Saying You Have An Open WiFi AP May Not Help You Beat Child Porn Charges
from the what-would-matlock-do dept
CNet had a slightly bizarre story Wednesday as part of their regular series looking at the intersection of technology and the judicial system. A federal appeals court recently rejected the appeal of a Texas man convicted on child-porn charges, who'd argued that the fact that he had an open WiFi access point that anybody could access made the original search warrant for his home invalid. There are some strange parts to this tale. The case began when a woman in New York reported getting some child porn sent to her over Yahoo Messenger, and the FBI traced the sender back to an IP address from Time Warner Cable in Austin, Texas. The ISP gave up the name on the account using that IP, and a search warrant for the account holder's house was executed, and child porn was found in the account holder's part of the house. The man argued that the warrant should be invalid because the open AP meant one of his roommates or somebody outside the house could have sent the images that sparked the investigation -- and indeed, the Yahoo account was registered under the name "Mr. Rob Ram", and one of the guy's roommates was named Robert Ramos.While there would seem to be room for some doubt in all of this, the appeals court rightly noted that the level of proof needed for a warrant is much lower than that needed for a conviction, and the fact that child porn was sent from his IP is a reasonable basis to issue the search warrant. This case would appear to have some slight parallels to some of the RIAA's cases against file-sharers, where it simply goes after whoever holds the ISP account without making any effort to identify the actual copyright infringer. This idea of secondary liability isn't standing up for the RIAA, but it's a little different than what's being argued here. The charges against this man weren't based on what was sent from his ISP account; rather the FBI used that as the basis for an investigation that resulted in charges based on materials found in the guy's house. The RIAA, of course, doesn't really bother so much with the investigation part, preferring instead just to hit anybody they can with a lawsuit. One more twist to the child porn case: the guy entered a guilty plea to the charges, pending the outcome of this appeal. Arguing that you shouldn't have been caught, and not that you didn't do it, probably doesn't help your case much.
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Well..
Regardless of the warrant, they DID find him in possession of child porn. So even if it was his roommate that sent the child porn over yahoo, this scumbag still deserved to be caught.
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access provisioning
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Just a thought this early AM...
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Its all well and good...
The real question is whether or not his argument makes any sense. In my opinion, it doesn't. Its true that the amount of evidence to secure a search warrant is a lot less than whats needed to prove someone is guilty. So, I don't see any rules broken here.
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Not everything is as it seems...
The most likely alternate circumstance: His roommate borrowed a cd and found the child porn. Wanting to avoid confrontation he sends the porn on his roommates behalf to get him in trouble and then replaces the disk. This scenario explains a lot of holes in the story as well as backing up the scumbag's story.
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Hang this weirdo
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The AP isnnt the problem.
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Re: The AP isnnt the problem.
I can also attest that the average home user of any WiFi Router only wants to be responsible enough of just plugging the damn thing in. Anything else they might have to do it, even resetting it, can infuriate a great deal of people.
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Big difference between RIAA & Kiddi Porn
The RIAA is investigating people so they can sue them in civil court for "damages". It is a part of a civil action between a private company and private citizen.
The other is a criminal action between law enforcement and a private citizen. Law enforcement investigated this guy for the serious criminal violation of having kiddie porn.
Not even in the same leage. You can't compare the tactics of the RIAA to investigate a civil complaint to the tactics of law enforcement to investigate child porn distribution, which is not legal to own in any way, shape, or form.
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How To Get Rid Of Neigbour You Don't Like
2. Send an IM with a link to CP
3. Watch him arrested
4. Repeat
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