In Canada, DDoS attacks fall under the Section 430(1.1) of the Criminal Code. The section is titled “Mischief in Relation to Computer Data” and covers: “Any person [who] commits mischief that willfully destroys or alters data; renders data meaningless, useless or ineffective; obstructs, interrupts or interferes with the lawful use of data; or obstructs, disrupts or interferes with any person in the lawful use of the data or denies access to the data to any person who has a right to access it.
(For posterity, the Canadian government also provides a definition of “computer data”: “computer data means representations, including signs, signals or symbols, that are in a form suitable for processing in a computer system. »
The maximum penalty for violating section 430(1.1) of the Criminal Code is 10 years in prison.
Grimes, in 2012, was living in Montreal, Quebec. Hipster Runoff was retired in early March 2012, according to Carles’ interview with Motherboard. Section 430(1.1) of the Criminal Code has been the same at the time as it is today.
What happened to Hipster Runoff?
Singh, on Hacking but legal, provided a good history of Hipster Runoff and the aftermath of the DDoS attack. According to Singh, Carles did not post on Grimes between April 2012 and October 2013. She notes that there was only a minor message about Grimes after the hack.
In January 2015, Carles put Hipster Runoff on sale. By the end of the month, the site had sold for $21,100, according to BrooklynVegan.
Carles has remained largely out of public view since the sale of his website. He spoke with Motherboard again in 2015 for a retrospective called “The latest relevant blogger.” Also that year, he discussed the meaning of “indie” with Ezra Koenig of Vampire Weekend in a Molten item. the @hipsterrunoff The Twitter account does not have tweeted or retweeted anything since May 2015, and the account has not liked a tweet since February 2019.
HipsterRunoff.com is still an active website, but does not have Carles’ message archive. There is only one button to send an e-mail to [email protected], an address apparently belonging to Trevor McFedries, co-founder of LA-based tech startup Brud and co-creator of digital pop star Lil Miquela. “It seems a bit of a stretch, but if by any chance someone has scratched HipsterRunoff and has any kind of backup/record,” McFedries tweeted yesterday.
Derek Mead, who interviewed Carles about the hack in 2012, and Brian Merchant, who wrote “The Last Relevant Blogger,” also commented on Grimes’ admission. “It’s a WILD storyline that Grimes now takes credit for taking down Hipster Runoff in 2012,” Mead tweeted. “What a ridiculous thing to admit in a video while talking about canceling!”
Merchant noted“Grimes brings her gaming industry friends to DDOS the Hipster Runoff blog because Carles reposted photos of her from Last Nights Party is such a concentrated dose of 2000s hipster indie culture it could literally kill me .”
Pitchfork has contacted Grimes and Carles for comment.
