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The FBI is watching you.
Yesterday in a New York Federal court, search warrants for 2 persons arrested in operation Candy Man, a sting operation, which involved suspected persons who illegally possessed photos of children, was thrown out of court. While the moral of the story is not that the FBI arrested these people after a sting operation; it’s how the FBI acted.
The FBI set up a website that advertised “kiddy porn”. They posted information on newsgroups that there was a site that had this material available. Persons then allegedly went to this site and entered their e-mail addresses to subscribe/join. The FBI then used this information to obtain search warrants.
This is where it gets really harsh. The FBI rationalized that the having the persons e-mail address was evidence enough to obtain a warrant. E-mail addresses entered at the web site showed evidence that this person illegally possessed kiddy porn. Although the e-mail address could have been entered by anyone other than the person suspected of going to the FBI run web site.
In a different light, this is saying that if you joined a web site that spoke about drug legalization, in the FBIs eyes, you must posses drugs. They could then obtain a search warrant based on this information.
As it turns out the FBI fudged a little on the papers to obtain these warrants. That was what came out yesterday in the courts. The judged called the methods used by the FBI as reckless and with intent to deceive. Because anyone could have entered an e-mail address this did not show any grounds that the persons who legitimately owned these e-mail addresses were in fact the perpetrators.
Enough background on this. By the way, the thread is not about kiddy porn or the morality of the issue. It’s about the FBIs interpretation of the law and due process.
Let’s take this a step in another direction. We, all of us here. Are subscribed to a board that discusses a class III drug openly. In the FBIs eyes, this is enough to execute a warrant on the board operators to disclose the e-mail addresses of the users and/or to track their information and subpoena the ISPs. The FBI then believes it has enough cause to then go before a judge to obtain a search warrant based on this information. While it may get tossed out of court, you’ll still be out thousands in legal fees.
Is this a Karma deserving write-up? J
Yesterday in a New York Federal court, search warrants for 2 persons arrested in operation Candy Man, a sting operation, which involved suspected persons who illegally possessed photos of children, was thrown out of court. While the moral of the story is not that the FBI arrested these people after a sting operation; it’s how the FBI acted.
The FBI set up a website that advertised “kiddy porn”. They posted information on newsgroups that there was a site that had this material available. Persons then allegedly went to this site and entered their e-mail addresses to subscribe/join. The FBI then used this information to obtain search warrants.
This is where it gets really harsh. The FBI rationalized that the having the persons e-mail address was evidence enough to obtain a warrant. E-mail addresses entered at the web site showed evidence that this person illegally possessed kiddy porn. Although the e-mail address could have been entered by anyone other than the person suspected of going to the FBI run web site.
In a different light, this is saying that if you joined a web site that spoke about drug legalization, in the FBIs eyes, you must posses drugs. They could then obtain a search warrant based on this information.
As it turns out the FBI fudged a little on the papers to obtain these warrants. That was what came out yesterday in the courts. The judged called the methods used by the FBI as reckless and with intent to deceive. Because anyone could have entered an e-mail address this did not show any grounds that the persons who legitimately owned these e-mail addresses were in fact the perpetrators.
Enough background on this. By the way, the thread is not about kiddy porn or the morality of the issue. It’s about the FBIs interpretation of the law and due process.
Let’s take this a step in another direction. We, all of us here. Are subscribed to a board that discusses a class III drug openly. In the FBIs eyes, this is enough to execute a warrant on the board operators to disclose the e-mail addresses of the users and/or to track their information and subpoena the ISPs. The FBI then believes it has enough cause to then go before a judge to obtain a search warrant based on this information. While it may get tossed out of court, you’ll still be out thousands in legal fees.
Is this a Karma deserving write-up? J
