This story pissed me off
Apparently the FBI posted a link that claimed to be child porn. The link was posted on a child porn forum. Some guy's IP address showed up on the list and so he was raided and thrown in jail. So everyone will probably say "Great! Another sicko off the streets."Well, here's some things these people don't understand:
1. An IP address only identifies a COMPUTER and not the person USING the computer. It's like a license plate on a bus. Many people could use it. Not to mention the many unsecured wi-fi connections out there. Right now, I could get onto three people's wireless connections if I wanted to. IP addresses can be spoofed/masked. Also link prefetching can get your IP on such a site.
2. Someone from that forum where the link was posted could take that link and post it on a forum about Ford Cars for instance. Change the text of the link to say "Click here for a chance to win a brand new Ford Taurus!" People click it and consequently have their homes raided (robbed) by the feds.
3. I've read that the FBI ADMITTED IN COURT that they had no evidence that the guy clicked the link FROM the forum in question. They didn't keep track of referrer logs. One way or another, his IP ended up on that site. He literally could have clicked the link from anywhere. So you can get a conviction on such flimsy evidence? Please tell me it's not that easy. I know lots of asshole people I'd like to see get in shit. Maybe I could use this against them if I had a link of that nature? Just kidding. I just said that to make a point.
4. He supposedly had two small low quality thumbnails of naked young girls. To that I ask, if the quality is so low as they say, how do they know how old the girls are? there are lots of girls out there that are legal age that look very young. You cannot verify age simply by looking at people in alot of cases. Perhaps it was obvious, but even so, those thumbnails could come from anywhere. They can be hidden on a site and automatically downloaded. You'd be surprised what would be in your browser cache without your knowledge. Even if they were intentionally downloaded, you still can't prove that it was HIM who was using the computer at that time.
5. Some people use the fact that he destroyed his hard drive as evidence to his guilt. That is also not true. There could have been anything on that drive. Maybe he had some mp3's that he didn't want the feds to find. Perhaps is was broken and he destroyed it for fun? Nobody really knows. Besides, that charge was thrown out anyway. This is just another presumption of guilt, like everything els in this case.
When somebody's life is on the line, you had better make damn fucking sure you are getting the right person.
This is not making damn fucking sure. Not in my book.
Simply an ACCUSATION will ruin your reputation amongst your peers. Not to mention the terrorization of you and your family during the FBI raid and the fact that more than likely you'll never see the property they took ever again.
In today's accusatory and fanatical society, the mere utterance of the word "pedophile", "sex offender", or "child porn" makes people go batshit crazy and automatically assume the person in question is a piece of shit.
What happened in this case is a perversion of justice.
Just use the "protect the children" or "war on terror" statements and the government can get away with anything it seems.
Who knows how many innocent people could get their lives ruined from this poorly thought out tactic?
Rating:5.00
Comments
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1*** this comment deleted in the interest of national security *** :)
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
2I can't help but think about the patriot act and the kind of bullshit people threw around to make it sound righteous. "What, you don't want your phone tapped? So you're admitting you're a terrorist?"
Although I gotta say, destroying his harddrive ain't making him look very innocent.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
3cant help but think this is bullshit. Following a link to kiddie porn is not illeagal (for the reasons listed in point 1 of the rant.) Downloading the image is the illeagal act
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
4Yes number 3, but sometimes you can't help but download the image. It's called precaching or prefetching or whatever. Also it could be hidden on the page, someone planted a script to force the download, etc.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
5The problem is that the government has no idea how the Internet or computers work and they think if they find an image in your cache that means it was downloaded so almost anyone that surfs the Net enough could at some point stumble on a website that has child porn on it somewhere. Then, if for some reason their computer was ever seized and they looked through the cache and found that the person had been to that site at some point, even if it was by accident because they clicked on a link on a search engine, they will instantly be considered guilty.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
6"But officer, all I did was receive a string of 1's and 0's. It was Microsoft that assembled them into child porn! Take THEM to court!"
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
7Big Brother is watching!
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
8I know you can't post URLs, but can you give me some keywords I could search for or a headline that I could use to find the story? This sounds interesting.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
9Please - do you know how often things like this happen? Or how easy it is for someone to make an accusation, ruin someones life and not have it be true?
The other part is that when someone is charged with an allegation concerning a child and sex offense, our society immediately labels them sick so unlike other accusations/crimes, they are hesitant to take it public to defend themselves out of fear of people always wondering.
Our cops/prosecutors are so quick to believe children that they don't actually give the accused the right to be innocent until proven guilty. The accused is immediately identified as a victim and as such, doesn't have to prove anything and few are ever question/interviewed by an unbiased psychologist - usually just a victim advocate. Not pro-molester but pro-fair justice/rights for all!
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
10coincidentally i just hammered apart an old hard drive out of curiosity just a few days ago and it's still sitting in pieces on my workbench downstairs.
actually, it's extremely difficult to physically destroy a hard drive and render the content completely lost. you can crush it, chop it, burn it, but the content is still obtainable. Even old data that was erased is still obtainable, and even data that overwritten by new data up to four or many more times is obtainable.
the best bet is to use hard drive "wiping" software that writes over the drive several times in encrypted patterns. It takes time but is the only way. This should be done whenever getting a used computer or hard drive so that you don't get in trouble for something you were never even able to see and that may have been deleted long before you bought it.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
11There is another plausible explanation. The dubious claim on legitimacy serves as a pretence for indiscriminate search and seizure which is useful to divide and control the male population. By criminalizing not just their behaviour but their nature, men become ashamed, live a lie and are much easier to subdue.
Posted 3 months ago | Report -
12wow i is too dumm for this here list of postals.
Posted 2 months ago | Report