Julie Amero Gets More Time To Explain To Judge How Porn Popup Trojans Work
from the a-break-in-the-action dept
Back in January, there was a story about a substitute teacher, Julie Amero, facing 40 years in prison for apparently exposing children in her classroom to pornographic pictures on the classroom computer. Over the last month and a half, as more details have come out, it's becoming abundantly clear that the jury and the police involved are quite confused about what actually happened. The details certainly suggest that there was some kind of spyware that caused a series of pornographic pop ups to show up on the screen. The teacher claims she was told not to turn off the computer and didn't even know how to do so. However, she did try to shield the computer from the children, which was facing away from the children already. However, the local newspaper reports and the police involved insist that she's absolutely guilty despite plenty of evidence suggesting that she's the unfortunate victim of some nasty malware on a computer and plenty of ignorance about how computers work among those accusing her of doing something wrong. As the case has received more and more attention, Amero has added a new lawyer and received a ton of support (especially from the computer security community).In that link above, the police detective working on the case insisted that the transcripts would show that all of the supporters of Amero were barking up the wrong tree -- but those transcripts are now available and they only seem to support the ignorance of those condemning Amero -- insisting that she must have looked at the porn intentionally, when there's plenty to suggest that's not true at all. The prosecution also keeps shifting what it's trying to prove, from her intentionally surfing porn in front of kids to the idea that because she didn't unplug the computer (which she had been forbidden from doing) she is guilty and deserves 40 years in prison. Either way, neither the local newspaper reporters nor the detective on the case seem willing to admit that they may have made a mistake in condemning this woman. However, the good news coming out recently (sent in by John) is that, at least, the judge has agreed to delay the sentencing for a month to give the new lawyer some time to get up to date on the details of the case.
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I'll be a witness to how porn popups work...
I got one right now!!!!
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Who is on trial here?
1. Is it not their job to check for mal/spyware on regular basis's?
2. why is there not some sort of URL/Net nanny filtering procedure's put in place from the server the PC should be accessing the internet from?
If you want to play the ignorance is no excuse card, then maybe you should lock up the whole school administration for not educating their staff on how to use a pop up blocker?
I leave with one more question, how is this crime worse in comparison to lets say murder which I'm under the impression is 25 years imprisonment if your found guilty, of wanting to kill the person (IE murder)? not by negligence which is what this case is... Negligence not by the teacher, by those actually trying to prosecute and the courts for allowing it to happen! This is nothing more than a big case of bullying.
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Happened to me
I totally agree. A few years ago In my senior year of high school I took a Cisco Networking class. I was researching for a project when I was attacked by hundreds of lesbian pornography popups. I was Kicked out of my Networking class and banned from ALL PC's in the school for the rest of the year (IT WAS THE FIRST SEMESTER!).
Its a shame that people cant do the job they are payed to do.
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Re: Happened to me
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Re: Re: Happened to me
Great job Trolling. If you don't have anything to say about the Article then Why are you even here.
Where did you get the falsity that I was Thrown out of school. Maybe you should go back to school and learn how to read.
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Re: Re: Happened to me
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Re: Re: Happened to me
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Re: Re: Happened to me
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Re: Re: Re: Happened to me
sorry
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Stupid...
And now that this case is all over the nation if she gets fired she'll have a hard time getting another teaching job. And I'm willing to bet that she will be forced to register as a sex offender which will haunt her forever.
Well look on the bright side, at least this didn't happen to a teacher in Boston. They would have should down the city and blown up the pc just in case...
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Re: Stupid...
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Utterly rediculous
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True story..
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Cover the PC
(assuming that would not have been forbidden)
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Obviously the prosocuters use typewriters
This is their way of making a really bad example of "Child Molesters Beware" because they can't actually catch any real criminals, they have to dig and read between every line they can - it brings attention to them and makes it look like something is being done about the real problem...
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Someone should just...
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Prosecutors
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40 years?
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MSIE
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Some facts about the PC
oops
Some other facts re the case
1) The PC involved was running Windows 98 SE
2) The PC was running IE5
3) The PC was running a very out of date virus checker
4) The teacher had been TOLD not to turn off or log off the machine, since as she was a teaching sub someone else would have had to log it back on for her as she did not have a log on
5) The evidence from the defense security experts (including evidence of malware designed to open links) was deemed unadmissable as the prosecution argued there had not been full disclosure
All told there is liability but I think that rests firmly with the schools IT dept, or whoever deemed that such out of date kit should be allowed on the internet in a school
I think it also highlights questions re the prosecutor and detectives basic competance in even allowing the case to come so far
Finally - even if the teacher had opened porn links intentionally 40 years is ridiculous - some of the Nazis involved in the holocaust were put away for less than that!
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Re: Some facts about the PC
The sad fact is that someone got paid a hell of a lot of taxpayer money to desgin (poorly) these systems. It was probably a firend of the mayor.
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From the prosecutions closing arguments
That the prosecution would dare make such an argument proves the prosecutor was not qualified to prosecute this case
That the judge allowed the prosecution to make this statement proves he was no qualified to judge this case
That the jury accepted this statement proves they were not qualified to sit on this case
Get this case out of Hicksville USA and it will not only be overturned but possibly leave various people open to criminal cases themselves
What's really sad is this crap has not only cost her over 20k but is possibly one of the major causes for the loss of her unborn child
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Re: From the prosecutions closing arguments
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Ummmm......
However, she did try to shield the computer from the children, which was facing away from the children already.
And to comment #18
What's really sad is this crap has not only cost her over 20k but is possibly one of the major causes for the loss of her unborn child
Not only that but its safe to assume that her teaching career is ruined. All because someone wants to make an example out of her and get their name/face in the news for "protecting the children".
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OMGWTFBBQ
CASE CLOSED
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Just drop the damn case already!
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This is Ridiculous - Amero Case
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Don't miss the
There's more here
Don't you feel better knowing such a savvy expert is on the side of truth and justice?
One of the backlashes of all of the publicity this verdict has received is to cause the prosecutor and this bastion of technical knowledge to dig in their heels and push back with outrageous claims against Amero -- even more outrageous than the ones they used in court, while the IT administrator for that district sits idly by and makes even more outrageous claims in court, like he's never once seen or heard of popups filling a computer screen.
That testimony alone should have acquitted Amero instead of convicting her. he must be the only person on the planet who hasn't. Or he's lying. You make the call.
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Why Aren't the School Administrators On Trial>
I hope Ms Amero's new lawyer is planning plenty of countersuits against every school official who sacrificed her to cover up their own ignorance and incompetence.
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Access
Over the years dealing with computers I have seen one example of uncontrollable porn pop-ups. It may be rare but it does happen. In my case it was a computer sitting in a spare office at the law firm where I work. I went in and turned it on and it was unuseable with the flood of pornographic ads that kept popping up. I had never used that computer before so no jokes about this being the consequence of my own surfing habits.
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Kill the monitor
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Re: Kill the monitor
He should also have been using some form of proper security (even if it was freeware). His employment contract should be being reviewed. The teacher who normally used that computer should be investigated as well.
With the right setup, FF2 (and possibly 1.5.0.6) can be configured to open all pop-ups in a single seperate window, over-riding the page controls, so that when the flood subsides, the window can be closed.
Were the pop-ups generated by a web page or by a program on the computer?
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Retarded low enforcement officers
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This is just the first and second of many!
If you want to follow the porn case in the United States Virgin Islands, which will end up in the 3rd Court Court of appeals, It's described on my blog starting at
http://fatsavage.wordpress.com/2007/02/20/big-brother-is-watching-save-chuck-part-1/
In the mainland, you have a network to support you, in the islands there is no Joe across the hall to ask for help. We are all alone yet what happens here is American Judicial law which sets precedents for the nation.
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It could be you
This woman cannot be allowed to be punished for this, the companies that peddle rapid fire popups should be sued, all of them no matter what they pop up, because if a person is sent to jail for something that they did not initiate (if someone sends you a dead guy's head, do you go to jail?) we are all just sitting ducks
What is happening to this woman is just the beginning if outrage is not felt then little by little anyone can be drowned in a legal nightmare at a moments notice.
This used to happen at my old college, a dirty old man would use a computer and when he would leave, everyone in the lab would wait (giggling) for someone to pick the pornoputer, then about 5 minutes in the person would jump....wiggle and scramble..., each person reacted differently some ran for help, some turned off the monitor, some just ran,(laughter followed) but then someone would go and attempt to clean the computer.
it got me once in the beginning
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Amero Case
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usa lesbians
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Teacher came over and asked wtf was going on, I told her that I wasn't looking at porn, I just fell prey to some pop-ups.
She just laughed it off, told me to restart the computer, and be more careful in the future.
I know the UK views sex/censorship of sex a lot differently to the US (in legal terms at least), but is it really *that* different? I'm only 19 so this was like, 5 years ago tops.
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She's totally innocent
None of the actual anti-spyware or anti-virus apps on the systems detected the spyware. I had to download a removal tool to get rid of it.
I think this (or something like it) is what happened to this teacher.
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