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

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

[Dead Corpse]

$100 gps or a $35 software suite.

I suppose next you people are going to go on a rant against web-enabled Nanny Cams.

Very similar application in principle.

[gussiefinknottle]

i think that it’s sad that people buy homes they
cannot afford.

[conservativemusician]

Head Office.

[maica]

You are very fortunate in your G&E provider. In Maryland the story is Very different!

[Dead Corpse]

Were the students forced to use these SCHOOL laptops in private areas of their home? Were they to be allowed to use them for whatever they wanted? Or just for specific school related homework?

The only charges I see here the need to be filed are "theft/misuse of school equipment" and maybe "filing a false lawsuit".

[Born Conservative]

I have to admit that I’m one of those not well versed in that, although I do realize that there is a need to have such control. Like anything, I guess, the technology can be used in a bad way....

[MamaTexan]

without furniture of course, and you must wear your winter coats indoors!

LOL! I never saw much point in being in a mansion if you had to live on beans and rice.

To each his own, I guess.

[paulycy]

That level of control is necessary.

I'm not arguing with you. You are the expert.

But I don't see where a school district has any business or even a legal right without a warrant to monitor a video feed of a student's house, car, life, backpack, etc. wherever that pc is.

Please explain?

[ican'tbelieveit]

$100 GPS or a $600+ laptop. If you REALLY want to get into expenses, why was the school sending these expensive pieces of equipment home anyway. In fact, why have they invested in them to begin with.

There is NO excuse for a government agency to have the ability to take a picture of ANYONE in the privacy of their home. Period.

[Dead Corpse]

Agreed. It could be. There are ways to hack into almost any system. The more "connected" a system is, the more avenues for attack.

Webcams, website hosting, chat services, RDP clients, etc...

There is still something "not right" in this story though. There is info still missing. Yeah, the sys admin seems like a bit of a control Nazi. Possibly for some of the exact reasons I just mentioned. Dunno. I haven't met any of the folks in question. I do know some of the things we've had to do to work with local police to recover stolen assets. Having a picture of the perp from the laptops iSight would go a long way to recovering said assets.

[Little Pig]

That all depends on the Porsche

I've always wanted a 928 myself, but I can't justify the $3000 for the yearly tune-up.

[Dead Corpse]

MacBooks run $999. $899 for previous Gen MacBooks until the run out of inventory. This does not include licensing for additional software like iLife or iWork.

In our District, students are NOT allowed to take our laptops home. Theft and misuse are the top two arguments for me to use whenever the school board bring this up.

[paulycy]

Very similar application in principle.

Similar technology but completely different legal situation. I am not a lawyer so I can only give my layman's opinion:

You have a perfect right, as a private individual, to have video going in your own house. If others come into your house they may be captured on video. You will need a lawyer to say whether you have to warn the nanny or not.

A public, government entitiy like a school has a right to the information about where that property is but they do not have a right to invade the privacy of any individual *off* of school property by videotaping (or audiotaping, or recording in any way) the person's private life, surroundings, activities, body, conversations, or anything else.

Cost has ABSOLUTELY nothing to do with it. The Constitution is not sold out to the cheapest technological solution.

[AD from SpringBay]

Read the link from post #50 - it seems to answer your question.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

I’d bet a city acre that nobody will even come close to facing criminal charges in this case.

[Tunehead54]

Thanks! ;-)

Head Office:

“In this comic take on big-business wheelings and dealings, an ambitious senator’s son (Judge Reinhold) moves up the corporate ladder through undeserved promotions. But against his better judgment, he falls for a woman (the chairman’s daughter, no less) who’s leading a protest against the company’s shady business practices. “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer Michael O’Donoghue scripted this satire co-starring Danny DeVito and Jane Seymour.”

[ican'tbelieveit]

If the kiddos need to have access to the computers for school work outside of school hours, open up the school. Cheaper to have a monitor in a lab than this whole mess.

[conservativemusician]

Rent it. Eddie Albert is priceless.

[jocon307]

“...its one thing to be able to purchase something, but to
maintain a million dollar home...”

Hubby and I went to a yard sale in a tony section of central Jersey, all the houses were what you might call McMansions. They were beautiful, really. Huge, big lots, lovely landscaping, etc.

I asked him what the houses cost and he said probably a couple of million. Not bad, really. But then to think about keeping up the lawns, etc. Even cleaning the places. You could never do it yourself, it would be a full time job.

Now, the folks living there were “poor” enough so they were having garage sales. I imagine they must spend almost all their money on keeping up their houses.

And clearly these philly folks could not afford their home, hence their many unpaid bills.

[668 - Neighbor of the Beast]

You’d be surprised how beans and rice can give you the strength needed to fend off grifters, parasites, con men and psychopathic would-be tenants who are all very attracted to mansions. :)