Posted on 01/03/2010 6:51:18 AM PST by BenLurkin
Roberson didn't expect much back because of the limits of his jurisdiction, but Blizzard responded in spades. Online gaming offers you a new life: new friends, new face, new clothes, new home, new everything. It sounds like a perfect spot for a someone hiding from the law. But not quite perfect. Two weeks ago, an Indiana sheriff's deputy tracked down a fugitive by first locating him in the online game World of Warcraft
The sheriff's department of Howard County had been searching for Alfred Hightower for two years without any luck, even with the help of U.S. marshals under Operation Falcon. From what Deputy Matt Roberson could piece together, he had left the country.
"None of that information was sound enough to pursue on its own, but putting everything we had together gave me enough evidence to send a subpoena to Blizzard Entertainment," Roberson told the Kokomo Perspective.
It gave Roberson Hightower's billing address, his IP address, his account information, even his online name: Rastalynn, a level 80 shaman. Roberson plugged the IP address into Google Earth, zeroed in within 3 yards and bagged his man.
Sheriff Marty Talbert says this was the first time in his seven years on the job that a fugitive was tracked down in Canada.
(Excerpt) Read more at sphere.com ...
/mark
I didn’t know you could plug in an IP and zero in within 3 yards... The story is BS
See what happens when you play a Horde toon? LOL.
It’s all over my head. The only think I know about computers is what I learned from watching TRON.
“It’s just a game!”
“Not anymore.”
>>Online gaming offers you a new life: new friends, new face, new clothes, new home, new everything.
IT’S A GAME. You don’t get a new life or any of that other stuff from it unless your wife throws you out because you are gaming too much!
Draenei can be shamans too.
It maybe that part of the story is left out. Also, it is kind of scary that the gov. has the potential to keep us all on an electric leash... considering most gov workers have only a high school education and most police force including state police barely have a 2 year post high school education.
It is freakishly stupid that our society has come to where the most powerful are the dolts.
http://www.metacafe.com/watch/318719/trace_any_ip_address_or_website/
Don't be too hard on journalists, they passed English lit but failed computer science.
Dont confuse education with intelligence or wisdom. They are not necessarily correlated.
Considering the education offered by our institutions of higher learning they are frequently counter correlated.
I mean — suppose the user packed up her computer and plugged it in on the other side of the country. Would this program show the original billing address? Or where is actually was at that moment?
Don’t confuse what is learned on the street and merits earned from a gov employee as wisdom... it is just a license to earn more, collect more taxes, and leach more money from the productive.
I still play an 85 level shaman in Everquest, does that count?
What I was doing is pointing out that simply because an individual possesses an advanced degree he it does not necessarily follow that he is educated or wise.
I would also point out that the fact that a person does not have an advanced degree does not necessarily mean that the person is not educated or wise.
It was never true but it especially true today given the state of higher education in this country.
Abraham Lincoln never attended neither a high school nor a college and yet was a respected lawyer, statesman and President of the United States.
The billing address could be stale (or faked), but the IP address would be current.
Noob.
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