Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
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Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#2easy fix for the prosecution: Use parallel reconstruction. I'm sure they're on this as we're commenting here.
Once the information has been gathered, it's out there. You can't unsee it. It will always be there. Now, I don't think we should protect child porn users, but this is a general issue with mass surveillance. Laws change and suddenly somebodies actions that were once legal and are now illegal will be useful for the investigators as a basis for parallel reconstruction or just plain extortion or blackmail.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#3"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down."
Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law?
This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#4> Earlier this year, federal judges in Massachusetts and Oklahoma made similar rulings and similarly tossed the relevant evidence. Thirteen other judges, meanwhile, have found that while the warrants to search the defendants' computers via the hacking tool were invalid, they did not take the extra step of ordering suppression of the evidence. The corresponding judges in the remainder of the cases have yet to rule on the warrant question.
It's nice to see checks/balances work every now and then. It's also refreshing to see public figures stand against "thinking of the children" when rendering judgements about our freedoms. My only concern is that it's still a narrow technical ruling, only invalid because the judge issuing the warrant did not have the authority to do so (it targeted people outside their jurisdiction), and while it's relatively easy in the physical world to constrain your search, it's much more difficult on the digital world unless the warrant is extremely narrow in scope. Once you've gotten access to someone's personal computer, you're going to get all the things, not just the child pornography. I would consider it the equivalent for getting a warrant (hand-wave the actual execution) to mount a GoPro your target and record their life, combing through the footage to find details relevant your case, but I fear a "hack their computer" warrant would be/is much easier to obtain.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#5"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down." Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law? This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
You could argue that the FBI's use case does not harm, perpeutatue, or endorse the exploitation of children any further. It would be a different story if the FBI also commissioned new content to run the site.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#6"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down." Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law? This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
Unfortunately we've seen that law enforcement in the US is able to get away with doing some rather despicable things in the name of fighting crime.
Personally, I don't believe it's moral or ethical for law enforcement to commit crimes in order to catch criminals. After all, how can we defend our own morals and ethics if we're willing to ignore them for "reasons"?
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#7"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down." Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law? This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
You could still be running the site and not facilitate and distribute child pornography.
For example always throw a server error AFTER a user entered its credentials. This way you can still track users.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#8"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down." Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law? This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
In what world would it make sense to do this?
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#9easy fix for the prosecution: Use parallel reconstruction. I'm sure they're on this as we're commenting here. Once the information has been gathered, it's out there. You can't unsee it. It will always be there. Now, I don't think we should protect child porn users, but this is a general issue with mass surveillance. Laws change and suddenly somebodies actions that were once legal and are now illegal will be useful fo…
Parallel reconstruction is not so easy when the case is already at trial as you can bet the defendant will not be doing whatever it is law enforcement need to now find evidence of. Time machines are still not available.
Re: Judge: child porn evidence obtained via FBI’s Tor hack must be suppressed
#10"As a way to ensnare users, the FBI even took control of Playpen and ran it for 13 days before shutting it down." Shouldn't the agents running this site be charged with child pornography distribution? Or are they above the law? This would be a full blown investigation against the police in this country (Norway), but here entrapment is illegal too.
You could argue that the FBI's use case does not harm, perpeutatue, or endorse the exploitation of children any further. It would be a different story if the FBI also commissioned new content to run the site.
It's really surprising the faux moral outrage. Children will continue to be exploited because of technicalities.