Captcha solving business

[erdnase]

Internet politics aside, there's money to be made solving Captchas (those squiggly words that you have to type in some registration processes). There are Captcha sweatshops all over the world, where people sit and solve Captchas all day, for a few cents per Captcha solved.

Would it be possible to setup a casual Captcha solving business? One where people can drop in, sit solving captchas for a few hours, and get paid on the spot? Maybe a bit like an internet cafe. I can't begin to imagine the paperwork/tax type issues for something like this, but in theory could it work? If payment by cash is too complicated, would solving Captchas for computer time (again, like an internet cafe setup) work, or for some sort of credit or voucher?

I can see they type of people this might attract - students, backpackers, and likely junkies too. There's already infrastructure for being sent unsolved captchas by the bucketload, and verifying if they've been solved correctly, so paying people for correct answers only would be trivial.

Any thoughts?

[GreenV8S]

Setting aside the issue of whether it actually breaks any laws, why would anyone in their right mind want to encourage or support hackers? There is no legitimate reason to try to break captchas so you can be certain that your entire prospective customer base is up to no good.

[JamieBeeston]

GreenV8S said:

Setting aside the issue of whether it actually breaks any laws, why would anyone in their right mind want to encourage or support hackers? There is no legitimate reason to try to break captchas so you can be certain that your entire prospective customer base is up to no good.

Agree here.. all for capitalism, but I cant see any valid or legitimate reason to operate a captcha defeating service!