Laptop family is no stranger to legal disputes (Webcamgate Lower Merion)

Philadelphia Inquirer ^ | 02/25/2010 | Larry King and Bonnie L. Cook

[Kid Shelleen]

The vice chairman of the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission could scarcely contain his scorn.

Before the commission was yet another appeal from a Philadelphia-area family, again seeking a break on unpaid electric and gas bills that by last year were closing in on $30,000.

This family lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. The breadwinner, until recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former synagogue - and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years, breaking payment plan after payment plan

[Dead Corpse]

Even so, it was the apparent failure to pay a fee - a $55 insurance payment to permit the Robbinses' son Blake to take his laptop home from Harriton High School - that might have prompted the district to activate the Web cam.

Huh... That explains a lot in just that one paragraph. Kid gets laptop, doesn't pay up because family is broke from living well beyond their means, School activates LoJack looking for laptop...

Lawsuit.

A lot more plausible than the "peeping Tom" hyperbole being tossed around last week.

[Abby4116]

And there it is.......otherwise, why would they activate the webcam if it wasn't stolen?

Something about the program (LANRev) installed on the laptops that automtically activates the webcam when the laptop is opened.

http://www.boingboing.net/2010/02/22/school-spying-infect.html

[Brugmansian]

Or maybe there is more to the story . Maybe a tech savvy family member figured out how to do something to the laptop to create grounds for a lawsuit? Anything is possible

That was my first thought. Perhaps something more complicated too. Lawyers, the family and a school insider. Just too much of a coincidence these low-lives were involved. But who knows? Maybe for once in their miserble lives they were victims and not users.

[gussiefinknottle]

yes, i keep telling my son there is more to car price
than just the purchase!

[muawiyah]

Odds are their family trust took a beating last year and just can't provide that supplemental income they needed to live in a million dollar house.

On the other hand there are places (Fairfax County VA comes to mind) where million dollar homes are a glut on the market ~ everybody's got one ~ even after the fall in housing prices.

Well, not everybody, but enough of them that it's simply not uncommon for folks of modest means to have one ~ without furniture of course, and you must wear your winter coats indoors!

[Dead Corpse]

http://www.absolute.com/products/lojackforlaptops/technology

Pretty slick system. We were looking into this same software package for our student laptops. Of course, our students don’t get to take them home so there isn’t the whole “peeking into kids bedrooms” creepiness.

[maica]

Unbelievable. I live in a very big house. My electric bill doesn’t amount to more than $1000 a year. If we used gas that might come to another $1000.

*****

Do you live where the temp goes above 80 or under 60? In Maryland a gas&electric bill for a large house runs from $200 to $800 per month, depending on the season.

[Huebolt]

I’m wrapping my laptop in ALUMINUM FOIL ! ! ! !

[Kid Shelleen]

Funny you should say that. There is a story floating around with a picture of the father sitting with Hillary Clinton at a fund raiser. I hope the truth comes out and justice is served. Between the ding-bat school officials, plaintiff lawyers and well connected liberal elites, I doubt we will ever know all the facts.



'Webcam' father and Clinton

[Abby4116]

I have no problem with a program like this IF the laptop is supposed to be kept in school. But when they have to take them home, we are dealing with minors’ privacy here. The school has no right to “spy” on the student at home.

[Girlene]

They remind me of Balloon Boy’s parents. And they might just have hit the jackpot with this one.

Haven't seen them interviewed, but after reading the article, it seems the family was living beyond their means because they were waiting on a judgement in which the father claims he is owed $5 million in commissions from a former employer. So they kept on spending while they waited for the case to be settled. They even owe money to the IRS. Ruh-roh.

Still, if the webcam was intentionally activated by the school, this should be pursued to ensure it doesn't happen again.

[NativeNewYorker]

The family is a total trainwreck, based on the article.

[Wolfie]

Hard to beleive its been 25 years. I gotta rent it again.

[Girlene]

Something about the program (LANRev) installed on the laptops that automtically activates the webcam when the laptop is opened.

That could be. If so, it needs to be addressed. Still, a school official let the student know that he thought he had done something inappropriate in his home. So if it was accidently activated, someone intentionally looked at the results and acted on what they saw. Big mistake.

[Abby4116]

The family is a total trainwreck, based on the article

The family may be a trainwreck, but that still doesn't give the district rights to monitor any student at home (using his own, school issued, laptop).

[Dead Corpse]

The school has no right to “spy” on the student at home.

the argument could be made that they weren't spying on the kid per se, they were spying on the laptop that had been checked out and the insurance not paid for because the kids parents are deadbeats.

[Dead Corpse]

Check the link in post #26. That isn’t how the system works.

[Apparatchik]

This is funny:

Before filing the suit, lawyer Mark S. Haltzman said he had warned the family that its members' lives would be placed under a microscope.

"I absolutely advised them, because I know the low level that newspaper people will go to for a story," Haltzman said yesterday, "even if it has nothing to do with the merits of the case."

The Inquirer then proceeds to stoop to a low level by blasting the family for its financial problems.

Clearly the liberally-biased Inquirer is siding with the government (Lower Merion School District and the PUC). When the media becomes the government's ally, be very afraid.

[bitterohiogunclinger]

In all the hype over this case, I’ve yet to see or hear one shred of evidence of wrongdoing by the school system. All of the speculation over “alleged” invasion of privacy is just that, speculation.

We do, however, have proof that the plaintiff is no stranger to filing lawsuits for fun and profit.

[Born Conservative]

Maybe a tech savvy family member figured out how to do something to the laptop to create grounds for a lawsuit?

The Network Tech for LMSD is in a promotional webcast for a remote monitoring product called LANRev. Read this blog post and you probably will think differently: The Spy At Harriton High