. The one screenshot didn't appear to contain anything specific enough to reveal a person's PII and therefore is probably OK. It was more like a file's header block, which is probably pretty generic.

 

[BlueSpruce]

Only if you actually directly downloaded the file to the forum. Please don't do that

I didn't and wouldn't download the file to the forum, the OP did, and if it were up to me, I would remove it from the OP's post to ensure there's no potential fallout.