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NY case underscores Wi-Fi privacy dangers (SWAT, you perv)
Associated Press ^ | April 24, 2011 | CAROLYN THOMPSON

Posted on 04/24/2011 9:10:24 AM PDT by decimon

BUFFALO, N.Y. – Lying on his family room floor with assault weapons trained on him, shouts of "pedophile!" and "pornographer!" stinging like his fresh cuts and bruises, the Buffalo homeowner didn't need long to figure out the reason for the early morning wake-up call from a swarm of federal agents.

That new wireless router. He'd gotten fed up trying to set a password. Someone must have used his Internet connection, he thought.

"We know who you are! You downloaded thousands of images at 11:30 last night," the man's lawyer, Barry Covert, recounted the agents saying. They referred to a screen name, "Doldrum."

"No, I didn't," he insisted. "Somebody else could have but I didn't do anything like that."

"You're a creep ... just admit it," they said.

Law enforcement officials say the case is a cautionary tale. Their advice: Password-protect your wireless router.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
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To: RobRoy

If your not contributing to the cost of this business Wi-Fi then your stealing.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.


121 posted on 04/24/2011 11:00:27 AM PDT by desertfreedom765
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To: piytar
"How about the part where they threw an unresisting suspect down a flight of stairs?"

Can you please provide the quote in the article that says that, and if you would be so kind, please let me know who it was that was saying it?

Thanks!

122 posted on 04/24/2011 11:01:14 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: decimon

>>Is it illegal to possess pictures of rapings?<<

Only if you know they are real, I suspect. More precisely, only if it can be proven in a court of law that you knew they were real. And if you have a lot of them and it can be proven that you frequented a site that clearly advertized them as real, you could have a problem I suspect. But I only suspect. For all I know it is completely legal. Heck, I just found out recently that in the 1960’s LSD was legal. For all I know it still is...


123 posted on 04/24/2011 11:01:53 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: OldDeckHand

>>If you can show me where the “SWAT” team was involved, that may mean something. Fortunately, it’s been established that it was a word created from the figment of the original poster’s imagination.<<

Give it up. The straw man has been burned alive. Stay on topic.


124 posted on 04/24/2011 11:03:40 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: OldDeckHand; Las Vegas Ron
You're either being argumentative or obtuse, I really don't care which it is.

Or he's wanting the police and courts to be a bit more thorough before storming into a man's house where someone could have been killed when a simple check of open wifi would have told them someone else may be the culprit.

What the cops did is the same as storming into ATT because the traffic passed through their router. Now that would be stupid right? And so is the cops storming into this guys house with no real evidence that he had done anything. The problem is the cops and the courts either don't know how this stuff works or they are willingly acting stupid. I'm not sure if they are being deliberately obtuse over IT or are truly just ignorant, but it either way it doesn't make it right.

125 posted on 04/24/2011 11:03:47 AM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: OldDeckHand

“it turns out is later proven to be 100% accurate - The man owned the internet connection that was used to download child pornography.”

“I don’t know how much simpler it can be. You’re either being argumentative or obtuse, I really don’t care which it is.”

Come on Mr. Lawyer man. “Accurate” and “Criminal” are not interchangeable here.

It is you who are being obtuse. Do you not - even in your wildest dreams - see a problem with police entering an innocent mans home at gunpoint?

It was entirely possible for police to check to see if his WiFi was secure or not. an open connection would, at the very least, be cause for a different approach. They had the technical means to track this guy down - its not hard, but not trivial either.

So, would you agree that the guy was innocent? Or are you one of those prosecutors who will find something on anyone (as you well know, it’s very possible to do this) to justify what is at best a police blunder?

Do you not see how this could have escalated into someone getting shot/killed?

I think you are being needlessly argumentative about the relevance of “correct” information pointing to the actual criminal.


126 posted on 04/24/2011 11:03:59 AM PDT by RFEngineer
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To: desertfreedom765

>>If your not contributing to the cost of this business Wi-Fi then your stealing.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.<<

You are delving into business, IT morality minutia and stating an opinion with which I disagree. Not that I am right, or you.

If I understand your position correctly, you would believe that a guy that lives above a “free wi-fi” coffeeshop and accesses from his apartment would be morally in the wrong. Am I correct?


127 posted on 04/24/2011 11:05:47 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: OldDeckHand
"One of the agents runs up and basically throws him down the stairs, and he's got the cuts and bruises to show for it," said Covert, who said the homeowner plans no lawsuit. When he was allowed to get up, agents escorted him and watched as he used the bathroom and dressed.

You may want to read the entire article before continuing on this discussion. It makes it better for everyone if we are all referring to the same article.

128 posted on 04/24/2011 11:07:20 AM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: RobRoy
"How about the part where they threw an unresisting suspect down a flight of stairs?

"Straw Man" - one of the most often misused terms of the fallacious arguments.

You prove why.

Pointing out that there WASN'T a SWAT team when someone says that there was a SWAT isn't a fallacious argument, and it certainly isn't a straw man argument.

However, the fact that you - repeatedly - fail to understand this, doesn't say much about the rest of your diatribe.

Moral of the story - don't you phrases you clearly don't understand.

129 posted on 04/24/2011 11:09:32 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: desertfreedom765

>>If your not contributing to the cost of this business Wi-Fi then your stealing.

Just because you can do something doesn’t mean you should.<<

Another thing I probably should mention. In the office where I work the amount of internet surfing is staggering. I believe that you would say that anyone doing that for non-business purposes (hitting FR or paying bills, etc) is stealing from the company. However, the company has a “reasonable use” policy.

Free wi-fi is the future.


130 posted on 04/24/2011 11:10:24 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: OldDeckHand
"Where does it say SWAT was used?"

And "I'll wait."

From the article..."awakened by the sound of someone breaking the back door down..." and "assault weapons pointed at him.."

I dunno about you, but that don't sound like Sheriff Andy Griffith to me.

Quacks like a duck......

131 posted on 04/24/2011 11:10:52 AM PDT by diogenes ghost
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To: OldDeckHand
I would love to hear about all the child-porn cases you've successfully prosecuted. I've prosecuted about five.

If you really were a prosecutor (it's easy to be a big-mouth on an anonymous internet forum like this one), you would know how poisonous a raid like this (on a noncriminal) is to potential jury pools in other cases. The suspect in this case purchased a legal router, legal internet service, and legally hooked them up without password protection. According to the article, he is no longer accused of committing any crime. Your violent disdain for his lack of computer skills aside, this case and the publicity surrounding it has done nothing but undermine respect for law enforcement at all levels. Defending the indefensible only prolongs this destructive discussion and further pits people against legitimate legal authority. A real prosecutor would know this.

132 posted on 04/24/2011 11:11:26 AM PDT by Ronaldus Magnus
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To: for-q-clinton
"You may want to read the entire article before continuing on this discussion. It makes it better for everyone if we are all referring to the same article. "

Oh no. I saw that part - the part where the man's lawyer says that he was "basically" thrown down the stairs, but they're aren't going to sue.

If they had a case, they'd be suing. They don't, so they aren't.

However, I am glad to know that in the world you inhabit, attorneys aren't given to wildly unsupported hyperbole when making their case. Does your world also have the unicorns that crap Skittles?

133 posted on 04/24/2011 11:12:32 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: OldDeckHand

OK let’s replace SWAT with ICE. What’s the difference. Fact is agents came in with guns drawn and ready.

Whether it was SWAT, ICE, FBI, CIA, Secret Service or Janet Reno really doesn’t matter. The fact that they are agents from the government storming into an innocents man house is what is at stake.

They didn’t do basic detective work to find the real perv. So I guess you can say it was “Good enough for government work” to these guys. What’s violating one man’s rights when it comes to capturing someone who is looking at kiddie porn? I’m all for nailing the kiddie porn bastards, but let’s make sure we have the right person first. If not, let’s just all agree to have random inspections of our homes and computers to find kiddie porn—are you ok with that?


134 posted on 04/24/2011 11:12:46 AM PDT by for-q-clinton (If at first you don't succeed keep on sucking until you do succeed)
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To: worst-case scenario

Of course he doesn’t, unless he does something like hacking to access the internet.

The people who buy the service are sharing the service, they’re nice people who are giving what they bought away for free.

Why would it be theft?


135 posted on 04/24/2011 11:13:49 AM PDT by truthfreedom
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To: OldDeckHand

>>”Straw Man” - one of the most often misused terms of the fallacious arguments.

You prove why.

Pointing out that there WASN’T a SWAT team when someone says that there was a SWAT isn’t a fallacious argument, and it certainly isn’t a straw man argument.

However, the fact that you - repeatedly - fail to understand this, doesn’t say much about the rest of your diatribe.

Moral of the story - don’t you phrases you clearly don’t understand.<<

Give it up. The straw man has been burned alive. Stay on topic.

BTW, what I find comical is that you are correct, but it is still irrelevant. Someone else said straw man and I decided to run with it even though, technically speaking your argument is more accurately called Argumentum Red Herring.

Most people think of the two as pretty much the same thing and it was (and is) good enough for the point being made.


136 posted on 04/24/2011 11:14:32 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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To: RobRoy

It’s not my service that you are using. I would consider it stealing if you were using my service. But then that
s why I encrypt and password protect my WiFi.

Why don’t you let the Coffee shop know what you are doing and let them decide if it’s OK with them. I don’t think that your “free” service would last much longer.


137 posted on 04/24/2011 11:14:32 AM PDT by desertfreedom765
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To: diogenes ghost
""assault weapons pointed at him.."

Oh gracious, an "assault weapon". Pray tell, coming from a journalist, I wonder what that could be?


138 posted on 04/24/2011 11:14:52 AM PDT by OldDeckHand
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To: decimon

It is scary when you think about it. I know of many many programs and some operating systems that are available for nothing but this purpose, I am not going to mention any of them as not to make it easier to find them.
WEP,MAC doesn’t matter which takes anywhere from 5 to 10 minutes to crack maybe less. I always suggest get the router to suit your purpose in other words keep the signal as weak as possible from my experience a weak signal is some protection as even if you have the key or pass phrase you can not logon if the signal is too weak.
In simple English don’t go buy the industrial strength router that will put a signal across town when all you want is household use.


139 posted on 04/24/2011 11:15:29 AM PDT by Lees Swrd ("Arms discourage and keep the invader and plunderer in awe and preserve order in the world as well")
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To: desertfreedom765

>>Why don’t you let the Coffee shop know what you are doing and let them decide if it’s OK with them. I don’t think that your “free” service would last much longer.<<

You’d be surprised. ;)

BTW, in my case it is not a coffee shop or “advertized” free wi-fi. I was just using that example.


140 posted on 04/24/2011 11:16:14 AM PDT by RobRoy (The US today: Revelation 18:4)
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