Legal Question

Yeah, I wouldn't generally put too much stock in John Q. Cracker's beliefs about what is or isn't legal. IMHO hackerlore is usually dead wrong about basic legal principles. The classic example is the "use a disclaimer" mantra. I have some lawyers in my family, and let me tell you - disclaimers and waivers typically don't mean jack squat. It's actually somewhat rare to find one that's written well enough to be legally binding. And there is no disclaimer you can write that will automagically make something illegal become legal. Disclaimers and waivers are to protect you from civil claims when someone else does something stupid and/or illegal, they aren't to protect you from the criminal courts when you do something illegal.

That said, I second CrackZ's suggestion. As I said, I wouldn't trust your average cracker's legal advice (myself included), but Woodmann probably has some answers that have actually been put to the test in the real world and not just cracker fantasy land. And keep in mind that the rules that govern one legal arena don't necessarily hold true in others. Computers are a special case with special laws governing them. The usual rule of "you can talk about how to do something illegal as long as you don't follow through" no longer holds true in many cases involving copy protections because of the DMCA. Unless/until someone succesfully challenges the constitutionality of the DMCA in the supreme court, I would be very wary of hosting any tutorials with "live" examples in the U.S.

On a side note - where is Woodmann, anyway? Am I the only one who hasn't been able to reach RCE for 3 days? I hope everything is okay over there. They usually make it known when they're doing upgrades.