A quick followup on my previous post about the MySpace photo leakage:

It is important (essential, really) to understand the bet you make when you decide on any course of action.

The fundamental bet that DMaul made was that the damage done by his disclosure of half a million photos from 44,000 users to who knows how many bittorrent users is more than offset by the potential damage that would have been done in the time interval between MySpace’s actual update (which occurred soon after DMaul’s disclosure) and MySpace’s planned update were the disclosure not made (which we will probably never know).

A few important points:

• Whatever damage was done prior to DMaul’s disclosure could not be affected either way and therefore should have no bearing on the decision.
• Any existing bittorrent stream of photos will continue to damage the 44,000 individuals for as long as it is available and new people have a look at the photos.
• MySpace’s opportunity cost associated with the fix – that is, the things it didn’t do when it re-prioritized – should be factored in as well.

I think that is a bet I would take (i.e. I bet DMaul was/is wrong), if we could come up with a way to verify it.