Legal question - "identity theft"?

altamania

Party A created an online RPG (text based, played via IRC) that had a site with a database of character sheets, and a forum. Party A obviously had the passwords to access the database, and the site via FTP.

Party B (2 people) played the game and eventually took over running it once Party A left.

Party A got mad one day and decided to screw around with the site, taking down some pages, causing popups and such, but with no permanent damage to the site, and using passwords that Party A already had due to putting the site up in the first place. There was no malware or viruses involved. Party A also took some passwords from the character database that belonged to a member of Party B's forum account. Party A used that forum account to screw around with the forum a bit. No permanent damage was caused. Party A then contacted Party B, informed them of what happened after the site and forums were restored, and told them to change their passwords.

Party B is now threatening legal action against Party A, for "identity theft". Note that Party A did not make any forum posts under Party B's nickname, nor did Party A cause any monetary damage, access any personal information, or do anything other than mess around with the site and the forums. Party A does not know Party B outside of the game (and vice versa). The game is not for profit, and it is based off of an existing IP copyrighted by a real company. It cost Party B no money to fix the website or the forums, since it was a simple matter of restoring backups.

Party A is in Ontario, Canada while Party B is in Massachusetts.

Can Party B do anything to Party A?

If any more details are required to provide an answer, please let me know.

Doc

No, it would be a nightmare to even consider legal proceedings, especially in a case where there was no (so far as I can tell) financial damage.

naporeon

Not to mention the international factor.

No, Party B needs to learn better tricks for childishly scaring people he doesn't like, unless he just wants to keep looking like an angry moron.

Thanatos

When he says "legal action," what he really means is "internet legal action," which means he uselessly rages at you, and maybe makes the phone call to the police, in return for which he only receives mocking laughter.

Ruckus

Basically what Jack Thompson does.

If A created it, unless A contractually forfeited all ownership of the site/content to Party B, A could pretty much come back and take over again if they wanted.

Though the rights of each party also would depend on who is paying for the upkeep.

altamania

There is no cost for upkeep. It cost a one-time fee of $10 to get the site hosted, but there is no monthly charge for bandwidth from either the site or the forums, and it is on a free IRC server.

Party A just wants to avoid all contact with Party B from here on out. All signs seem to point to Party B being unable to do anything, which is excellent.

Thank you for the responses.

Lewisham

As an aside, party A is very very silly for making a system which stores passwords unencrypted.

altamania

the passwords were encrypted, but Party A googled some md5 lookup tables and got the necessary passwords fairly easily.