In my opinion, this whole Netcraft-style server software probing is such a silly thing anyway. It was meant for the curious, just like when you connect with SMTP, POP3 or FTP. In the educational context, it's informative. In the commercial marketplace, it's none of your business. People are entitled to their privacy, aren't they? It's not like I can find out what piece of accounting software you're using with a such simple probe.

So changing it is no worse than "lying" about your browser signature when you set it to something specific when using LWP::UserAgent. Isn't that something they call a white lie?

Remember: "A white lie" is a lie that is told to avoid offending someone or hurting another's feelings.

In reply to Re: Ethics of Dealing with Evil by tadman
in thread Ethics of Dealing with Evil by gryphon

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