Wording and Legalities regarding content of /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net

1

Not sure where to go with this one.

I don't know specifics relating to the "legal" requirements (likely country-specific) regarding the need for, and language contained in, any verbose login notification screen's text, in

  • /etc/issue, and
  • /etc/issue.net
    (and anywhere else that would be required) so that there would be enforceability of any pursuit for legal redress as a natural consequence for any non-authorized outsider's breaching/accessing of any individual's private computing devices.

As a starting point for the discussion, I include here my own version of such a file's content, based only on my own sense of fair warning.

Text for /etc/issue and /etc/issue.net:


      Please note, this is a private, home-based, personal-use destop computer 
      and NO external access is deemed authorized, for any purpose!


      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
 
 
1) ABANDON THIS CONNECTION IMMEDIATELY !!! 
   You do not have a legal right to access this system or its contents.

2) This system has no material of legitimate interest to anyone other than the
   individual owner of this system.  

3) This system (hardware, software and network) and installed services are private,
   for personal use of this individual owner and access is restricted to this single
   authorized user.

4) All activities performed on this system are recorded and anyone contacting,
   accessing or using this system does so with EXPRESSED CONSENT to all monitoring
   or examination that is undertaken upon detection of such activities.

5) Since there are NO instances of legitimate external access granted, for ANY
   purpose, all usage by anyone other than the individual owner is deemed illegal
   and, for that reason, any such individual who pursues such access beyond this
   point has implicitly waived and nullified all rights and protections normally
   accorded to them by laws, regardless of jurisdiction, and every action
   performed or any artifact of such actions which have been created, by such
   other individuals may be examined, recorded, copied, used, shared, communicated
   or broadcast by whatever channels this individual owner may choose to use,
   for any puposes, without suffering any legal repercussions or penalties,
   criminal or civil. Furthermore, this system may choose to enact active-defense
   measures whose scope, extent and impact would be applied at the discretion of
   this system's Owner, again without repercussion for such use or action because
   of the self-defense context which triggered the response.

6) This system may not be used as a transit point or gateway for re-transmission
   of any information to any other system or communication device, under any
   and all circumstances.

7) Unauthorized access will be fully investigated and legal action will be pursued 
   for damages and compensation amounting to a minimum of 

            Five Hundred Thousand Canadian Dollars ($ 500,000 CDN), 

   for the simple act of breach of privacy, for any and all unauthorized access
   or use, for any access, data extraction, subversion of the system's normal
   operation and security, regardless of the extent of such actions, without
   limiting entitlements due to other harms endured, against any individual or 
   organization which has intentionally circumvented the access control systems,
   however strong or meager these may be, without obtaining prior written
   authorization from the legal representatives of this individual owner of
   this system.

8) Notwithstanding the above, and without jeopardizing this Owner's above-stated
   claim of rights and recourse, if any monitoring reveals possible evidence of such
   unauthorized activity, which by definition is criminal activity, such activity
   will be reported to the appropriate law enforcement agencies and all evidence
   gathered will be provided to law enforcement officials for criminal prosecution.


      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
      WARNING:  LEGAL NOTICE of RESTRICTED ACCESS, MONITORING and COPYRIGHT
2

Don't use that text, you will be making a fool of yourself :fearful:
I don't know where you found that but it is very unwise to use it.

I assume this is something you found on a server somewhere ?
Can you give me the URL please ? It looks like this is this written by a very young and naieve kid.

Don't copy that pseudo-legal gibberish you encountered, don't use it, it is legally flimsy and besides that, no one of the intended audience will take this seriously.
Let me get you up to speed a bit:

The repeating sentences, using all caps (a.k.a. shouting) is a sign of incompetence.
Also the word 'WARNING' gives away that we are dealing with a person here who fakes legalese.

Let's go through the mentioned points step by step.

  1. already covered by law. -> breaking into computers is illegal, everywhere
  2. already covered by law. -> we're talking SSH here, login is needed, see point 1
  3. superfluous, is repetition of point 2
  4. systemlogging is legal everywhere, this includes auth.log. No consent is needed
    but the owner of that system where you copied this text from, who probably watches too much movies, trips up here with this line:
anyone contacting, accessing or using this system does so with
EXPRESSED CONSENT to all monitoring or examination that is undertaken ...

In all modern jurisdictions, consent can only be explicitly given.
Assuming it this way is illegal, one must explicitly ask for consent, and again:
One can never overrule the law with a contract, agreement or 'houserule'.
The owner of this system should add "where not in conflict with the local law" to cover his ass, but it would be better if he just scraps this line.

  1. Already covered by law, see point 1
    but I would like to draw your attention to this part:
any such individual who pursues such access beyond this
point has implicitly waived and nullified all rights and protections normally
accorded to them by laws, regardless of jurisdiction,

It is not possible to bypass the law and nullify ones rights, it's even a felony if one practices that, this text is utter hogwash.

  1. already covered by law, see point 1

  2. This is probably the point that, when you read this on that weird server, you decided to pose your question here, to see if any of the text was usable.

Good of you to get a second opinion on this point, your instinct did not fail.
This point is what gives away the incompetence of the serverowner the most.

(a) Thinking that it look incredibly official, he/she spells the amount of money in text and numbers. Again they probably watched too many movies or try to copy the wording of a hand written receipt they encountered somewhere but didn't understand the reason.
It comes across as very childish.
(by the way, for monetary numbers one should leave out the regular punctuation and follow ISO 4217)

(b) Nobody is free to set the amount of money in damages, only a judge can do that. Damages must be specified and proven, even for small amounts (in which case sometimes an invoice will do).

Considering both (a) and (b), it's clear that the owner of the system, where you copied this text from, has a narcissitic trait or tries to intimidate but is in an autistic way dunning-krueger-style bluffing, and overplays her/his hand. Result is that he/she gives away that it is all fakery.

  1. already covered by law.

You might wonder why the owner of that system puts up such a wall of text.
It is, especially legally, absolutely useless gibberish.
Also, it completely misses the intended audience.

  1. only decent people will be scared away, but those kind of people don't crack ssh usually. :wink:
  2. Crackers will laugh their head off and will regard the owner of that system a naieve dork. :confounded:
    That is if they see it at all, because cracking is massively parallelized and fully automated these days :hammer_and_wrench: :sunglasses: :hammer_and_wrench:

The answer is probably that the owner of the system, where you copied this text from, wants to intimidate and shine as someone important but misses the point completely and shows themself as a complete and utter tit.

Again, don't use that text, wherever you copied it from.
It's legally useless and will probably makes you look like a fool if you do.

3

Well ... I guess I can take it that I have been told! :frowning:

I created the text myself at least 6 years ago, made a few tweaks on it today.

Given your response, I will assume that you have had many more dealings with "Legal Beagles" than I have. So ...

4

Oh my god, I should't have written what I wrote.
My sincere apologies :sweat:

Yes, I have :unamused: