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Click This Link, Go To Jail

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  • Click This Link, Go To Jail

    from the wide-open-to-abuse dept
    Declan McCullagh has written up an article about a questionable tactic used by the FBI to go after people looking for child porn. It set up a honeypot server and then posted links to it on a forum frequented by those who are looking for child pornography. It then used the IP address of people who clicked on the link as enough evidence to charge them with a crime. In the specific case McCullagh discusses, the guy was found guilty of simply clicking on that link. Of course, it's always difficult to separate out legal discussions like this from the fact that it involves child pornography -- which immediately sets off an emotional response. The problem here, though, is that the evidence on which the guy was found guilty could be used to find many people guilty of many things. The FBI didn't even track the referrer log -- just who went to the site. In other words, if someone had taken that link out of the forum and posted it on another site, a blog or sent an email around -- and anyone clicked on it without knowing anything about the link, they could have broken the law. This is open to tremendous abuse. If all you need to do to get someone convicted of child porn charges is get them to click a link, that doesn't seem right. Furthermore, in this case, the only other evidence was two small (admittedly questionable) thumbnail images, that there was no evidence that the guy looked at. In other words, to have enough evidence to convict someone and send them to jail for years (and get them listed as a sex offender), you could just send them an email with a link and some thumbnail images attached. If they click on the link (even if they don't ever look at the attached files), that's enough evidence, according to this case. That seems incredibly problematic.

    http://techdirt.com/articles/20080320/102209599.shtml

    http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9899151-38.html

  • #2
    BC,

    For once we agree

    Like the illegal drug industry, the focus should be to stop the dealers of this kind of smut. Don't ge me wrong, I think anyone who gets off on nude kid pics are sick, but if someone hits a link by accident, his/her career could be done. That is a problem, plus how do you prove intent?
    NBA is a joke

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    • #3
      i am not clicking on those 2 links
      MLB 2012***100-98 +$215 OR +2.15 UNITS
      HUGE PLAYS 2-1

      NFL 2011-2012** 6-10
      0-0TOP PLAYS

      NCAA FBL 2011-2012**** 26-23

      4-1 TOP PLAYS


      GOY 33-12 ALL SPORTS

      AS of 6/3/12

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      • #4
        Originally posted by flarendep1
        BC,

        For once we agree

        Like the illegal drug industry, the focus should be to stop the dealers of this kind of smut. Don't ge me wrong, I think anyone who gets off on nude kid pics are sick, but if someone hits a link by accident, his/her career could be done. That is a problem, plus how do you prove intent?
        Who knows as the article says people could have e-mailed this link and it could have been title anything. So if you accidently click on it you're in trouble.

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