>"I am uncomfortable with the idea that something that is allowed if you pay humans is also illegal if you use bots."
To reiterate, this would also be a crime if humans were paid, although it would be easier to defend in court because it CAN be argued that the ad placement was delivered, whereas with bots it CANNOT be argued that the ads were placed.
However prosecution CAN argue if humans are paid, that this is fraud, and just replacing bots with humans in this case wouldn't materially change the legal facts, it would maybe make less economical sense, and give plausible deniability, but the objective was to defraud, to obtain money without providing the agreed upon services.
For example if the perpetrator had hired people from the philippines to make 50 accounts each, and used a proxy network to fake their locations so they effectively WATCH ads more than once and from locations that were clearly not corresponding to the intent, then those facts would bring the case closer to the the fraud that occured with bots.
It would definitely be harder to argue, but it could still be fraud, but it's a hypothetical that I'm not sure why is being brought, I feel it detracts, but definitely the fact that humans were involved hypothetically wouldn't automatically make this not fraud.
To reiterate, this would also be a crime if humans were paid, although it would be easier to defend in court because it CAN be argued that the ad placement was delivered, whereas with bots it CANNOT be argued that the ads were placed.
However prosecution CAN argue if humans are paid, that this is fraud, and just replacing bots with humans in this case wouldn't materially change the legal facts, it would maybe make less economical sense, and give plausible deniability, but the objective was to defraud, to obtain money without providing the agreed upon services.
For example if the perpetrator had hired people from the philippines to make 50 accounts each, and used a proxy network to fake their locations so they effectively WATCH ads more than once and from locations that were clearly not corresponding to the intent, then those facts would bring the case closer to the the fraud that occured with bots.
It would definitely be harder to argue, but it could still be fraud, but it's a hypothetical that I'm not sure why is being brought, I feel it detracts, but definitely the fact that humans were involved hypothetically wouldn't automatically make this not fraud.