Posted on 03/24/2008 2:16:11 PM PDT by E. Pluribus Unum
The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them.
Undercover FBI agents used this hyperlink-enticement technique, which directed Internet users to a clandestine government server, to stage armed raids of homes in Pennsylvania, New York, and Nevada last year. The supposed video files actually were gibberish and contained no illegal images.
A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who's using an open wireless connection--and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police. . .
The implications of the FBI's hyperlink-enticement technique are sweeping. Using the same logic and legal arguments, federal agents could send unsolicited e-mail messages to millions of Americans advertising illegal narcotics or child pornography--and raid people who click on the links embedded in the spam messages. The bureau could register the "unlawfulimages.com" domain name and prosecute intentional visitors. And so on. . .
While it might seem that merely clicking on a link wouldn't be enough to justify a search warrant, courts have ruled otherwise. On March 6, U.S. District Judge Roger Hunt in Nevada agreed with a magistrate judge that the hyperlink-sting operation constituted sufficient probable cause to justify giving the FBI its search warrant. . .
The magistrate judge ruled that even the possibilities of spoofing or other users of an open Wi-Fi connection "would not have negated a substantial basis for concluding that there was probable cause to believe that evidence of child pornography would be found on the premises to be searched." Translated, that means the search warrant was valid.
Entrapment: Not a defense So far, at least, attorneys defending the hyperlink-sting cases do not appear to have raised unlawful entrapment as a defense.
"Claims of entrapment have been made in similar cases, but usually do not get very far," said Stephen Saltzburg, a professor at George Washington University's law school. "The individuals who chose to log into the FBI sites appear to have had no pressure put upon them by the government...It is doubtful that the individuals could claim the government made them do something they weren't predisposed to doing or that the government overreached.". . .
Civil libertarians warn that anyone who clicks on a hyperlink advertising something illegal--perhaps found while Web browsing or received through e-mail--could face the same fate.
When asked what would stop the FBI from expanding its hyperlink sting operation, Harvey Silverglate, a longtime criminal defense lawyer in Cambridge, Mass. and author of a forthcoming book on the Justice Department, replied: "Because the courts have been so narrow in their definition of 'entrapment,' and so expansive in their definition of 'probable cause,' there is nothing to stop the Feds from acting as you posit."
see #68
Think of this as a speed camera system for the Internet.
Anyone could do that here, to FReepers.
Why I seldom click on links embedded in a thread, from FReepers I don’t know.
Duh! “Which is why I seldom click....etc”
We'll start with all the people who gave us wedgies in middle school...
What safeguards are there to ensure that I won’t have to file a lawsuit to get my computer back if I am innocent
(which is apparently the current situation)? Does an accidental hit shut down my business for several years?
Make noooo mistake, this is not about child porn at all. Child porn accusation is simply the vehicle to get into your place and your neighbors.
Whatever
>>Its not entrapment because no one is forcing you to seek out child porn or illegal drugs.<<
Let’s be honest now. If you knew the address where these “bad buttons” are, wouldn’t you be scared to even touch that site? I have accidentally moved meetings in Outlook by indadvertantly left clicking as I drug my mouse across them.
Also, although I would not expect to find myself on the sites in question, I could imagine a guy, bored at his computer, noticing one and just thinking, wonder what that REALLY is, and on a lark clicking the button. Maybe even immediately wondering what he was doing and leaving before the “fake video” even has a chance to start playing.
Heck, before Limewire had an adult content filter, I used to get all sorts of hits on “underage, pre-teen, xxx” and used to wonder, “gee, if I clicked on one of those, would I be a registered sex offender the rest of my life?” Of course that’s different than a web page, and I was not the least bit interested in clicking on one, but on more than one occasion the list was populating as I tried to click on one song or video and ended up with downloading the one above it as the list shifted without my knowing it. With my lists I only ended up with the wrong file though, not a “bad” one.
This whole thing is silly and dangerous. Any judge that actually thought this through would AT THE VERY LEAST require the person to get past a “this site contains nude pictures/video of underage boys and girls. You must be over 18 to enter this site. Click yes to proceed” page.
Even that is too invasive of privacy, but the fact that they won’t even go that far shows that something is seriously askew here.
It gives me the creeps.
>>I guess they are raiding a lot of public libraries and public schools.<<
It would be fun to go there and use one of the computers there to click early and often on the buttons.
But I would wear Groucho Glasses.
I'm an old gramma - been around long enough to remember when we were a lot safer in our homes, per the Constitution/Bill of Rights.
I've seen too many of those safeties slip away. I fear for my grandchildren.
(I'm also 'hoarding' what will become, come 2012, illegal light bulbs. Who would ever have thought that the Federal Gov't would be able to mandate even our light bulbs!
But we let them get away with telling us what kind of toilets we must have. Now the light bulbs (that are little toxic bombs we are required to take to a Hazardous Waste Facility for disposal) Yep, that's real "green"
What's next?
Better question: "What happens if when I downloaded what I thought was a cool screen saver (weather program, security program, info on saving money, etc.) and it dumped a few "disgusting pics" on my HD in a hidden or obscure file folder) I did not know about how do I explain it away when the FBI come calling?"
sound practice =
Thanks , got it bookmarked,maybe it will make sense to me.
Whats to stop sneaky wireless parasites from getting the innocent router owner arrested?
Answer: nothing.
The whole sting stinks to high heaven from a libertarian and constitutional perspective.
It is meant for changing HUGE urls to something more manageable (for posting, sending over email, sending over instant messengers, etc).
See also http://snipurl.com/ for another one.
These services are unfortunately now commonly abused to send unsuspecting people to “shock sites” (generally animal or gay porn, or something equally revolting) in a way which cannot be anticipated (unlike Meta refresh tags, which you can examine in the html source before clicking).
There is a ‘trusted’ version where, for the price of a 2nd click, you can get a preview of the tinyurl: for example, click http://preview.tinyurl.com/33wvbv and you will see that the link refers to FR before you actually visit FR.
Anyway, the idea is that, for example, someone (usually an idiot kid) will find an FBI link and spam it on message boards hidden as a tinyurl, give it a safe description and safe context, and laugh as the FBI stomps grandma’s *** with a full tactical entry. The kid does not even have to click it himself.
Trust me, its not as hard as it seems. I am 48 years old and never had a single class in computers and just finished building one in fact. I also managed to hookup and secure my own network both hardwired and wireless.
>>Anyone screaming about this has to be into kiddie porn, because there is no other reason for one to be throwing a tantrum over it.<<
Not really. I am not into porn at all and I am screaming about it.
I fix friends computers for a hobby. I’m sort of the resident expert (relatively speaking anyway). Every single computer I have worked on had porn in the IE cache. Every one!
My wife’s friend gave us her husbands old laptop to give to our granddaughter but first he cleaned all the “important” stuff off. Well, he didn’t do a good enough job because I found tons of porn on it and a lot of stuff from a site called “chix with dix”.
But the worst was not technically even porn: In his personal pictures from a trip to hawaii he had pictures named “babe1.jpg”, etc. He was spotting “hot chicks” in thongs on the beach around him and taking clandestine pictures of them.
My wife and I decided it would be inapropriate to mention this stuff to his wife. I tried to wipe the drive to install Win2k but it wouldn’t take (old computer). But we ended up just throwing it away to be on the safe side.
What man, under the right conditions and out of curiosity, isn’t under at least SOME risk of clicking one of those buttons, even ashamed of himself for doing it although strictly out of curiosity, only to find out big brother was right there behind him just waiting for the opportunity to “flag” him and remove his right to ever own a gun or look his wife in the eye.
Let he who has not sinned cast the first stone.
And believe me, there is a HUGE difference between clicking on a “under aged girls” icon and being an actual pervert. Huge! The reasons for clicking the icon are too numerous to mention, and most of them are completely harmless.
I suspect they are really looking for those who click more than once. But I could be wrong.
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