Melbourne's Anti-Graffiti QR Codes Vandalized to Point to 'Alternative' Site

The Australian city of Melbourne recently posted QR codes its citizens could use to report grafitti, reports Australia's public broadcaster ABC.

Unfortunately, someone overlaid "a number" of those QR codes with "alternative" QR codes leading to a pro-graffiti documentary: The City of Melbourne is investigating how many of the QR codes have been affected and is assessing whether an alternative will be needed in future.... The lord mayor said the City of Melbourne had initiated discussions with Victoria Police and would draw on CCTV footage to see "how we can catch those culprits". [...]

The Lord Mayor did not believe the compromised QR codes had resulted in more graffiti in the city. "I think this is more of a PR effort by the vandals," she said.

Re:

[PantsGrab69]

cope

Re:

[Legalize CP]

Sorry, but it's vandalism. If someone came into the tree house in your back yard and started spray painting swastikas all over it, how would you react?

Re:

[mrclevesque]

> But they're all vaxxed anyway and are going to die soon from de facto AIDS. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.go... [nih.gov] [nih.gov]

But what do the results of that study really mean ?

Re: Graffiti is not art.

[muridae]

That the body responds to the vaccine with an inflamatory immune responce, and over time switches to a less-disruptive non-inflamatory antibody. I don't study immunology, but a quick search shows that specific IgG4 antibodies are involved in some autoimmune disorders and there were several papers about how it might be "something worth investigating" regarding orphan diseases. The bullshit briage, otoh, latch on to the fact that they can find the same four letters, IgG4, in papers about deadly disorders an

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

Looks like he's coping quite well. By threatening violence. Or something.

Re:

[Calydor]

Let's see you cope if you come home to your house having been painted over by 'artists'.

Re:

[ChunderDownunder]

Some time ago, Melbourne council gave up on cleaning graffiti. We now have world-class 'street art'!

That's marketing for you - Hosier Lane, a grotty alleyway, has been transformed into a mecca for gawping tourists and their digital SLR cameras photographing themselves in front of said graffiti.

NB: It's still a grotty alleyway. To be fair, Movida on the corner does a reasonable take on Spanish tapas - if overpriced.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

And how is scrawling your name on mailboxes, streetlights, stop signs and absolutely everything, art? It is not. It is destructive self obsession and needs to be put down hard.

Re:Graffiti is not art.

[gweihir]

Violence is wrong. And you will just have committed a far worse crime. Just call the cops and whoever thought they could be "creators" on a canvas they do not own will have to pay for the removal or will have to do it themselves.

Re:

[Ichijo]

Violence is wrong.

You are a pacifist then? Or just trolling?

Re:Graffiti is not art.

[ShanghaiBill]

Violence is wrong.

You are a pacifist then? Or just trolling?

Violence is not always wrong, but the initiation of violence against the non-violent is rarely justified.

When a graffiti tagger is caught, a "punch in the face" is not appropriate. They should pay for the cleanup and/or spend a thousand hours or so on community service ... cleaning up graffiti.

Re:

[AmiMoJo]

1000 hour is six months full time work. Seems a bit harsh for a non violent, minimal damage crime.

Re:

[bosef1]

I understand what you are saying. I haven't thought about it too much, but I assume for many crimes, some kind of repair-ative justice is appropriate. The perpetrator damaged something, so they have to work to repair it or otherwise make the victim whole, and have to perform extra work as a punishment to encourage the perpetrator to not repeat the act.

The problem is that many punishments don't seem to lead to a reduction in recidivism. I don't know that humanity has _really_ studied how to _really_ chang

Re:

[gweihir]

Some punishments help, if they are connected to the crime and not too harsh. So, say 100h of cleaning up graffiti may well be effective. Sending somebody speeding to help out in an ER that gets many crash victims for 100h may well be effective. Locking people up generally does not work. Fines are often not much better. The problem is this is an area that rarely gets scientific study because too many people profit from the ineffective ways things are set up at the moment.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

But that smarmy little fucks face will be caved in and I will feel good. He will learn that writing your name on everything that does not belong to you is not desired, and is unlikely to forget that lesson. It is not violence. It is education and a public service in this case.

Re:

[gweihir]

Well, have fun with that prison time for you. And the medical bills of that "little fuck". Well, very likely you are just a coward that is posturing though.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

vandalism is not only illegal, it is also political and artistic expression.

Re:Graffiti is not art.

[Antique Geekmeister]

Some of it is also good art. Not much of it, but the occasional peal among swine does happen. There are a lot of dull walls in urban jungles that have benefitted from a bit of local foliage planted by the local residents. As long as the paint doesn't damage the function of the doors or hide important safety features like hydrants or "do not dig here" warnings, we should appreciate the better efforts.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

I never said it wasn't antisocial behavior, I thought it was pretty clear in my post.

Luckily it's not up to you or me what is "good" or "bad" art. Else we might be tempted to create some task force to police the bad art that we don't like. Rather than trying to figure out the social problems surrounding the messages people are communicating directly or indirectly.

Some idiots kept tagging my neighbor's brickwork with illegible scrawls. The best I could tell was he was trying to communicate that his "gang" ow

Re:

[Calydor]

The solution is for the city to hold events where graffiti artists can show up and paint a specific area, under an agreement that there's nothing offensive drawn, with fines etc. if they do so anyway.

The solution is not vigilantism on the part of the graffiti artists.

Re:

[theshowmecanuck]

Find legal means of political and artistic expression. And before you drone on about 'some places there are none,' this is Melbourne we're talking about, not Burma.

Re:

[OrangeTide]

thank god there is more to being a human being than debating legal code.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

Writing a fake name on everything that does not belong to you is not art. It is self obsessed vandalism and adult society will not tolerate it. Law enforcement will not persue it, as there is more serious crime to deal with. So a good hard punch in the face is the best possible solution. Effective and cost efficient.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Shitting out stupid comments on public fora is not art. It is self obsessed vandalism and adult society thinks people who do that are trolls. The site owners will not persue it, as they are busy shilling for cryptocurrency. So a good hard punch in the face is the best possible solution. Effective and cost efficient.

Re:

[PPH]

I will punch you square in the face so hard

Nah. Just follow them around with your own spray can. And when they leave their tag somewhere, just append "is gay".

Re:

[ShanghaiBill]

just append "is gay".

Unless they are gay. Then append "is straight."

I'm not sure how to insult bisexual taggers.

Re: Graffiti is not art.

[easyTree]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wik... [wikipedia.org]

Re:

[Briareos]

I'm not sure how to insult bisexual taggers.

"is ace"?

Re:Graffiti is not art.

[Anubis IV]

Why the false dichotomy? Can’t it be vandalism and art?

If an oppressed people tear down a statue of their tyrant overlord, that’s vandalism and political speech. If someone makes crop circles in a field without getting permission, that’s vandalism and art. If you draw mustaches on the faces on your local currency, that’s likely a form of vandalism and a joke in poor taste.

The point is: actions can be multiple things. Let’s be honest about that. Whether or not it being art justifies the crime necessary to engage in that art is another question, but for my part, I agree with you that graffiti has no place on our city structures. I’m fine with the art style and its aesthetic, but am not okay with how it oftentimes imposes itself on everyone.

Re:

[DrMrLordX]

It's Melbourne. Their national government may not be to your liking (or to mine, or anyone else's), but they are short on tyrant overlords.

Re: Graffiti is not art.

[fortfive]

This is vandalism, not art.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Seville is arguably one of the most beautiful cities on the world. It also has areas where graffiti is permitted. It's a vibrant, exciting, constantly evolving art form & everyone benefits from legitimising it.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

If you write your made up name on every public surface that does not belong to you. IT IS NOT ART. It is childish self-obsessed vandalism and should be put down hard.

So, most graffiti we see is not art at all. How will these kids perform in professional situations as adults? They need to be taught how to participate in society civilly.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Why the false dichotomy? Can’t it be vandalism and art?

It is important to understand precisely what we are talking about. Given the OP wrote "no matter how many times you write your stupid name all over the city" it is somewhat clear that he is talking about idiot kids painting their initials on things. That is not art. On the other hand Melbourne is full of many wonderful graffiti artists and their laneways are borderline a tourist attraction now.

Let's be clear on what we talk about.

If an oppressed people tear down a statue of their tyrant overlord, that’s vandalism and political speech.

A people doing something in unison and fighting oppression is not the same thi

Some graffiti is art.

[XXongo]

Some graffiti is art.

Most isn't. But some of it is pretty good.

"Art" and "vandalism" are not mutually exclusive categories.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

Writing your made up name on every public surface that does not belong to you is not art. It just isn't. It is self obsessed vandalism. I will punch said kids in the face. They need the lesson.

Re:

[XXongo]

Writing your made up name on every public surface that does not belong to you is not art.

Correct. When I say "Some graffiti is art. Most isn't," the ones that are writing your made-up name on random surfaces are in the class "isn't."

Re: Some graffiti is art.

[nsbfikwjuunkifjqhm]

What you are talking about is "tagging", which is not what all graffiti is. Stop being so fucking stupid about it. We get it, you don't like vandalism, that's not exactly a hot take. But your continual insistence that graffiti is only kids writing their pretend names on things and nothing else, and there for can't possibly be art, is a weird fucking hill to die on. Does the Mona Lisa cease to be art if DaVinci painted it on a public wall without permission?

Re:

[linhares]

Ok, but it's the Australian govt, so it's not like it's a legitimate, serrious, elected gov't... oh!

Re:

[ChunderDownunder]

Well, not really. Sally just happens to be excellent at self promotion.

This is Melbourne City Council of which the 'lord mayor' has a grandiose title for someone whose primary responsibility is to ensure the rubbish bins are emptied around the central business district.

A real estate portfolio worth hundreds of billions, full of windswept office towers.

One of 79 municipal councils representing 150,000 in a state of 6.5 million people.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

If it's done for aesthetic purposes, even if you don't like the aesthetic, it's art.

You can be mad about that, but it won't make you right.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Keith Haring would beg to differ. Look him up.

Re:

[belg4mit]

Right, because bored-as-fuck teenagers wouldn't ever take a break from cow-tipping to tag something.

Bithynia

[sysrammer]

Without graffiti we wouldn't have any confirmation that J. Ceasar had a fling w/ King Nicomedes.

Not Confirmation

[Roger W Moore]

Without graffiti we wouldn't have any confirmation that J. Ceasar had a fling w/ King Nicomedes.

Yes, because just like everything on the internet is true today, everything written on a wall in Roman times was true too.

Re:

[sysrammer]

"And even if it is not true, you need to believe in ancient history."

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

Here I sit, broken hearted, paid a dime and only farted.

Re:

[sysrammer]

Truly a koan for our times. You might want to replace "dime" with "bitcoin", but idk.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

For every one piece of (what you consider) art, I could show you a thousand instances of spray-painted dicks, profanities, and illegible ghetto squiggles.

Those spray-painted dicks, profanities, and illegible ghetto squiggles are art. They are also vandalism. They're not great or even relevant art, but relevance to others is not what makes art; aesthetic creativity does and nothing else. This whole idea that you can meaningfully debate what is or is not art is itself mental masturbation on the same order as actually engaging in the debate.

Re:

[sysrammer]

Our town put a piece of modern art on a median. It looks similar to an orange poop emoji. At least it reflects reality.

When will people learn?

[gweihir]

Talk to a security expert _first_, because otherwise chances are you are going to do something stupid. And look, you did.

Re:

[antdude]

Maybe they did and don't care.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Talk to a security expert _first_, because otherwise chances are you are going to do something stupid. And look, you did.

What is stupid about it? There's no major exploit here. No one was hurt. A quick link to report graffiti turned into something that people would just hit the back button on their phone when seen. And shortly after it's fixed. The QR code campaign in Melbourne has been incredibly successful as people have had the opportunity to report something easily rather than having to manually look for a means to do so.

You have demonstrated a long standing pattern here on Slashdot of having zero clue about risk manageme

Re:

[gweihir]

There's no major exploit here.

Meeeeep, wrong! Seriously. Are you living under a rock?

Re:

[thegarbz]

Meeeeep, wrong! Seriously. Are you living under a rock?

The rock where you think someone being directed to a link that was not a phishing link is somehow an exploit. Grow up.

Re:

[sadcsadca]

No one gives two shits what the security person says. That much seems fairly obvious by now.

Re:

[Calydor]

QR codes are a gamble whenever you scan one you find in the wild. There's no URL to read manually before clicking it, no indication of where it will take you or if it's actually been put up (sent) by whoever it claims - you just scan it and hope it's not a virus.

Re:

[gweihir]

It is even worse: Your QR-code reader can be vulnerable and then gets directly attacked.

Re:

[anachronous diehard]

Showing the URL doesn't help. QR codes typically link to an opaque URL shortener (similar to bit.ly), never to the final destination.

Re:

[gweihir]

Indeed. Otherwise the attack would be not that effective. Well, it probably would still work because a lot of people cannot read URLs.

QR codes you're invited to scan

[Rosco P. Coltrane]

is the equivalent of random links you're invited to click on in emails from total strangers: you just don't click on em. This is a perfect demonstration of why you shouldn't scan random QR codes in the street either,

It's not exactly a shocker that any Tom, Dick and Harry can print a new, nefarious QR code and stick it overtop the legit one, and you have no way of checking where it'll take you - save perhaps for savvy users who review the URL, see it doesn't look very official and decide not to open it.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

This is a perfect demonstration of why you shouldn't scan random QR codes in the street either

Of course you do, unless you're worried about buffer overflow or something. The camera app shows the URL, it doesn't just blindly open it.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

What percentage of the population do you think know how to read & judge the likely security of a random URL?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

What percentage of the population do you think know how to read & judge the likely security of a random URL?

Why would I care? Why would that be relevant to my comment on this site for nerds?

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Because it's a general problem that affects everyone with a smartphone?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

You can only help people willing to receive help.

If people won't use their thinkers, then I can't make them think.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Nope. It takes specialist, domain specific knowledge to read & judge security risks of URLs. Are you suggesting that anyone who doesn't have the expertise for whatever reason deserves to be a victim? Scammers invent scams that work on enough people to make a profit. They're not going to use strategies & techniques that don't work on anyone, are they? We pretty much have to rely on experts, preemptive mitigation, regulation, & law enforcement to minimise the risks.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

It takes specialist, domain specific knowledge to read & judge security risks of URLs.

Meh. It takes that to do it well, not to do it at all.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Meh, not much to say about the rest of my comment?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I only responded to the part that wasn't just blathering about shit everybody already knows. I always tune people out when they lecture me on the obvious.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

So you're standing firm on your blame the victims stance.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

So you're standing firm on your blame the victims stance.

You can't help the willfully ignorant, computers are important, people who pretend they aren't carrying around more computing power in their pocket than we used to refer to as a "supercomputer" and more importantly relying on it to live their lives are beyond help. Nothing powerful was ever foolproof, and people are intentionally acting like fools. Computer literacy is a basic skill today. Refusing to get some is like a primitive human refusing to understand that fire can burn stuff you weren't actually try

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

So throw up your hands and say, "Let them burn!"

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I throw up my hands and say let them learn something new or let them suffer. If you want to screen all the URLs for everybody, feel free. It will keep you pretty busy, though.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Would you say the same thing about fake ATMs? Just let people unwittingly have criminals empty their bank accounts? I mean, if the victims can't be arsed to learn how to evaluate ATMs, then they deserve to get fleeced, right?

Re:

[drinkypoo]

if the victims can't be arsed to learn how to evaluate ATMs, then they deserve to get fleeced, right?

If the victims of fake QR codes are taken in by frauds, they may well be protected by their financial institutions. Hopefully they know how to evaluate financial institutions.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

I'm very happy that you clearly don't work in law enforcement or the judiciary.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

I'm very happy that you clearly don't work in law enforcement or the judiciary.

I can't be a cop because I'm not a piece of shit, and they screen people like that out.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Presumably, you mean police officers in the USA. In which case, I'm glad I don't live there.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

Presumably, you mean police officers in the USA. In which case, I'm glad I don't live there.

Mostly, yes. Though frankly I don't know of anywhere that's not corrupt, and cops' number one job is to protect the status quo.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

If cops are routinely corrupt here, I've yet to hear about it. Do the US police really do moonlight bodyguard work for Status Quo? https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

Detective work

[dissy]

The lord mayor said the City of Melbourne had initiated discussions with Victoria Police and would draw on CCTV footage to see "how we can catch those culprits".
The Lord Mayor did not believe the compromised QR codes had resulted in more graffiti in the city. "I think this is more of a PR effort by the vandals,"

So the task is to find and catch those who placed QR codes around the city as part of a PR effort...
Come Watson!

The Australian city of Melbourne recently posted QR codes its citizens could use to report grafitti, reports Australia's public broadcaster ABC.

Through the powers of deduction, I believe I've found your culprits!

(This wasn't my fault, the prior article made me do it)

One man's grafitti is another one's caveman art

[iamacat]

What, do you really expect iPhone photos to be viewable 10000 years later? Cavemen probably also scolded teenagers to stop tagging cave walls, didn't work any better. Good?

Fix graffiti... by painting something?

[Tony Isaac]

Graffiti "artist": "Oh, that's a QR code so people can report my graffiti. I'll leave that alone because it's an official QR code."

Right. What did officials *think* would happen?

Re: Fix graffiti... by painting something?

[easyTree]

ProTip: 'Official' is not the appropriate term.

In a garden there are many types of bird flying around doing their thing. If one bird announces that it's in charge of the garden, how would the others respond?

Re: Fix graffiti... by painting something?

[fortfive]

Some birds are more equal than others.

Re:

[VeryFluffyBunny]

It's almost as good as Banksy's, "This Wall Is A Designated Graffiti Area" signs.

Re:

[thegarbz]

Graffiti "artist": "Oh, that's a QR code so people can report my graffiti. I'll leave that alone because it's an official QR code."

Right. What did officials *think* would happen?

Probably exactly this. The QR codes have been incredibly successful. So some of them got vandalised, whoope de fucking do. It's a means of informing the public how to report graffiti, not a critical part of the emergency service infrastructure.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

\o/

[easyTree]

"To members of the public, please continue to be proactive in helping us respond to cleaning and graffiti and we'll keep up our investment and efforts to make sure the city's clean."

Those responsible for the graffiti are also members of the public.

Perhaps what's needed is people with a broader view in positions of administrative responsibility.

The statement reads as "Will those members of the public who believe as I do... and everyone else isn't important"

disappointed

[nicubunu]

I am disappointed those "alternative" QR codes don't point to goatse. What happened to good old trolling?

Re: disappointed

[JoeRobe]

Or at least a solid rickroll...

Re:

[syn3rg]

And people don't understand why I don't trust QR codes.

Mook

[JoeRobe]

I lived in Pittsburgh, PA, US in the early 2000's. There was a graffiti artist named Mook. He just tagged his name (so not really an artist) but is claim to fame was tagging in really hard to reach places. You'd see "Mook" tagged on top of a bridge of halfway up a building and wonder how the hell he did that in the middle of the night. He was something of a local hero for the college kids. His high point was when he started tagging his name on Pittsburgh's graffiti cleanup trucks.

Re:

[John Smith 2294]

What an asshole. He needs to be punched in the face really hard.

Re:

[drinkypoo]

What an asshole. He needs to be punched in the face really hard.

Repeating a shit take doesn't give it currency, tryhard, other people repeating it does that.

Who doesn't?

[nospam007]

Lots of people post labels with a different QR code on posters in Bus-Stops, railway stations and other places, just for shits and giggles, McDonald's pointing to Burger King and vice-versa and so on, I once found even one on a community light-post, usually pointing to the page to report broken lights to, that was pointing to a whore-house in Germany.

Why this is news for nerds or stuff that matters is beyond me.