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Police Arrest Teen for "Obscene" Web Site
Ristuccia continues:
"(a) whether "the average person, applying contemporary community standards" would find that the work, taken as a whole, appeals to the prurient interest, Kois v. Wisconsin, supra, at 230, quoting Roth v. United States, supra, at 489;
"(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law; and
"(c) whether the work, taken as a whole, lacks serious literary, artistic, political, or scientific value.
"Note that test (c) is very hard to pass. Even nudie magazines like Playboy are not considered obscene because they have at least some (however miniscule) literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Political speech, including speech critical of police or government officials, is protected in the highest degree.
"I did a little digging with Google, but I couldn't find any of the web pages described in the AP article. The actual web site of the Salem Police Benevolent Association, one of the sites Hemmah is accused of parodying, is at http://www.salempolice.org."
There were many fellow officers I knew that would 'fudge' details to get a conviction or make an arrest stick. After all, they are criminals, aren't they?
It made me physically ill. I also (now) have a healthy distrust for authority... I could write a book, I tell ya.
But I won't.Posting anonymously for obvious reasons.
What about "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?
It was replaced with "Linux News, Paranoia, and Microsoft Bashing"
I'm not a lawyer, and if you've taken anything I've said as legal advice, you've made a big mistake. I'm not studying law, nor do I pretend to be a lawyer. Have a look at my web page. I'm a studying to be a computer scientist, and I work in the IT industry.
I picked Playboy Magazine as my example because Playboy is sold at news stands in Salem, NH and includes pornographic pictures that are likely similar to those found on Hemmah's web page. I've been there. I've seen them for sale. In my hometown, which is only an hour or so drive from Salem, we've got some similar magazines in with the regular magazines on display in our public library.
If Playboy, a national publication which in my opinion has practicly nonexistent literary, artistic, political, or scientific value, is permitted in Salem, then why wouldn't Hemmah's web page also be permitted? After all, Hemmah's web page criticising the police is almost by definition of serious political value. What can you say for the drivel about some nudie model's favorite color and turn-ons that accompanies the pictures in the above mentioned magazines?
That aside, Hemmah hasn't even been charged with publishing obscene material, even though obscinity is the focus of the AP story. The charge described in the AP story was "misuse of computer system information." I suspect the police department is trying to bend to apply to his use of information from the original police department association web site on his parody site for two purposes. The first is to scare the shit out of Hemmah, since it's a felony. The second is because they can't successfully charge him with publishing obscene material because what he published obviously didn't meet the definition of obscene.
From http://sudoc.nhsl.lib.nh.us/rsa/62/638-17.HTM.
It's been quite a while since I last saw an issue of Playboy in its entirety. It was at about age 13, and the copy was pilfered by a friend from his old man's closet. Since then, I've taken a cursory glance at a few issues, and their web site, but I haven't read either in its entirety. I've also watched a few seconds of their sattelite channel while checking out a friend's DSS receiver. What I saw was mostly what I remembered from pawing through the printed magazine back in the 80's: lots of commercial style nudie pictures.
I'm not claiming that these things don't exist, just that they didn't leave a lasting impression on me.
Magazines, unlike books, have a strong tendancy to open towards the middle. However, that tendancy doesn't explain my experiences with the web site or sattelite channel.
B&N bookstores in New Hampshire also have Penthouse and Perfect 10. I'm not sure about Hustler. Salem, NH also has an adult novelty store called Midnight Madness Novelties for Adults that probably stocks some even more hardcore titles.
But we're getting away from my original point here, which was that if porn alone was not obscene in Salem, NH, then political criticism of the police plus a little porn certainly was a step ahead in the legality department.
On a side not, for those of you that have websites, please make a tarball of the site and burn it to CDR and put it somewhere safe (i.e. not in your home). That way if some rat-bastards take your stuff, you can get a mirror up later to show the real truth.
You think Slashdot has credibility?
--
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
I agree that my use of the word "Communist" was probably improper. Maybe "Collectivist" would have been a better choice. Basically, if you disagree with the government and the majority, and you let it be known, you get hit, shot, etc. Look at Ayn Rand's "Anthem" to get a partial idea of what I'm talking about.
Instant Karma's gonna get you...
heh...I wrote a story about a band geek that went crazy, killed about 5 peopl in class that bullied him, and then jumped out of the window. I handed it in to my creative writing teacher. Got a 96/100 points on it. Funny thing is, this band geek was quite similar in description to myself. Now, I never would have killed/would kill anyone ever, but I guarantee I'd be arrested and in psychiatric care if I was in high school and turned that story in today, seeing as how I used names and events that happened in the band class I was a member of. Yet, I'm a fully functional member of society. Adults hold kids to different standards than maybe they should, and everyone is up tight and think that kids are Columbine-ish hackers with no morals. They watch for the wrong signs, and arrest them for dumb shit way too often. I'd like to see them arrest an upstanding businessman in the same community for doing the same thing. They probably wouldn't. Especially if it was someone with money. Salem police, maybe you should think about the dumb shit you did when you were younger :D I'm sure you're not a bunch of angels.
The death of one is a tragedy,
The death of millions is just a statistic
Instant Karma's gonna get you...
(b) whether the work depicts or describes, in a patently offensive way, sexual conduct specifically defined by the applicable state law;
My god, they'll let you patent anything these days.
It's been quite a while since I last saw an issue of Playboy in its entirety. It was at about age 13 [...]
I'm not claiming that these things don't exist, just that they didn't leave a lasting impression on me.It's hardly surprising a 13 year old boy seeing his first Playboy is going to find the pictures make more of a lasting impression than the articles. But the articles, interviews, etc. are enough for Playboy to bother publishing a Braille edition.
--
rant
In communism and fascism the government is in charge of industry. What we're heading towards is industry in charge of government.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Don't remember his name, too lazy to hunt around for it.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Corporations don't have to make things up, they can outsource it to an advertising agency.
I see even classic Slashdot is now pretty much unusable on dial up anymore.
Please. This is the 21st century. Magazines like Barely Legal XXX Hardcore are sold all over the country without legal challenge. I mean for the court to find this website obscene, it's gonna have to be pretty damn obscene. So, unless the main page is a doctored image of the police commisioner recieving a Triple Master Blaster, or a deputy sheriff giving the goatse.cx guy a rim job, they're going to have a pretty hard time in court.
Seriously, though, this pisses me right off. You would hope that when initiating people into the EXECUTIVE FUCKIN' BRANCH OF THE UNITED STATES GOVERNMENT, fer chrissake, they would at least make them watch a 5 minute video expaining the founding priniples of our nation rather than the "Making Teargas Work For You" instructional seminar they currently would appear to be getting. You would hope that the people whose job is to (in the end) preserve the American way of life would give a half damn about the bill of rights. Apparently this is not the case. It's a sorry state of affairs that it will take the multimillion lawsuit against the department (that I'm sure is forthcoming) to knock some sense into these asswipes.
If that is the case, I can see why he was arrested. That's a crime! (At least here in TN)
However, if these are sites he put up himself, the cops really stepped in it this time.
--fatboy
Christopher Hemmah, 19, was arrested Thursday night after a month-long investigation. He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony.
:) It seems there are too many "bad" laws these days.
I would assume that the law he was arrested for had to do with "Stolen" computer system information. Thats what I get for assuming
I wonder what the exact wording of this law is.
--fatboy
Here is a link to the law he was arrested for breaking.
From what I can tell this is a REALLY bad law, because it looks like he has broken all sections of paragraph IV.
--fatboy
Either you look at it for the police. First you have someone mocking on the net then you arrest the person for making fun of you. The courts is going to have a good time with this one.
The link is here.
-j
I forget what 8 was for.
http://www.salempolice.org&arg=3,2,00000001,3232,2 3,01,01,01,3f000dfa@10.0.0.2/salempd/
-j
I forget what 8 was for.
Actually, the kid isn't guily until proven so in a court of law. At least, that's how it's supposed to work in this country...
Meow?
Windows is the Acme of computing -- in the Wile E. Coyote sense.
Out of curiousity, if you are no longer employed as a police officer, why do you feel you have to post anonymously?
Of course you should have (preferably multiple) offsite backups for other reasons, too.
Steve Jackson lost a lot because of that debacle. He could have lost just as much due to flood, fire, tornado, etc., though. He would have lost a lot less if he could have restored all his stuff from offsite backup onto a new computer a few days after the raid.
salem.jpeg
I hate to break it to ya, but a vast majority of cops don't have a degree in criminal justice. Just what they got in police acadamy, if they even went to one. Some are just locally trained by the training department which is usually just the Sheriff.
Considering where Salem NH is and where many of it's people work, The Boston Globe is a good one contact. I'd also go for the Nashua, Portsmouth, and Manchester papers to get some more coverage.
"In fact, 98 percent of the computers the department uses are seized property, the chief said. He plans to give one of the cameras seized from the van to his accident reconstruction officer."
The websites were at http://www.salemnhpolice.org and http://www.salemnhpolice.com that criticized the police (it looks like someone has since redirected the first to a commercial porn site and the second to a church site).
I think its a just a witchunt by a bunch or fat ass doughnut eating small town boo bah jackass's cops who have never fought real crime. Most cops seem to forget that political speech is protected under the constitution. The 1st doesnt protect thats everyone aggrees with, it protects controversial and unpopular speech. I dont think this case will have a leg to stand on, when it goes to court and if the ACLU gets involved then it doesnt even have a pray. I think cops should first have at least two years of school that focuses them on learning ethics, the constitution, the law and a what a proper diet consists of, granted the doughnut lobby will have a problem with the proper nutrition thing. ;-)
The correct link can be found here.
"He investigated with detectives to identify the hacker."
I don't understand, are they charging him for hacking? None of the articles mentioned anything about the guy having 'hacking into' anything - only that he owned some books on hacking, which means nothing. Sounds like they're just spreading libellous misinformation on the guy to gather support for their corrupt side of the case. Grief, why didn't they just go all out and say "... to identify the paedophile terrorist hacker menace threat-to-society"?
.. Almost every essary I wrote for school involved somebody dying .. I was usually the murderer .. sometimes the deaths were accidents, sometimes planned .. sometimes people I knew (names changed of course :), sometimes totally fictional .. not one teacher ever thought a thing of it :) Nobody sent me to a therapist, or kicked me out for being "dangerous", or tried to arrest me, or anything of the sort.
Of course, this is South Africa, our schools aren't quite "miniature police states", like it sounds to me it is over in the americas. We don't really have school shootings over here, so we don't have the same witchhunt mentality. Or at least not back when I was in school, which was over 6 years ago.
The parody protection stuff is usually brought up when copyright is in question. Obscenity is different - if it's legally "obscene", it stops being protected speech. You can parody a web site and justify basing your web page on theirs by saying the parody is fair use and doesn't violate the site's copyright, but if you do it in such a way that it's obscene, you're nabbed for the obscenity.
The trick here is that if it really is a "parody", then that implies some value and intent to the page that doesn't exclusively appeal to prurient interest. That would keep it from being legally obscene.
Naked.
Couple of things. First, he's not giving any legal advice. He's simply stating that the kid winn probably win. He's not attempting to represent the kid in court, nor anyone else in court for that matter. He's simply making a statement. That is VERY far from illegal.
Second, I would like to congradulate you on becoming a part of the hordes of idiots that swarm this and every other site. You are part of an elite crowd of no more than 90% of the posters that feel like they are better than everyone else, and somehow have more intelligent things to say. Blah on you.
me, my low karma speaks loads for how little intelligence I have *grin* But at least I haven't sunken so low as to tell someone they're doing something illegal, especially when thhey're not.
I'm kinda worried too. I'm taking a computer security course and in the course of this course, we learn all about computer security vulnerabilities. I've got a couple of books and a lot of notes on how to break into and harden computer systems.
If anybody really wanted, I'm sure they could come up with a reason to have me incarcerated based on that..
Feel the fear and do it anyway.
* 2001-01-09 03:53:18 Student Jailed For Reading Violent Story in Class (articles,censorship) (rejected)
Guess it wasn't "geeky" enough.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
I never went to public schools, and this is the sort of thing that makes me support school vouchers more and more, but that's a completely different issue.
Hell, screw vouchers. The more I find out just how screwed up schools have become in a few short years, the more I just want to home-school my future brats, assuming I don't just avoid the whole issue and get dogs.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
I agree that the biggest abuses are the illegal searches and the excessive force. However many suspects allow themselves to be abused simply because they don't know their Consititutional rights.
Many times the cops ask to search a person or vehicle and the occupants don't know that they can say no. Let the cops arrest you first before allowing a search, that way if the arrest is bogus the search is too.
As for the excessive force, the best advice is "DON'T RUN". Just relax and let it happen. Let them arrest you straighten it out later. If the cop screws up in the slightest, go to Internal Affairs and lodge a complaint. If you are in the right, you should be vindicated.
One should not have to resist overtly, but at the same time one should not do anything which will make it easier for the cop to make a case against you...
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
Besides, most people think the government is GREAT. They want social security checks, interstate highways, meat inspections, national defense, etc. The only thing that national education policy has brought us is standardization of the curricula throughout the nation. Don't you think it is important to speak a common language and to believe in a common culture?Come on, how about a few facts to buttress your hypotheses?
If you do a little research you will find that the reason individuals pay lots more taxes these days is because corporations are paying much less than they did when the income tax was first instituted. Also, compared to national defense, fighting poverty and drugs are small potatoes in the grand scheme of things...
The elimination of government as advocated by the Libertarians is hardly a panacea. Who is going to defend the nation from foreign enemies? GM? AT&T? AOL? Who is going to ensure your meat has no e-coli? Ronald McDonald? The Taco Bell chihuahua? Who is going to defend your civil rights? Microsoft?
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
My question is: what exactly is the freedom that the South and West have that is unavailable to the rest of this country?
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
I personally think it is a bad idea, for you would end an island with a 90% pimply-faced male geeks and a 10% homely female geek population.
Wait -- I would be willing to support a "geek island" as long as you take those Odin's Lounge White Power idiots with you!!!Seeing as how most geeks sell out and become "libertarians" as soon as they get a chance, I don't think I can trust "leaders" like Bill Gates, Scott McNealy, Steve Jobs, and Steve Case to do anything for the "greater good of mankind" unless there is a buck in it for them... Nah, you're just a "fool on the hill"...
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
You know, like those commercials were the guy goes "I am not a doctor, but I play one on TV"
--
You think being a MIB is all voodoo mind control? You should see the paperwork!
A man who wants nothing is invincible
Hmmm, are you lying, trolling, joking, or just don't feel like providing links? I mean, jeez, what the hell are you talking about?
Carnivore is just an extra nail in the coffin.
Everything the founding fathers feared is coming true.
Boss of nothin. Big deal.
Son, go get daddy's hard plastic eyes.
Expanding a vast wasteland since 1996.
Oooh, stabbing the ceiling with a pencil, how primitive. When I was in the 5th grade, while bored in class I made a bow and arrow out of:
-- a ballpoint pen refill unit (the bow)
-- a rubber band (the bowstring)
-- another ballpoint pen refill unit (the arrow)
It could shoot about 30 feet and even penetrate a fibreboard wall at that distance. Clearly I should have been put away for making deadly weapons in class. (This was about 1965, BTW)
~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
The article claims that the police found several "how-to books on computer hacking." Foo in a Nutshell perhaps?
Next, they'll be scheduling an O'Reilly book-burning.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Some fancy-pants ACLU-type lawyer should step up and give this kid a hand. Arresting someone for mocking a web site is ridiculous, whether it is pornographic or otherwise.
I live near Salem...too bad IANAL.
Chris
simple the police have guns and are allowed to use them. If the MPAA had it's own MP-5 squad do you think they would have filed for an injunction in the DeCSS case? NO! They would have gone in, arested people, and shut the site down themselves. The police can take matters into their own hands so they can arrest first and sue later.
slander is not a crime. if you lie about someone and cause them dammage (e.g., shame in the community, etc.) you can be held liable in civil court. you cannot be arested for slander.
>What about "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?
>Which of these categories doesn't Hooters fit under?
"Stuff," depending on your locality.
Cops like to think that they have large jurisdictions.
Exposing the truth begs trouble.
Someone find these pages and mirror them.
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
Its stuff like this that makes me want to be a parent, just so I can participate in the educational system and tell some those idiots to get their head out of their ass. Of course, I could just social engineer my way to become a school administrator and accomplish the same goals. Judging from what I've seen, I probably exceed the qualifications for the job.
I hear you, but as a parent, it doesn't matter. Morons outnumber people with a clue 5 to 1 at school board meetings. It's much like being a little different was in high school, no matter how logical your position, you get shouted down by people who can't think for themselves that are doing just what the 6 o'clock news told them to do. Becoming a parent doesn't make a stupid person any more intelligent unfortunately.
Banned from moderation 01-27-2002. Fuck you too
Where did you get that from? It sounds like (according to the link) he grabbed the source and some pics from the legit site to make a parody on his own site.
Sorta like W tried (and failed) to take down gwbush.com for calling him a crackhead. My guess is the salem police dep't is going to face a huge lawsuit from this guy if his only 'crime' was to make fun on the police.
he could be mocking specific police officers and their families for all we know.
Even if he was it sounds like the worst he could have done was slander the police dep't and/or officers. AFAIK that's not a crime people are arrested for (sued maybe). Free Advice has a page on libel and slander, and no where does it mention that someone can be arrested.
I think writing about blowing up your school and paradying a police station website is just a bit different.
- *Normality Is The Root of All Evil*
What you seem to be either ignoring or just completely ignorant of is that by posting on the web the site in question had just as much a right to claim the whole nation as their "community" as Playboy. This isn't a paper newsletter that was only distributed in New Hampshire. This was a web site that I would imagine was accessible in all 50 states, in addition to other countries. While the New Hampshire police may claim that it was obscene in their community, they are but a small fraction of the community.
I'm sorry, but your blunt and offensive speach needed to be replied to in the same manner. You have every right to say what you did, but it doesn't make it any more intelligent or logical just because you appear to have read an opinion or two. And if you do have more legal experience than the average person it severely reduces your credibility when you make such a blatent mistake and overlook the facts I pointed out above.
Take some advice and read over your postings before actually clicking on submit. That's what preview is there for. If you are a lawyer in training or, God forbid, an actual lawyer then you should know the importance of every word, sentence, and puctuation mark in a legal arguement. Not that I do, as I've had absolutely no legal training, but I still think you should take my advice and preview before posting...
Everything ranging from possessing a long gun (even many semi-automatics are banned in NYC... although hunting rifles are rarely used for urban crime) to, say, kissing without asking for permission (IIRC, a ban was proposed as part of an Amherst U. policy on sexual harrassment), to smoking in a public place (illegal in many more liberal areas), and so forth.
Only the dead have seen the end of war.
Actually, the kid is guilty or not guilty depending on what he did, irrespective of whether he was caught or charged properly.
This isn't quantum physics. There is no uncertainty principle. What the presumption of innocence is about is that the legal system is charged with treating the accused as innocent irrespective of his guilt or innocence until a trial has settled matters.
DB
What I was thinking about when I wrote that was the 'misuse of a computer' section, not the obscenity charge. I see your point. I do hope you see mine.
In the normal course of American law (obscenity, like slavery was before the Civil War, is not a normal section of the law), a crime is defined, you know where you stand before, during, and after your acts and if you get arrested, you have a fairly good idea of what's the verdict going to be.
This predictability is what the whole system is based on, a principle that lets society function with a minimum of legal friction.
DB
Actually, they were hanged, not burned...
But who cares for history nowadays...
-- KDE programmer and computer science student in Klagenfurt, Austria.
IANAL, but i have had a class on law, and we dealt with freedom of speech, slander, etc. IIRC, the only way the government can sue an individual for slander has to due with severe malice contained within the contents. (whether this is a public offical or organization i'm not sure). Just throwing in my two cents
Yes. Turkey is a democracy.
Say no to software patents.
Do I get that right? Say, if somebody links to your site, you can be hold accountable for what is on their site? Even though both the site and the link are beyond your control? Are you sure it isn't the other way round? (I.e. if you link to some other site, you may be held responsible for that site's content). This is absolutely ridiculous! It just calls for a shoot the hostage strategy: tell us the name of your school, and we'll make sure we'll mention and link to it from our DeCSS pages, from our hacking tool collection pages, our police satire pages and whatever other questionable pages we come up. I'm sure that administration will have that law repealed in a minute.
Say no to software patents.
Shouldn't that be the other way round? The "up" link doesn't have anything up, whereas the "already" link has... Moreover, the "up" link is already quite sore from posing for that photo.
Say no to software patents.
And even parody/obscenity charges are not obvious:
Say no to software patents.
Amen. As a long-time student (I'm in 10th grade now), I completely agree with you. Boys will be boys, after all. Someone with brains needs to be around to tell the difference between a scary story laden with hints, a regular crappy gore story, and a serious death threat. I never went to public schools, and this is the sort of thing that makes me support school vouchers more and more, but that's a completely different issue.
Do you have any proof that any of the activities you are accusing cops of actually occur?
One of my best friends' fathers had a close friend who was a retired cop. That retired cop told us one day that every cop he had ever worked with had carried a "throw away" piece in case he ever accidentally shot an unarmed civilian.
Note: A RETIRED COP told this story with a PROUD SMIRK on his face.
(A throw away piece is a weapon that a police officer picks up in the course of his duty -- from some guy he pulls over, or someone he arrests -- that is either unregistered or stolen and that he can then plant on the corpse of someone he's shot and perhaps fire off a couple of rounds to make it look like the innocent corpse really did deserve to eat that bullet.)
No shit.
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
=(.\')=
I remember a kid in my English class who would sit in the back, and basically draw. He tended to get good grades in the class, even though he didn't take notes and such .... He handed the paper to me, and on it was a cartoon character of his own design, of basically a guy hanging from a noose in a tree, but only the head in the noose. Below the head was a lifeless body, and a chainsaw nearby. Everything was "covered" in blood (he used a red pen for this).
You have basically just described who I was when I was in 7th grade. Except I drew pictures of "the devil" and pentagrams and hell -- with a red pen. I remember my dad finding them one day after school and telling me how inappropriate it was. I also remember how stupid I thought he was for believing that I was actually interested in satanism or devil worship. (or that I believed that Satan existed as more than a SYMBOL for evil.)
I had trouble with authority all through school, and I still have trouble with authority today. I am a firm believer that rules exist to form a framework that will allow us to USE OUR OWN BEST JUDGEMENT.
The rule(s) should exist to say, "in an average situation, it would be reasonable to...." The rule should not exist to say, "In every situation, you must...."
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
-The Reverend (I am not a Nazi nor a Troll)
=(.\')=
with all those witches extinct now
They are not extinct, we just call them dissidents now.
Wow. Interesting story. Where did this take place, BTW. In California?
Free Hans!
I'll bet half of that stuff that they seize as "evidence" gets sold for profit, which then goes straight into the officers' pockets. What a racket. Someone should do an audit on that police department's evidence room. It would probably turn up quite a few irregularities...
Free Hans!
Well, how come all of you see "police" and assume "criminal" and "wrongly arrested" and "police state"?
In my case this is known as, "learning from history"
Stop being so trigger-happy and ganging up on people who every day risk their lives to make sure you can rant safely.
No cop has ever risked his life to protect any of my rights. If you were talking about the military you would have a point. You're talking about the police whose jobs is not to protect anything regardless of what it may say on their cars. Their job is to capture criminals AFTER they act against you and to generate revenue for the local government.
---CONFLICT!!---
As some one who spent well over ten years in Leavenworth, I can tell you it isn't the deterrent most people seem to think. While it can be pretty crazy during the tourist season, the rest of the time it is usually downright pleasant. And I really don't think we need more cops.
But if your intent is to get them as far away from Salem, NH as possible for a while, I suppose your proposal would suffice.
But if she weighs the same as a duck, then she's made of wood, therefor she is a witch. BURN THE WITCH!!!!
from a nation that is about to appoint as its Chief Law Enforcement Officer a racist, anti-Semitic, radical Fundamentalist Xtian fascist who believes Catholics and Jews are 'satanists,' and believes it's a sin to dance; who opposes abortion, but favors the death penalty? But let us not judge him for his personal opininons and deeply held religious beliefs...lets give him a chance...
Not to mention he lost his job to a dead guy.
Get ready for the 4th Reich, led by an idiot for the advantage of the rich and powerful...
Remember guys, this is Amerika. Just because you have the most votes, doesn't mean you get to win.--Fox Mulder
to be fair.... they do its called a degree in criminal justice and all of your rants are covered. (including good diet)
Speaking of which...he's acting to take that story out of publication. Not a recall of previous copies, just no new ones.
Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball.
I'd say its about damn time, that thing was a floating hunk of junk with outdated technology.
----
Striving to put right what once went wrong, and hoping each time that his next leap, will be the leap ho
I agree. It's disgusting that this could happen in Canada--I could only visualize it happening in Salem, home of the Witch Trial...
hmmm, though I agree that most of NH are idiots and this is totally freedom of speech, I can't figure out why the cops don't just get the kid back by nailing him for copyright violations. They should just sue the kid for stealing the images and text and be done with it instead of looking dumb and wasting time.
Oh, they're going to love me...
If it makes you sick, stop looking at it. I bet that won't stop them from looking at my site when I get the Salem PD rant up, though.
-Legion
I just skimmed through Kaplan's decision again, and you're right - I overlooked the fact that Kaplan was judging the constitutionality of the DMCA. Kaplan decided that source code is no more free speech than a car key is. While I disagree with this idea, I think we need congress to validate the protection of source code as free speech - asking a judge, working from legal precedent, to make that leap may be asking too much.
I don't rule out the possibility that Kaplan was corrupt or biased. Certainly, he's a former attorney for the IP interests.
But I think it's too easy and too satisfying to write him off as corrupt because he ruled against us. We have to recognize that the ideas which prevail on the internet are not yet widely accepted by the ruling class. And I'm not sure how we're going to change that.
C'mon people, we're all ready to condemn the Salem Police for being over-sensistive computer illiterate goons but we don't even know what happened. The Boston.com article is short and leaves many details unanswered. Why don't we do some due diligence and wait until we know details of this case?
Sheesh, for a bunch of folks who spent their lives being misjudged you'd think we'd be a little more reasonable...
Wow. My thanks for this - I had not heard a word of it. It is a compelling and shocking tale. It doesn't look like he was even a violent kid. It says he "enjoyed being different," but hells, I enjoy being different (though not radically so, I suppose), and nobody at my school mistakes me for the potentially violent type. I really have to wonder about places where this sort of thing can take place. That sounds like - and no offense intended here - a rather screwed-up community. The paranoia and overreaction is mystifying.
How can this happen? It's digusting.
Also distubing is the group of bullies who were apparently harassing this poor guy. Had they nothing better to do than spend their time poisoning his pets, egging his house, vandalizing his family's cars? This is really disgusting, and I'm surprised it hasn't gotten more press.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
I think we should all take a look at Salem PD's website so we all know what's too sacred to parody. ;)
If you disagree then it must be overrated, redundant or trolling.
Another is that he can't read "any written material that mentions bombs or weapons."
I guess the paper's out, then...
I've been following this story, over the radio, mostly. I'd never read his story before (thanks, Dragon). It's so innocuous. The main character doesn't even blow up the school! The ending is left open.
I'm embarrassed that this is happening is Canada. But I think the kid will get off, and the cops and crown will have a lot of questions to answer.
It's inconceivable that this kid had to spend a month -- his birthday, Christmas and New Year's -- in jail for something that he wrote.
JohnnyB - johnbowman.net
Looks like the only law this kid broke was 'contempt of cop'..
The net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it. -- John Gilmore
Not porno, not obscene language, but the simple right to challenge the government without fear of the police knocking down your door.
I'm not one who often says lawsuits are any sort of answer to a problem, but I've seldom seen a lawsuit with as much basis for one as I see here. This department needs to be taught a serious lesson about the constitution of the USA!
Click here to read too much about my personal life
I'm currently experiencing this from the other side. I work for the computer services dpeartment for the school district in my town, I'm also in charge of the website. I have been told by people higher then me that i'm not allowed to mention or even link to the districts website from my own personal site, and that teachers may NOT have thier own websites for the classes that they teach unless they are on our servers. I totally disagree with this and Im trying to talk to the people who made these decisions. Some teachers were told to take down thier pages or risk losing thier jobs. The administration in this case is relying to the advice of a lawer who says teh school can be held accountable for something on pages with links to our site, or even for mentioning the district. I don't think it's really the administration's fault, they are just listing to the advice of thier lawers.
Yeah, That's exactly what I was told, along with a few other rules that make no sence to me. For example, I'm told that I can't use real pictures of any of our students, but yet I'm told to post the school's news letters on the site, compleete with pictures of students. I can't use any pictures of the inside of the school that show the hallway layout because they could be used by people planning on bombing or shooting. Feel free to link to us, http://www.lebanon.k12.pa.us
http://www.lebanon.k12.pa.us
I'm sooo sorry about that link from my private site :) I was young and stupid, and havn't updated that site in many years, hehehe. thank you for posting my story btw.
It's more than that. If he posted an obscene website about, say, you, do you think he'd have the police all over him? Since the site was taken down, I can't make a call about whether or not it was obscene, but I think a parody site would automatically fall under "literary value", and depending on how it's laid out, "political value". But, you are right, there's no way to tell until we actually get to see the page, and since the goverment censored it, we can't. But that's another thing at stake here, isn't it? I for one don't want the police telling me what I can and can't put on my web site. And tell me: how could he have gotten charged with "misuse of computer system information"? The computer was only the distrubuition medium. And I'm not even sure why the article mentions the books on hacking, either. They have nothing to do with the case; they might as well tell us what color his shoes are.
-The Tempest
I hope he sues the ass off the cops. They violated his civil rights by arresting him and seizing his equipment without adequate justification. (Parody cannot be an "unauthorized use," BTW. If it is, then the statute quoted above is unconstitutional, since it violates the 1st Amendment.)
DAILY ROTATION
I got my site shut down by my school for criticizing it and my town. Well that and the fact that some asshole decided to post columbine-esque death threats on it. Threats which they of course attributed to me due to the critical commments I made on my site, my general anti-social behavior, and style of dress.
I came very close to the cops arresting me, my school expelling me, and having my house searched. Luckily I just got put in a police report (and car for a while).
Well, at least i got my site back up, and those fuckers are just going to have to deal with it.
----------------------------------
I didn't know that! Please elaborate further. I DO know that Jello Biafra is a money grubbing whore now though.
----------------------------------
Yeah. Right. You and I are going to take on the gub'ment with our shotguns and hunting rifles. Wee-haw, Billy Bob. Here's the plan: you take on the tanks, the missiles, the bombers, the fighter jets, the army, the navy, and the marines; I'll handle PR.
If a corporation is a personhood, is owning stock slavery?
;-)
psxndc
The emacs religion: to be saved, control excess.
Sounds like he just ran their page through a script and happened to have a couple books lying around his place. Maybe slightly suspicious. But nothing for which to arrest him. They must not have any REAL criminals running around.
Now those police. They're the ones that need a spanking. Their website promotes the free distribution of music. With our law enforcement officers setting such a poor example for the citizens and children, how can we expect those same people to respect the law when it comes knocking at their door?
Withdrawal before climax is very ineffective and those who try this are usually called "parents."
This is a republic. If you don't like something, you *change* it. /.r mentioned, it seems the people of Salem NH already did. Seems like their community standards may not be what you think they are.
One of the steps in changing something is discussing what you'd like to change in a public forum. Like this one. Those discussions are bound to include some hyperbole. The Supreme Court is not the ultimate arbiter of legality, believe it or not; it certainly isn't the final arbiter of morality.
Another step is electing public officials who agree with you, which, as another
Finally, Community only has one 't'. That's 't' for Troll.
Given that there's nowhere better to go than the US, IMHO. and in the US there's no better state than NH (freedom-wise), You must stay and change the law. Or ignore it. As I try to parse your response I am unclear what it is you mean exactly. If you mean that those who agree that this kid broke the law (an did something immoral) shouldn't have to move to get away from his threats, well, yes and no. You don't have any right not to be annoyed, or ought not to. You do have a right not to be threatened into changing your legal behavior by credible threat of force. I just don't buy that this is a credible threat of force. Not that the kid should not be punished. Apply spanking/ whupping/ sweedish lecture/ time out as your parenting philosophy demands.
Yes, you are wrong. A federal agency or department may not (there may be exceptions, but in general) hold a copyright, but states (or counties, etc.) may, unless the state in question has a law prohibiting it.
I noticed you mentioned The Hacker Crackdown. It is an excellent book that everyone should read. EFF has an online version in numerous formats. I first read it a year or so ago from that site, and I've read it numerous times since. The cops pull the same tatics every single time. It's amazing how many parallels there are between operation Sundown and, say, DeCSS.
Jordan Bettis
``Wherever you go, there's another stupid sigfile quote.''yeah this is the link to the wrong city's website, just letting you know, it happened in salem, NH, not salem, Mass. a bugg
So far, none of the people who posted "burn the police" messages have seen the site. May be he cracked into PBA site and stole policemen's home addresses and posted them, for all we know?
Stop being so trigger-happy and ganging up on people who every day risk their lives to make sure you can rant safely.
Oh, and anyone ranting about "lack of freedom in USA" is more than welcome to try living on other country. I did my 17-year stint in USSR. Unlike most of the yellers, I have some basis for making a judgement, and it isn't "USA is a police state".
-DVK
"The right to figure things out for yourself is the only true freedom everyone shares. Go use it"-R.A.Heinlein
For want of anything else to do, I sent the link to the Putnam Pit
The editor, Geoff Davidian has been waging a one man war against local government corruption in his home town in Putnam County, Tennessee.
His style is outrageous enough that from time to time he has gotten some major publicity - and he has an international subscription list.
He is also sponsoring a project involving student journalists and investigative reporting. I'd be more definite, but it has been a while since I read that article.
With a small amount of encouragement, he might take an interest in this issue.
When you are dancing with wolves, never limp
hahahaha! Someone mod this guy's post up, ASAP! Hahahaha!
According to Playboy, in NH you are least likely to be arrested for posession of small amounts of pot, since the state prefers to focus its policing budgets on things that actually matter, like the Mass-holes coming across the border to commit half the crime.
There are four boxes used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order.
They want people to post lots of comments and watch those banners fly by. Andover must be scrambling for their defense fund now. Its quite clear that everyone here hates banners, imagine what rob would say if everyone filtered /. banners.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
How about I mirror your social security number, address, credit card numbers, phone numbers, isp passwords and just about everything else. Just remember, information wants to be free (unless its about you).
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Someone will have to step forward and call it art. Thats what happens in these obscene art trials, as long as they find one person who calls it art its not obscene.
Only the State obtains its revenue by coercion. - Murray Rothbard
Write this guy, his brother is a cop there. Tell him how much you love censorship. Domain Name: SALEMPOLICE.ORG Administrative Contact, Technical Contact, Billing Contact: Peddle, Brian (BP8222) bpeddle@MASSCREATIONS.COM Mass Creations PO BOX 80131 Stoneham , MA 02180 781-279-2841 The project was coordinated by Officer Ron Peddle http://www.salempolice.org/About%20The%20Salem%20P olice%20Benevolent.htm
I think you underestimate the impact of a public apology. Public institutions rarely admit that they are wrong. The catholic church has yet to apologize for the Crusades. If they issued an apology, and the next year got caught up in another similar scandal, more drastic measures would be called for. Even then, there would be specific persons resposible, and they should be canned.
Perhaps $1000 is not the right amount. But some reasonable number should be used. Throwing around punitive damages in the millions is silly and destructive. There is no way anything over 10 G's would be fair.
-Brian
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
One of the other problems with this country is our propensity for frivalous and excessive lawsuits. I think he should sue for cost of his equipment if ruined, maybe $1000 for lost data, and a public apology from the police department. -Brian
"Faith strikes me as intellectual laziness." -Robert A. Heinlen
Freedom: "I won't!"
Actually, if the site was constructed primarily to make fun of the police department (which the article implies, had you bothered to read it), and not as a porn site, then it does not necessarily appeal to the prurient interests. It might still be slanderous, but that is a different issue.
Before you jump down people's throats over details, you should check some yourself...
The world won't end in darkness, it'll end in family fun, with Coca-cola clouds behind a Big Mac sun.
The short story that the link points to is clearly not the whole story. The cops have some kind of vendetta against this guys, and I doubt that it started with these websites. My money says that this guy has been antagonistic in other ways as well. Good for him, as far as I am concerned. Now, after the ACLU gets done, he will have almost certainly gotten rid of some of those cops.
Jaeger
www.JohnQHacker.com
GodHatesCalvinists.com
The porn were pictures of a girl being fisted.
You can buy that in a magazine, It wasn't child porn, and will odd, disturbing, or otherwise, it wasn't legally obscene. The site itself wasn't even a main site, unless it had become that in the last month. His main site is down, and his phone number now comes up as disconnected. I know Hemmah personally, and he is being railroaded.
~Shaughn
shaughn_shea@student.uml.edu
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
t H2K I met up with a couple locals to my area. Young hackers, my age 18-20, and I get to know them well. I even spent time with them in the past several months, including having hung out at their house. If anyone here has read /. lately, you've also heard of my friend,
Christopher Hemmah. He's a good guy, and a decent student, also going to UML with me, and he's being railroaded.
Any New Englander knows the trouble with small town cops, but
I think this here is a good place to make a stand.
Chris had a traffic incident where he was cut off, flipped the guy off,
and the guy road raged, and stopped in front of Chris and tried to pull Chris out of the car. This was in broad daylight in at a intersection near a strip mall.
He ended up getting charged with whatever the legal term is for junopinciting an incident. I believe charges were dropped, but he was insulted. So he parodied the Salem, NH police department.
PARODIED.
Protected Speech.
It also included the general errata of typical overrun of the mill with some porn, fisting if I remember correctly, he thinks that is ridiculously funny, which is stupid, but not illegal.
He's been arrested for that website, citing it obscene or some such nonsense by the same police department he parodied.
I'm freaked.
Their main site (www.evilcomputing.net) is down, and their phone number has been disconnected.
I'm extremely disadvantaged as this is the semester break, which pulls me 50 miles away from civilization, and that my ISP has recently gone chapter 11. I need help on this one. This isn't a case of kiddie hacking, its a case of free speech rights being outright pissed on.
I want to organise a protest, but I'm having trouble making contacts. My a group that never sleeps is so silent on the weekend I will never figure out.
You know me, I've been with you guys since 95. I've always been a voice of reason, and rarely one to side with the bleeding heart liberals. I busted my ass working goon squad at h2k, and anyone I've ever dealt with knows I'm true to myself and my words.
But I'm clawing at the air right now, news just hit me, and I'm still a bit stunned.
This is bullshit, though.
Serious bullshit.
And I need help.
Or sooner or later we'll all need help, and they'll be noone left.
~Shaughn Shea
(Lookout/Padre/Shady)
Shaughn_Shea@student.uml.edu
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
No, his phone's been disconnected since the date. I last know it worked last week. Also, Christopher Hemmah has supposedly been released, and his roommate, and designer of the site in question, Jon Canty is under arrest. This however has not been confirmed. More to come... ~Shaughn Shea Shaughn_Shea@student.uml.edu
The reasonable man adapts himself to the world; the unreasonable one persists in trying to adapt the world to
Fair Use, Parody
They were burned in Europe.
Actually, though IANAL it clearly states that:
It shall be an affirmative defense to a prosecution for unauthorized access to a computer system that:
(a) The person reasonably believed that the owner of the computer system, or a person empowered to license access thereto, had authorized him to access; or
(b) The person reasonably believed that the owner of the computer system, or a person empowered to license access thereto, would have authorized him to access without payment of any consideration; or
(c) The person reasonably could not have known that his access was unauthorized.
Since the images and indeed the code for the website are published and freely available, therefore set up for anyone to access, he cannot have been guilty of unauthorized access. Thank you for playing.
Actually, according to this article, The Salem Police have a habit of keeping equipment which has been used as evidence and using it for their own purposes. The rules for seizure of property, mostly enacted to fund the drug war, allow the police to immediately seize and even sell property prior to any trial. If you are found innocent, good luck trying to get your stuff. "Suspicion" of crime is enough for you to lose everything.
They probably did the Pope, too, but the famous case was Jerry Falwell screwing his mother in an outhouse.
Officers were able to track down the company that hosted the sites and discovered the people who produced them did so with a fraudulent application. Because of that, the sites were shut down Friday, Capt. Gould said.
Now, now, just because it is Microsoft Frontpage does not make it fraudulent...
Please check the moderation rules again.
While very few at slashdot agree with this AC's opinion, it is VALID and ON-TOPIC. Just because people are going to flame him for it neither makes it FLAMEBAIT or TROLL MEAT.
By modding it down due to personal feelings, you let the world know you SUPPORT this guy. Why? You are punishing people for using their freedom of speech, just like this guy advocates.
Think about it.
If you could be told what you can see or read, then it follows that you could be told what to say or think - BoC
Look at http://www.c0re.net. This web site is run by students at a high school in New Hampshire, and they put a disclaimer on the web site to emphasize that the site is not meant to be taken seriously. Maybe the person from Salem needs to do the same. But, not having seen the site, I can't say - he might be advocating to kill police like our recent lawmaker, Tom Alciere.
Only those who dream can grasp reality.
it seems like there are more and more problems with the freedom of speech and the fine line of what is obscene or not. my question is.. is the problem with his site because its obescene (therfore qualified under a pr0n and violence site) or is this site obscene because it makes fun of another company/site/group? it just seems that the public is becoming more sensitive to hate-sites (not necessarily racial or sexual sites).. an example.. microsofts FUD sites.
the perfect world is a world without lag. a world without lag is a world without people
The police arrested him for simply mocking them? I can see why he might have mocked them in the first place then.
I'll make a concerted effort to use it in normal conversion.
--
Dyolf Knip
- i won't pretend to ba a lawyer, but I from what i've read (Sex,Laws and Cyberspace p 17) in is that in part c) of the Miller test the burden of proof is -reversed- the state doesn't have to prove the work lacks merit, to beat the claim you have to prove that the work has merit. however this part of the test is under a universal "reasnoable person" standard rather than the "community standard" that applies to parts a) and b) -from what I did read on the article however it looks like the magizine could be just using "obscene" as a catch all term for adult content, which is diffrent from it's legal definition.
Good for the poster to check out this story and do a little follow-up. Sounds like good journalistic work. The Slashdot editors should take a note from this, so they can do they work instead of the readers. (But the readers are the reporters! Argh!)
Hi AFAIK, there are much more _noncommunist_ police states...
__
L.
The logo is somehow appropriate...
Flame away, Eric
This sort of thing has always happened in declining societies. Police organizations always deteriorate into the core belief systems that they recruit from. The deliberate wooing of the "thug" element as a source of new personnel is nothing new. Now they have a sympathetic administration entering the highest office in the nation, this will become much more common. Policing the opinions of individuals is always the priority whether or not real offenses occur. Organizations like Earth First! and NORML have never experienced a time when they're not under political scrutiny. They have been arrested, bombed, publically sabotaged in the corporate media, and prosecuted under vague legal definitions of constitutionally questionable laws written by and for the wealthiest (and therefore most powerful) 10% of our population. If you criticize or question too much, you will be shut down, if not legally, then socially and/or economically. Making fun of authority figures has always been a tradition in this nation, and one we might have to get used to doing without. GWB will only make the police more powerful in these endeavors. The best thing to do is to make more noise than they can deal with. And then keep yer head down.
-- Defenestrate Microsoft!
>anons aren't all bad.
:-)
You're right, but the ones that post fake links are
Yep. It was at Black's Beach in San Diego. By the way, I want to make crystal clear that this was a bad bust. My friend is a gay 54-year-old middle class white guy who would never in his life do such a thing. He's still trying to puzzle out what the cop's motive was. The best he can think is that the cop was a long distance away (not the 10 feet he claimed) and saw something that he mistook for the 'crime', although my friend can't think what it might have been. He was sitting on a rock reading a book for quite some time before the cop roared up in his beach SUV and started yelling at him. I told him he should go back to court to get a declaration of 'factually innocent' which would seal his records on this incident, but I think he's had his fill of dealing with the law.
According to the article, the information he's being charged with 'misusing' is from the Salem Police Benevolent Association website. To sum up my interpretation of what happened:
1. Kid gets ticked off at the cops.
2. Kid creates possibly-offensive website mocking said cops, lifting information from a cop-associated website as part of his efforts.
3. Cops are righteously pissed off, decide to make an example of him, and launch an investigation.
4. Cops come up with a charge of misuse of computer info.
Not knowing NH law, I don't know whether this law is being correctly applied or is even constitutional. What I do know is that if you're going to 'moon the giant' be ready for the problems that ensue. (My instinctive reaction of this is that the fuzz is going to have some problems making this stick, but perhaps that wasn't the goal. Maybe it was just to roust the kid and force him and his parents to spend thousands defending themselves as punishment.)
Of course you can't drown witches; they float. That's why they weigh the same as a duck, remember?
Bugrit! Millenium hand and shrimp!
Our first thought is that this is a worthless, mindless case that is a perfect of example of why our legal system is so backed up.
But keep in mind that the police probably did SOME homework before suing this kid. I imagine it took a lot of paperwork on the police side just to hire a lawyer and get a case drawn up.
Parody = humor = legal, but if this kid used the names of actual officers, pasted heads on naked bodies, etc etc, we are talking SLANDER. That's different than parody, and is a good enough reason to sue. It's correctly pointed out above that obscenity does NOT fall under a "parody" heading in the legal system of the USA.
------
Let me give you the lowdown
Because there is no such thing as "obscene". If some asshole is offended by something then GO THE FUCK AWAY!. Yeah, there's shit that I don't want to view, guess what, I DON'T! I will post, or view whatever the fuck I want to; and strongly encourage the use of any means necessary against anyone who would take a site down for any reason. I dream of being able to mirror everything that anyone would want supressed, from pr0n to the root password on the NSA server(s). Information, or data cannot be "bad" or "good"- only accurate ir inaccurate.
"Everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts."
>> Authorities in Salem have been known to burn people they dont agree with
They never burned anyone. They hanged a lot of people though.
- MFN
"Slow down, Cowboy! It has been 3 years, 7 months and 26 days since you last successfully posted a comment."
If `Obscene' is a specific legal term, and the Police described his website as Obscene, could the statement be libel?
but it was rejected. I figured it had all the earmarks of a classic /. story: misunderstood and bullied high school geek, censorship, etc. I mean, stories were being accepted about students who got suspended and here is a guy who was put in jail for thirty days for a creative writing class assignment!
Respectfully, David Tallan
Noooo... They float because they're made of wood! That's why you burn them.
Go find one and I'll move there... Make sure there isn't an active volcano on it, make it reasonably warm... No ugly tidal waves or hurricanes... a decent amount of space... Aaaand... I suppose we're gonna need solar/wave/wind power to keep things running... and what about bandwidth? We NEED bandwidth. Any ideas?
Wellllll... If it ain't geeky enough for Slashdot, but it's something to do with society, submit it to Kuro5hin. (Is that where I read the story about the kid in Canada; probably the same one?)
he was kicked out of the state for printing on his website what he thought to be the truth. if this guy doesn't have the money to afford a very good attorney, he will most likely end up doing hard time and losing all his computer equipment.
-- Boston Globe
So... how much do you want to bet they found O'Reilly books at his house???
Seriously though... this just goes on to prove the lack of experience/education various law authorities have with 'computer crimes'.
If one considers how much the FBI & Secret Service abuse ones rights, how can we expect local authorities to be any better?
We, as a technologicaly literate community have to educate both our representatives, authorities, and the public we live with.
To look down upon others, or assume they are fanatical or too uneducated to understand, is dangerous.
yet another $.02
p.s. where can I get those how-to books?
RE :Canada does have free speech. Just not absolute free speech.
Free speech either is, or isn't. Not "it's free speech until it annoys the government, at which point it is forbidden."
RE: Right to remain silent, reversed burden of proof. What legislation was that?
Bill C-68. I'm not opposed to gun control, but that legislation contains those provisions. First gun owners, who next?
RE: As for guns, they have never been an enshrined right in Canada.
So what?
RE: I will agree with you that Canada is becoming more of an authoritarian state,
That's all I'm trying to say. These Americans don't understand why the kid's being prosecuted, it's like "because there's provisions in their law to do whatever they want." Kiddie porn is legal in BC because some socialist activist judge doesn't have a problem with CDROMS of boys being physically and sexually abused, but a kid can't write a fictional essay without spending time in jail. BB is JC; and they've decided that's thoughtcrime.
RE: but I would point at other things than, "Them thar guvmint agents 're making me tell 'em I 'ave uh gun, Ma!"
I wasn't: I was talking about lack of freedom of speech, and an increasingly violent and powerful head of state.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
salemnhpolice.com
Registrant:
Richard Slade (rslade@n2.com)
66 Millhaven Dr.
Concord, NH 03301
US
salemnhpolice.org
Registrant:
s***
Jack raoch (rammstein1979@beer.com)
2marybellowsdrive
salem, nh 03079
US
Like when things involve windows, the immediate assumption is that the kid isn't guilty. You have no idea. He might. He might not be.
The Game Guy
Do you have any more info on that ruling? I might have to recite it some day...
How can a site protesting a government entity (police) be obscene by the Supreme Court's definitions? It can't be.
Why not? What makes parody and obscenity mutually exclusive?
Ranessin
Too bad you're a moron... Every communitty has standards, and the SC has already ruled on what is considered obscenity... Like it or not, that's the rule of the land and if you don't like it then GO THE FUCK AWAY!
Ranessin
That renders it legal by the Suprem Court's definition.
But if it violates other laws, such as obscenity laws, it's no longer protected. Again, being a parody does not mean it's not obscene.
Ranessin
And as citizens of this republic, we shouldn't have to go away to avoid something that violates the law as Tri0de suggested, though, now should we?
Ranessin
A satisfying thought, but neither stupidity nor error on the part of a law enforcement agent is generally criminal. To get a good conspiracy case going, you need to be able to show that they knew it was wrong and illegal and went ahead anyways, lied to get a warrant, or something of that sort.
I'm surprised they didn't start with a civil lawsuit or a cease and decist order. And I would be even more surprised if they have any case since it obviously sounds like a parody. Does the fact that it has to do with the police department cancel that out, or what?
Maybe the charge has something to do with using false information to set up the ISP account. If he used a bogus credit card, they have a case.
It is worrysome to see the words 'illegal website' used, though...
Viv
-----------
I Use Napster. I use DeCSS. I buy over $1000 a year in CD/DVDs.
Viv
Gmail invites for ip
i laughed when i read that, so i thought i'd tell you.
"Cornflakes are not the innocent critters they seem"- Sterling Morrison
You know how there's a virtual spectrum of knowledge and logic? And Einstein, Newton and Shakespeare are at one end of it? Well, the entire US police force is crammed at the other end. I wonder what the police academy is like... Elementary school all over again. Sheesh!
No, seriously, the US police needs a LOT of work. There are TONS of issues out there that haven't been addressed properly, like police brutality. But the police is part of the government, the government runs the country, the supreme court knows that, and there you go. If Farmer John -- officier specialized in pronouncing "y'all" with a special accent bend and who posseses a gun (a GUN!) -- comes to your house and succesfully identifies what would qualify as computer equipment, "he be takin' it" and you can cry about it, because Farmer John knows one thing: that he can get a warrant. Last time I heard of something like this, the cops confiscated 2 computers from a kid based on 2 entries in the Apache log file of a Web site that had been hacked.
Forget about Uncle Sam. Beware of a new specimen: Officier Farmer John! He be takin' shit...
--------------
--------------
$_='hfflbwfsbhfzp vs';s/(^.{4})(.{7 })(.+$)/$3 $2 $1/
The police came and arrested a kid who put up an obscene-laced website that was generally something like the anti-e/n fly-by-night websites. He called a school official the town drunk, several cheerleaders "sluts".
0 &a mp;0 006210142
http://www.desnews.com/cgi-bin/libstory_reg?dn0
There are plenty of witches in Salem Mass, thanks to the modern pagan movement, and the ones killed in the 1600's were christians _hanged, not burned_ by their own wackos with too much political power. Bloody puritans are still ruining freedom in this country...
O~ Him that studies revenge keeps his own wounds green. -- Francis Bacon
But you're missing one thing... the US is not Turkey.
Of course, and I highly suspect it, I may be talking out of my ass. -oqti
You can tell, with the kind of journalistic ethics they have here. If we had a few more keywords we might be able to find the page cached on Google.
Smoke a swan, smoke a fish, smoke a Swanson's fish dinner.
It's a good thing that I don't get tossed into jail each time I mocked a cop. :)
I'm guessing this guy had a good basis for mocking the local police; I would be interested in seeing his side of the story.
Also, totally unrelated: Could you also get "one free email/post to slashdot" with your "one free phone call"? Someday, I'm betting. heh
One of the obscene Web sites took information from the Salem Police Benevolent Association site and parodied it by changing words and downloading pictures from the site, police said. A second site mentioned the department and had random pornographic pictures attached to it, they said. I don't see as how a parody can be seen as obscene. Isn't there some law protecting people's rights to create parodies? As for the pornographic part -- unless there is some objectionable material that violates state law (ie. kiddie porn) how do they expect this to stand up in court?
What???
They say he had "7 computers" and a "hackers manuel",From the article:
He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony
sounds more like illegal police behavior, a felony?
Actually, he could say that the police kill small children. It just has to be obviously satirical.
The standards for libel/slander againsta a public official are extremely high. No public officer has won a libel suit in a couple decades. This is just plain silly. Even if the website is 'obscene' this is a pretty clear case of selective prosecution.
Surveys have indicated that 85% of police officers think perjury is OK. Additionally, American police enjoy a remarkably tiny amount of oversight - any attempt to monitor their actions or keep them honest is shot down as 'anti-cop'.
If no witches were burned in Salem, MA then why do neo pagans constantly refer to "the Burning Times"?
I've got the servers and the bandwidth! start up your favorite text editor, or, if you so desire, some wysiwig editor...
"Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear?" - Bad Religion
I was almost expelled from high school my senior year for writing a simple play about a student shooting the principal in the head. I even had to go to a psychiatrist who told me to get out of his office because the visit was a waste of our time. Schools have way too much power to do shit like that, at least in NY.
"Why do you consent to live in ignorance and fear?" - Bad Religion
Maybe I should rewrite Swift's A Modest Proposal aimed at the PDs and suggest that they start selling low income children for food. That ought to make them really happy.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
The Salem, New Hampshire police evidently aren't just stupid--they're incompetent, too.
Think about it: it took them a month to figure out that the guy had parodied their site. An entire month of investigation. Kinda makes you think these bozos might just deserve some parody, wouldn't you think?
Icompetent? Maybe. Or maybe they just knew that this kid will never be convicted of any crime, so they decided to push him around for a month.
It just seems impossible for people to be that stupid. On the other hand, I've learned long ago not to underestimate human stupidity.
Did no one else find this funny?
.
Mod him up, boys!
ahem. and girls of course.
~matt~
0
o
><>
"So there he is, risen from the dead. Like that fella, E. T." - Father Ted Crilly
The ACLU and EFF must act now to stop this obscene act by the police and government of New Hampshire from stopping political speech. No matter how offensive this is the kind of speech that the first amendment protects against.
Will the last company to abandon Linux please turn off the lights??!
Question one: how did this website appear on the police department's radar? As a rule, an organization does not seek out its detractors and attempt to squelch them. Question two: What steps did the police take BEFORE they seized property? I have no doubt that a random judge would be easily persuaded to give a warrant for evidence, but for "slanderous material" the evidence is already in public view. This is akin to seizing the printing press used to make a mocking poster plastered on a billboard. The argument that they discourage further abuse in this manner by depriving the "hacker" of his property would seem to pale beside the implications of a civil suit. Question 3: this kind of thing doesn't happen alone. Does the "hacker" have any priors with Salem's Finest? Then again...I wonder if we'll ever hear anything more about this. The media generally just likes the outrage of police squelching people. They get bored with it soon enough, and forget to report the outcome.
Here in the Ft Worth Texas school I went to, the bill of rights wasn't in my social studies book, and the teachers I had didn't know what the 1st and 2nd amendments were. I had to go on the net to find a copy of the Consititution because our libary didnt have a copy either.
I'm tempted to do this myself. Let them come to Raleigh, NC and play gestapo with me.
Anyone have a mirror of the site in question?
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
It seems they forgot about the 1st amendment (sady so did other people in high up places here :(.
Prison/jail is not a joke, and with the
horrors that goes on in prisons around the
nation daily (rape,
beatings among other things), this person
they arrested could wind up becomming scarred
for life, or worse. And all for posting something
that they considered "obscene". Even worse, it
seems harder and harder everyday for people
to stay out of these man made hell holes.
Seriously? Post the URL or email it to me. I'll make sure to link it from my offensive site.
Well...my site's not offensive yet, but I will sauce it up some just to piss in their cornflakes.
Salem, NH is on the Massacussetts border near Boston. A lot of computer businesses, stores and outlets are located in Salem to take advantage of NH's lack of a sales tax and draw most of their customers from the Boston area. Those businesses and the Salem, NH Chamber of Commerce might be interested to hear how outraged computer people (a.k.a customers) are about this.
Greater Salem Chamber of Commerce
List of online Salem, NH businesses
Salem's only chance of prosecuting this guy is that obscenity law, anyway. With the sites being parodies, they can't try using copyright laws to prosecute the kid.
In my high school, one student had a "Fan Club" site for one of the teachers, that wasn't anything like a fan club. In the end, the school pressured him to take it down, but nothing _legally_ was ever done about it.
They must be getting bored in Salem, with all those witches extinct now....
It is all free speech, the student in question was given an assignment to write a story. He did that, and for that was incarcerated. so remember folks *don't* do your homework, you'll get arrested. Just because he happened to write the story a little too well, and make it entirely too believeable (read also is a good writer, could possibly have become the next great name in literature) he should be chastised for this. Come on, give me a break, if you think suddenly your a target for the police?? this is a return to the witch hunts of old, both those of the americas and those in europe, for the simple fact that people who *questioned* the word of the establishment were tortured and put to death.. for the simple crime my friends, of thinking.. beware, you ARE next..you think, and are not sheep..:/
.sig under construction
Police/Government censor people by harrasing and arresting people that don't follow their orders and act as blind sheep. The government is slowly chipping away our rights. Look at the attacks on the 2nd Amendment, this attack on the 1st Amendment, etc. Of course, they have already done away with the 10th Amendment...
So climate's changing. So what? It has always changed. The big news would be if it wasn't changing. - Dr. Philip Stone
or just make a large pile of $ and buy one.
OH MY GOD!!! Books on hacking,etc. When I was a kid I had books on weapons making(like bows and arrows), and magazines on wepons, martioal arts,etc. I've got all sorts of shit on my computer now. My how times have changed, when you can't even own a book anymore. It's getting hot around here, about Farenheit 451
Damnit, Jim, I'm an anarchist, not a F@#$!^& doctor!
I was under the impression that a goverment agency or department couldn't copyright something??? Am I wrong? Aaron
Well, after reading this and reviewing the trials of my own scholastic career, I can only conclude that I'm glad I didn't grow up in the post-Columbine era. I figure from the reports I've been reading that I'd have been expelled or suspended a couple of times for things I did back in the 80s that only got caused teachers to tell me to apologize or at the most got me detention (of the after school kind).
"We sat and watched...as the Moon rose...for the very first time" - "The Carnaval is Over", Dead Can Dance
My full rant on this ever-growing trend is available at http://www.thisistrue.com/zt.html -- It's must reading if you have school-aged kids, but don't read it if you're easily depressed....
While I think the police were wrong in this matter, I really don't think this cop-bashing is warranted. Police put their lives on the line every single day to protect people like you from other people who would like nothing more than to come into your house, rape your daughter, steal your TV, and shoot you in the face. Let's at least try not to hate them for it.
Not so much a witch hunt. they found him. It is down to the courts procedure now. its just a matter of throwing him in the water and seeing if he floats, which makes him a witch, if he sinks, he's got away with it! Damn right cops should go to school! Keep them behind too!
Damn straight.
Well, there's plenty of silicon there...
== Just my opinion(s)
Actually, they can only legally keep the equipment if he they deem the equipment was used to commit a felony. Which is slightly bogus; even if you plea bargain your way to a misdemeanor, they still keep it.
I suspect they'll delay the court hearings as long as possible so that by the time he is cleared and the red tape involved to get his computers bact is done, they will be useful only as novelty paperweights. Just to be sure, they'll drop them a few times carrying them to storage.
(I never actually saw him commit any violent act, not even uttering a cuss word - to this day, though, those images remain disturbing).
He's probably pulling in a nice paycheck doing makeup/effects for hooror movies now.
The problem here is that person with the proper training to understand ISP logs probably is just a qualified system administrator. Why would such a person work in the police? Sysadminning would pay much more. That's the basic problem for police - they are expected to be experts in every field, but the real expert would never go work as a cop.
In fact, they just have to hire a couple of highly qualified programmers/sysadmins as the part of their criminal research labs - as they have people who match fingerprints, determine that the month-old body was dead from suffocation, etc. That's the only, even if costy, solution - traning cops won't do you good, you cannot make cop to be an university professor - if he was, he'd work in university anyway. Cops should know criminal law and due legal procedures (warrants, etc.), and technical points should go to the exerts.
-- Si hoc legere scis nimium eruditionis habes.
Remember, he said they didn't care to follow the rules when they went after criminals- "they were criminals, right?" What is to say they would follow the rules when dealing with him if they knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that he ratted on them? Nothing. While I'm going to take what he's saing with more than a grain of salt, I'm not going to question the anyominity- it's valid, I'm afraid.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
AFAIK, you can say lies... well, as long as you believe they are true. If you truly believe the local police to be killing babies, you are protected by free speach, AFAIK.
I could not justify my existence if I were a turkey farmer. Would I terminate myself? Undoubtably, yes.
Anyone wanna bet those seven books included Firewalls and Internet Security? Surely anyone who has that must be a "hacker"!
--
Fuck the system? Nah, you might catch something.
So what if he did?
It might be rude or in bad taste, but it isn't a criminal act.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
From the article:
;) Anyone in salem wanna dig around? The only Hemmah's WHOIS turns up aren't in salem (on'e in fargo...)
"One of the obscene Web sites took information from the Salem Police Benevolent Association site and parodied it by changing words and downloading pictures from the site"
Remember the parody translation engine problems of late where companies sue people for providing jive and Sweedish Chef translations through screen-scraping? This is probably the same. Of course, the police site has no TOS that excludes screenscraping, but it does claim "all right reserved", so using (ahem) 'copyrighted' material is probably the tact they're taking--he's being charged for "misuse of computer system information," not slander or libel.
If he gets a half-assed decent attorny, 1A and fair use of information for purposed of parody should apply, nevertheless, especially since the article implys that he did not download the images from the website, just pointed to them.
It'd be a damn shame if an archive or wget extract of the offending sites got out to the general public.
Returned Peace Corps IT Volunteer
Chris is a sophomore majoring in CS and is interested in security. He told me the "hacking materials" sized from his house were seven computers and computer parts, a Linux manual, some security books, and a GPS. He was officially charged with a NH law regarding electronic copyright infringement, not with hacking, and has not been accused of libel.
I'm in direct contact with the family. Please e-mail me at morgan@druids.org if you'd like to help. I won't tell anyone else your name or e-mail, just e-mail you back when the family has requests for ways we can support them.
-magic
> I can't figure out why the cops don't just get the kid back by nailing him for copyright violations.
I'm surprised that they didn't "find" a baggie under his bed, and pack him off to the pen for 20 years.
--
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
...things like the phone book, a dictionary, and a bible, but no one ever comments on those books being there.
Since I'm betting at least two of those would be found in the homes of most criminals, we should put all of those on the list of subversive literature, and promptly jail anyone who has more than one in their posession.
Will this be 2600's next bumper-sticker campaign?
sup
As a matter of fact, it hit kuro5hin six minutes before I hit "submit" on my submission. Followed the story for about a day beforehand; I forget how I first ran across it. Drudge Report, perhaps. Had a good argument with a SlashNET regular about whether the kid deserved jail or not.
I'm tempted to write letters.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
I'm embarrassed that this is happening is Canada. But I think the kid will get off, and the cops and crown will have a lot of questions to answer.
It's inconceivable that this kid had to spend a month -- his birthday, Christmas and New Year's -- in jail for something that he wrote.
You know what really rips my ass about this? Over a month ago, the police didn't give a flying shit about the bullies, even though the kid came home bloody. Now that the story's in the open, suddenly they say they're going to "investigate." Excuse my francais here, but what a pile of fucking bullshit. I guess the poor kid should have just gone and smacked a grade 10 with a limp around; he'd have gotten in less trouble for doing worse. I mean, come on here! Eleven - eleven! - children (and that's exactly what the cowards are) beat a guy bloody, and get off scot-free as long as no one outside of town hears about it. Kid writes a story born out of that incident, and he goes to jail????? Can you say "fucked-up priorities"? Not only do I hope the kid gets off, but I also hope the school, police, and Crown attorney get an embarassing, expensive civil suit slapped against them. The kid could surely win.
People who complain about society "being in trouble" and kids "getting worse" should look no farther than schools and authorities that let "a bit of boys being boys" get by, while a kid who writes about his frustration rather than acting on it gets locked away for fear he might "go postal." What bullshit.
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
Of course, police love to do things like this to people they know won't be convicted because the police know that his equipment will be seized.
A bit tricky to "call the cops" to arrest police. Also the likes of the FBI probably wouldn't be interested in handling a case of simple theft.
Won't happen, but legally it should. Cops are the "sacred cows" of America.
More likely that they are some of the American "sacred cows".
There is a difference. Police have to make up something to charge you with. Big corporations don't.
Maybe it's possible to arrange for the BSA to be sent after the police department in question. After all they would be in breach of the software licences if they made any use of the 7 computers they had "aquired".
But who do you send to arrest police? Who will prosecute a corrupt local judge? In fact, in most smaller states and areas, what lawyer will even DEFEND you from such?
That's one of the problems you run up against with a written constitution and no-one who's job is to enforce it.
You mean giving legal advice when paid to do so. Anyone can give anyone free advice. Of course, anything free is worth what you pay for it.
--
This was about 10 years ago - I remember a kid in my English class who would sit in the back, and basically draw. He tended to get good grades in the class, even though he didn't take notes and such. I once asked him what he was drawing (I could see he was drawing something, but that was it).
Big mistake.
He handed the paper to me, and on it was a cartoon character of his own design, of basically a guy hanging from a noose in a tree, but only the head in the noose. Below the head was a lifeless body, and a chainsaw nearby. Everything was "covered" in blood (he used a red pen for this). He pulled out other pages, and they were all variations on this theme...
I guess if then was today, he would be locked away in a padded room (I never actually saw him commit any violent act, not even uttering a cuss word - to this day, though, those images remain disturbing).
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
If I read this correctly, it seems as if you have never actually sat down and read an actual Playboy in your life! Had you actually done so you would have found:
* Interviews (with many interesting people)
* Advice Columns (where people ask and receive answers for a variety of things, such as sex advice, dating advice, advice on electronics purchases, etc)
* General articles on a variety of topics: Literacy, freedom, rights, current events, and many other items of interest
* And oh yeah, in the middle, about 20 pages of very tactful, and artfully done, nude imagery (no sex, very tastful)
This is Playboy! I constantly hear and see women scoffing about it, saying it is all porn, and that is all the men look at, but over 90 percent of the magazine has nothing to do with nude imagery. I would venture 80 percent has nothing to do with sex, either! There really is a lot of worthwhile reading in Playboy...
Had you have mentioned Hustler, or Club, or one of those other, lesser known magazine, I would be more inclined to agree (but hey, even Hustler has good articles). I am certain there are magazines out there that would shock the hell out of you (a trip to an adult "bookstore" can be a very enlightening thing), but Playboy should not fall into this category...
Worldcom - Generation Duh!
Reason is the Path to God - Anon
With Playboy, they covered themselves for years by offering articles, political commentary, in depth interviews, news and lifestyle trends, in addition to the pr0n. It saved them in a number of cases that made it to the supreme court.
Maxim, on the other hand, doesn't even come close. Lingerie shots and toys-for-boys advert^W reviews. They are just riding on the coattails of Playboy's long legal battle, but they haven't the cojones to do it right. (This also covers FHM and a dozen other lads mags in the UK)
the AC
Hemos is like...sci-fi fans;he thinks technology is cool, but he hasn't bothered to understand the science it's based on
When they came to my house they said they had to take all computer equipment. My response was "I hope you've got a truck." After 4 hours they gave up when they got to the third cupboard and found 40 IBM RLL harddrives. "Anything on these?" "Yer there's all sorts of incriminating.. errm, I mean, no, no there isn't." There was no "dont be smart son", they were too tired. When they opened a draw on my flatmate's desk and saw over 800 5 1/4 inch floppies they were ready to tear up their search warrent. After they finally left we put together a PC from parts in 25 minutes and grabbed the 14k4 modem that they hadn't taken because it was sitting near the c64's and didn't look like a modern modem. It took 8 months to get my computer back and 12 months to get all the computers back.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Admitably I am not in the US, I'm in Australia, but they took my computers for over 12 months and I wasnt even arrested. I wasn't even being investigated for a crime! They were gathering evidence on someone else. Why they had to take all my computers, modems, mice and monitors to copy my harddrive I don't know. If they ever show up at my door again I will pull out a few cd's and burn them an image of my harddrive. If they demand to take the computers I will eject them from my home and see them in court.
How we know is more important than what we know.
Surely the police had a warrent to raid his property, who issued the warrent? Is there anything you can do about judges who issue unjust search and siezure warrents in your country? I know there is nothing you can do in my country (Australia).
How we know is more important than what we know.
If you steal an apple from the grocery store, does that apple now become an "illegal apple"?
Maybe the wiccan community should be suing their police department for that "mocking" logo.
For the record: joking.
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
Pretty soon you're going to have to get licensed by the state to own multiple computers. The program will be sponsored by Microsoft, and will double as the "Home Computing Security Bureau" (read: Anti-Piracy division). Poor people, students and minorities need not apply unless you're willing to submit to background checks and keyboard logging.
It's fascinating how the FBI or local police can arrest anyone, and publish that they had "multiple computers" and it sounds like bona fide evidence that they commited a computer crime--when in fact the they arrested them because they knew the person had multiple computers, and thought they could squeeze a confession or a new suspect out of the poor sucker. Correlation does not imply causation.
Kinda takes all the fun out of showing your geek friends your phat new in-home wireless/wired broadband multimedia network when you're just creating character witnesses for your future prosecution. "Yeah, I was at his place once. 100Mbps switched network, mp3s... He probably did it."
I don't need large brains to have a good time.
Isn't that the state motto in New Hampshire?
He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony.
Once he's gotten that killed (which should be easy, since it appears they mistook downloading the site's HTML code for breaking in and stealing it), he should have a FINE and very lucrative civil rights suit.
"Denial of civil rights under color of law." In this case, his right to protected free speech, in the form of a parody of the public pronouncements of a government organization.
Sounds to me like EXACTLY what the federal civil rights law is about.
Soverign immunity won't protect the cops from a federal civil rights suit.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No, this is not the original site, or a mirror - this is procyon101's own parody page. It was created *after* the story hit slashdot, and it even links back to this slashdot story.
Again, this isn't what the original site looked like.
[gay sex cures acne!]
You'd be surprised.. Back as recently as the 90's, one of my local departments worked that way. If they seized a stolen bike they couldn't easily find owner for, the bike went home with the officer with the kid who needed one. Caught some high school kids with a 12 pack of Budweiser? Your fridge is stocked! Small amount of pot you're not going to charge over? Hmm, I wonder.. In their defense, they barely had the resources to keep two cars and a dispatcher going at a time, let alone hire the personel or space to inventory, store and sell the stuff, so I suppose it worked out for the underpaid cops.
.sig: Now legally binding!
Furthermore, public figures or organizations may be parodied. This is upheld by lots of case law. Remember the pope screwing his mother or something like that in a cartoon in Hustler? Larry Flynt's right to print that was upheld because no reasonable person would perceive it as anything other than parody (i.e. not the actual truth). The exact standard is a bit tricky, but the basic intention is pretty clear in the law. I don't care how vile or obscene this guy's website was, it was probably protected. Even copyright "infringement" doesn't exist in parody-land. Only if the guy was actively trying to deceive people about who he was could he actually face any consequences, but definitely not under the law they charged him with.
Slashdot comments section is IMO mostly for airing opinions, like "All lawyers should be shot." This is obviously not to be taken seriously, but has some merit...
However, it is best that we continue to remind each other IANAL, if appropriate. Point taken about journalistic integrity tho (now to dig up that Hooters link I missed...)
or it has to be true
Easy - cops don't sue you; they screw with you directly. They have way too much discretion to do whatever they want without facing consequences, apparently.
I hope that we won't start using Kaplan as a synonym for bad judges or bad judging. I read most of the transcripts and Kaplan was quite intelligent and had a much better grasp of the case than the lawyers for either side.
Kaplan was impressed by Turetsky's demonstration that code could be speech. In the end, Kaplan enforced the DMCA as written because the defenses Congress had allowed in the DMCA simply aren't usable in the real world.
The blame for Kaplan's judgement rests on Congress, which passed a terrible law. Kaplan did his job as a judge in interpreting the law.
By the time he's cleared, he'll rue the day when he tried to mess with the Salem Witch-Hunters (er, um, Police Department).
OOOOH, and salem-witch-hunters.{com,org,net} is available, too!
`ø,,ø!
Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
Say what? I'm not aware of any US jurisdiction in which this is the case. In most, if not all, of them, it is a crime to practice law (which would generally include giving legal advice of any kind) without a license, but no distinction is made as to whether the advice is correct. I can't imagine, though, that a general discussion of legal principles, as happened here, would rise to the level of legal advice. Heck, just look at Nolo Press.
If you are a licensed attorney, you're not likely to encounter criminal prosecution for giving bad advice, but you may well be sued.
OBTW, I am a lawyer, but I'm not your lawyer, and this isn't legal advice.
The purpose might just be pure intimidation.
This would warn other people about messging with them.
Large Corporations do it, why not some police?
Fight Spammers!
Why not? After all this is the year where the candidate with the majority of the votes got into power in Serbia and the candidate with a minority got into power in the US :)
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
How about we just mirror the site about 20x or 100x times over? And draw as much publicity to this as possible? Oh wait...we are already doing that :)
Seriously, though, I might be interested in mirroring this site on my webpage...besides the pr0n.
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
I am a little disappointed that there hasn't been as great of a reaction to this article. Have we all become so cynical in the United States that we accept politcal arrests by the police? I was expecting that this article would have at least as many responses as the WAVE program, or the MS vs. Slashdot articles (>1000).
Come on now people!!! Even if most of the Americans reading this are cynical fscks who care more about partying then about their freedoms, isn't their some people who really love their freedom, Serbians maybe, who are willing to raise some shit about this?
Hopefully I didn't put any [] around my words.
Besides the obvious witch hunt jokes, it should be noted that, as we haven't seen these sites yet, they could contain stuff that actually is obscene.
For example, he could be mocking specific police officers and their families for all we know. The artical mentions there was porn on some of the pages, that used info off their site.
Even though it was a parody, what sort of copyright issues are there in this case.
It's stated he had "how-to books on computer hacking". Can you get one of those for the linux kernel?:)
"There are bad people out there that will try to do bad things." - Microsoft 05/11/00
Here is how I believe things happened. ;)
... I'm goin ta jail -- Do not pass 'Go',
do not collect $200.00
.ph0x
Uh oh
You NEARLY caught me, before I realised the link had been posted by some Anon. coward loser, and so was going to be some other lame link instead.
The web pages at http://www.salempolice.org-- while purporting to represent the official Salem, New Hampshire, Police Dept.--actually are entitled, "Salem Police Benevolent Association," but with no postal or email address or telephone number for contact listed. Not only would it be difficult to understand how the pages or "computer system information" could be misused, it appears to be impossible to reach anyone who could give permission for any use whatsoever, even if that request were concluded legally necessary.
Some of the pages contain the bogus footer, "Copywrite 2000, Salem Police Benevolent Association. All Rights Reserved." If this is intended as a copyright notice, then it is invalid--"copyright" is not spelled correctly. (Although no notice and registration are required under current U.S. copyright law, notice and registration are required to collect damages and attorney fees for copyright infringement.)
Even if the notice were valid, much if not all of the content is clearly not copyrightable by this private police body. This page invites "free downloads" of music from the "Salempalooza CD"--no notice that copyright is owned by "The Skeptics" is given, in likely violation of this band's copyright generated at time of creation.
Furthermore, the page "Hollywood Heroes" is obviously itself in violation of numerous copyright claims by various owners of the photographs and trademarked names, as well as protected by the strong California publicity rights laws. Another page, "Police News" (said to be of 1999!) prints news purporting to be from the official Salem, N.H., Police Department, but lists no permission for this publication from the official body. The photographs and legends and pages at this site appear to be in violation of multiple laws. Depicting "heroes" in civilian clothes pointing guns is very much today in poor taste (especially considering the shootings recently just south, in Wakefield, Mass.!). But, also, for a group that claims to wish to reduce violence, it ignores the considerable local problem for police of profitable trade conducted by "legitimate" New Hampshire businesses selling such firearms to shoppers who then use the firearms on non-"Live Free or Die" citizens.
As far as the "obscenity" charge goes, the Salem, N.H. politicos and police have for many years tried to close down Moonlite Video, an "adult video" store--for "violation of community standards"--so far unsuccessfully. Apparently they feel a prosecution against a parody publication by a "hacker" will be more successful today. No doubt notorious rightwinger Rep. Sununu and his dad, the ex-N.H. governor and presidential aide from Salem, will have to weigh into this moral rights crusade, along with the largest area newspaper, the arch-conservative Lawrence (Mass.) Eagle-Tribune, and defend the righteous police against "hackers".
BTW, this "Salem" is the one in New Hampshire just north of the Massachusetts border, not the more famous Massachusetts town that was the scene of the witchcraft trials (while the alleged witchcraft activities in the 1600s took place in modern Danvers, north of Salem, Mass.).
Please, if anyone has saved the content of the offending web pages, let us know of links for mirrors--also, how to help in the defense.
-
-Be a man. Insult me without using an AC.
- I don't care if they globalize against free speech. All my best free thoughts are done in my head.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Someplace like Russia, for example.
"This site is being hosted in Russia because has more freedom than is commonly available in small town in US like Salem NH
I can also imagine that the satire would be ever so more viscious than something a teenager could come up with. The photo gallery offers some potential, for example.
Some things require a practiced hand to be done right.
heck maybe someplace like Kosovo.
Take your pick
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
Of course, police love to do things like this to people they know won't be convicted because the police know that his equipment will be seized. He will likely never see any of his 7 computers or "hacking books" ever again no matter what happens because it will be filed as evidence. Read "the hacker crackdown". Of course, that book would be "evidence" if you are ever raided.
So, uhh, even though I haven't touched an illicit substance since I left my previous career of sound and lighting for rock concerts, could my book, "Grow Yer Own Stone" be used against me?
Sheesh. I'd better get rid of those fluorescent light fixtures stacked in my closet - I bought them to put up in my garage, and just haven't gotten around to it yet.
Fire and Meat. Yummy.
There are two high schools in my district. A student in my high school's marching band put up a page mocking the rival school's marching band. It wasn't anything serious (at least from the view of someone else attending said school).
When the school found out about it, he was forced to take the web site down, and got in-school suspension for a week. Granted, we didn't think it was a big deal, but the administration thought it went too far.
It seems to me everyone is assuming that his site isn't, in fact, obscene without first hand knowledge about the site in question... Why is that? How did this even make it as a news item here? Why not wait till the facts are in before we start bitching about how his rights were infringed?
Ranessin
Looked for about an hour and finally found his site here: http://salemcops.tripod.com/
The kid may have just gotten some images from the Official site, and doctored them with photoshop, to (for example) portray police officials in an 'obscene' context.
Imagine this: The original picture shows the Commissioner bending down over a table, signing an ordinance. The retouched image has the mayor sodomizing the Comish.
Now, the images certainly are 'computer systems information'. The new graphic is arguably obscene. By showing something false, it is arguably 'misuse'...
Depending on how puritanical the courts that hear this, and whether or not the ACLU gets involved, the police will either lose this, or the kid will get a wrist slapping.
It's small town ignorance. The only reason it's even on
The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
Can't find the damn sites on the net anyhow. If there is harm, who, in the world, is being harm? The sites do not seem to be on the Net.
Perhaps these were web pages on his home intranet?
Once again, the legal community does not understand or tolerate the Net.
Ironic. Witchcraft was once punished in a similar manner. Zero understanding. Zero toleration.
"a nation where police scientists falsify lab tests"
One need look no further than Fred Zain, chief of the WV State police crime lab in WV.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
How can you possibly miscuse your OWN computer system? He isn't even accused of hacking anything. He used images from a government website for purposes of parody and political speech on his own site.
The real criminal here is everyone involved in handling his arrest and incarceration...
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
All the more reason to encrypt everything.
And now for an "obscene" statement about the Salem police:
Only a bunch of stupid ass corrupt motherfuckers would arrest a 19 year old for putting up an anti-cop website... In fact, the actions of the Salem police prove, in fact, that whatever allegations or basis he had for PUTTING up such a website have been PROVEN!!!!
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
You can't slander the government. Political speech is protected by the Constitution.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
You also forgot...
Dispatched 16 cop cars to the Interstate to clock speeders (revenue patrol)....
Woman murdered in Fayetteveille? Sent one cop there to investigate. Why, someone may get hurt that way.
The police are no more than tax collectors these days. Therefrore they deserve no more respect than the IRS.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Janet Reno is the MOST lawless attorney general ever. You forget, her "justice" department was the one that persecuted Bernie S. and Kevin Mitnick... Ashcroft would (if he holds true) laugh this out of court, and in fact, prosecute the real criminals, the Salem, NH police.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Not to worry, my anti-Reno-Police-State-American data is stored where not even J. Edgar Hoover could find it...
Nyaa. Nahh!!! Try to catch me, Janet! You are my bitch! I'm more dangerous than anyone you've ever persecuted. Why? Because I THINK!!!! Unlike most of your CNN-educated "consumer-citizens".
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Well, this IS happening... People are leaving the liberal-fascist Northeast for the South and West, where some freedom still exists.
According to the 2000 census..
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
Sadly, this isn't the USA anymore... We are becoming more closed minded, more superstitious, and authoritarian.
Those tendancies, of course, lead to a decline in learning (already happening), and ultimately, a dark age.
I think the USA will be in a "dark age" where learning and technology cease to advance, and indeed, decline in less than 50 years unless people and government start becoming more tolerant and less sensitive to things that offend them.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
"I see the Salem Police JudgeKaplined free speech today"
Absolutely brilliant!!! Wish I had mod points.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
The educational system is where everything that is going wrong today started.
./ (and have in many of my posts) and I've never been asked to clarify... It's the most abused right we have...
Why should it surprise anyone that government schools largely produce ignorance, apathy, acceptance of government control, and desire for more of it?
Government schools serve none other than the government. Government control and funding of schools have increased inversely porportional to the rate of decline of learning.
So long as education is run by the government, it will continue to decline.
One reason, I think, why geeks and techies are perceived as such a threat, is because we learn largely INDEPENDANTLY of the state-run educational machine. We tend to be free thinkers, and that runs contrary to a government that is lusting after greater and greater power and control.
For instance, I can just say "10th Amendment" on
Knowledge of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights, particularly Amendments 9 and 10 has been supressed. Instead, students are taught how great government "intervention" and "help" is to the "war" on poverty (lost), and the "war" on drugs (also lost). Funding of BOTH those "wars" account for most of the rising tide of confiscatory taxation, and loss of civil liberty.
Before long, there won't be anyone left with the INFORMATION to look at the "war" on poverty and the "war" on drugs and say "the emperor has no clothes".
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
"I feel sorry for the poor innocents at the Salem, Mass. PD"
I feel a lot sorrier for the innocent masses of Salem, NH who are living under a reign of terror.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
As a federal judge, Kaplan not only had the power, but the DUTY to judge the Constitutionality of the DMCA. And it's pretty obvious that there are at least parts of it that conflict with the Constitutions's articles pertaining to patents/copyrights and fair use.
If Kaplan isn't stupid, then the only other option is corrupt. Neither attribute is honorable.
Unfortunately, there are many more Judge Kaplans out there, and that's probably what happened in this case. Some Judge Kaplan rubber-stamped a warrant for the police. Why? Well, the police is never wrong...
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
True, there are others. While I'm in favor of sending cop-killers to the chair (as I am in favor of sending ALL murderers to the chair, no exceptions), I also think that crimes comitted by government agents should also be higher crimes.
But who do you send to arrest police? Who will prosecute a corrupt local judge? In fact, in most smaller states and areas, what lawyer will even DEFEND you from such?
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
"He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony. "
How can you misuse information gained from a government public web site?
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
It's just a witchhunt.
Dancin Santa
Same kind of thing happened two or three years ago in Turkey. In an online forum hosted on the http://www.turk.net one of Turkey's largest ISPs, a seventeen year old boy was ranting about a beating incident, where the municipality police had beaten a few blinds for demonstrating music on public streets. Unfortunately he got too far and actually cursed to Turkish Police! (whoa! a federal offense) in a few hours (that is about 1.00 AM in the middle of the night) his house was busted by Özel Tim (Turkish Police Special Crimes Unit, which is mostly an anti-terror team) and he was dragged away in front of the family members, taken to the anti-terror department and was severly beaten and "interrogated" for terrorist activities. He got out in a day or two, since he was arrested without a warrant, and turk.net was not authorized to supply his address to police without a warrant from the district attorney! Ooops they forgot all the technicalities. :) Lucky for him, he just got out with having been beaten, and nobosy pressed on for charges. Well I guess Big Brother is always out there someway.
In the wake of Columbine and the anti-geek teen backlash that followed, Slashdot rose to a high level of journalistic integrity by carrying the story the regular media would not.
Many of the posts in this thread are detailed, technical arguments of the type we are good at. But we're arguing with ourselves. A discussion at an online site about whether the Salem police's actions are legal is not helping a 19 year old who's just scored a black mark on his permanent legal record, lost his personal property, and possibly facing jail time (not to mention being pissed off and scared out of his mind, probably).
It's time to do something about the way our constitutional rights are ignored because of the public's fears of "hackers."
I talked to Chris Hemmah's family tonight. They aren't sure how we can help yet, but when they are ready for it, let's be there for them. It takes initiative and it's scary to stand up for what we believe in... but somebody's got to make sure that Chris Hemmah's rights are respected in what will come. His family will need moral support, donations to a legal fund, advice, and possibly court witnesses.
If you are willing to help ensure that the laws of the United States are respected in this case, e-mail me at morgan@druids.org with Chris Hemmah in the subject line. I'll continue to talk to the family and e-mail out when they have decided how we can help. I will not give your e-mail address to anyone else, I won't spam you, etc. I'm not a lawyer or a cop, and I'm not related to the Hemmahs or involved in the case. I'm just a nerd who's had enough... and I hope you are too.
-magic
Please, stop pretending to be lawyers on slashdot. Slashdot barely has any journalistic credibility in the wake of that hooters link that got on the front page yesterday.
/. was up for a Pulitzer.
Yeah, up until then
What about "News for nerds, stuff that matters"?
Which of these categories doesn't Hooters fit under?
Every cop who took part in this bust, and everyone in the chain of command should do time for "conspiracy to deprive of a constitutional right, under color of authority."
That's good for ten years in Leavenworth.
I'm not sure if this is more or less disturbing than those idiot who suspended a girl for using witchcraft against one of her teachers a few months back.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
Here it is.
Of course, police love to do things like this to people they know won't be convicted because the police know that his equipment will be seized. He will likely never see any of his 7 computers or "hacking books" ever again no matter what happens because it will be filed as evidence.
The Salem PD apparently has something of a known history of questionable search and seizure while squeaking out of the consequences, too. See this excerpt from an Eagle-Tribune article back in October:
Then what is he charged with?
Yes, the charge reads misuse of computer system information. But what information? How did he illegally misuse it? The only clue given is that the Salem police said he created "several obscene Web sites that mocked the Salem police department" (quoting the AP's paraphrase, not the Salem police directly.)
Admittedly, we cannot assume that the AP reported this story perfectly; it is possible that they left out vital information such as that he cracked the police department's computers and stole information.
But we must not assume that the Salem police must have had some real justification for arresting him, simply because they did it. Why?? Because that's exactly what police departments everywhere are prone to believing, that they as professionals know who the law-abiders are and who the criminals are -- and that to arrest an 'obvious' wrong-doer like this kid, they shouldn't have to wait for a technicality such as him actually committing an arrestable offense.
Don't think, in a nation where police officers regularly perjure themselves in court to make charges stick, in a nation where police scientists falsify lab tests, reporting impossible results from the lab to win court cases, don't think that a police department must have evidence of actual illegal computer activity when all they're showing that they have is a disliked use of the First Amendment.
If people are to respect the law, perhaps the law should begin by respecting the people.
A fuller report was in the Eagle-Tribune (Lawrence, Mass.), on Friday, January 12, 2001. Go to http://www.eagletribune.com and do News Search for "Hemmah"--it was under "NH News." For your convenience, it is quoted below:
Also, here is the earlier, Dec. 6, 2000 article referred to above:
These two articles from CBC have more information This one
And here
"Actually, they can only legally keep the equipment if he they deem the equipment was used to commit a felony"
Which they won't be able to in this case. Their "felony" charge is the most laughably stupid charge I've ever seen. In fact, he can't even be convicted of a misdemeanor.
BTW, in NH, does someone have to be indicted to be charged with a felony? That is the case in many states. I dont see that happening. In fact, I don't even see a court ACCEPTING this case at all unless:
1. The judge is extremely corrupt or stupid.
2. The judge is extremely power mad.
3. The judge is an ex-cop
4. The judge takes the case basically so that he can get the police in question in his courtroom, collect the evidence, sanction them so that THEY can be prosecuted.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
What the hell IS this? The police have no authority to define obscenity.. There is no possible way a website mocking them could pass the Supreme Court's obscenity standard.
For one thing, mocking the police department is POLITICAL speech, which will clearly fall under the first amendment.
What is chilling, is what others have brought up. The damage to this person has already been done, having already been arrested and thrown in jail. What I hope happens is that he gets himself a tank of lawyer sharks and go after the police department with lawsuits asking for damages in the $500 million range.
The police department has clearly abused it's authority to comitt an illegal act. All involved in the arrest and incarceration need to do serious prison time.
=== The price of freedom is eternal vigilance
"He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony." How is making a website misuse of computer systems information? I might be able to understand this if he was using this information to do something illegal. So, he has some mock website up with some porn scattered around. I don't think this case will get very far. Just my 2 cents.
Note: "SS" in the above stands for "Secret Service". Any similarity between that abbreviation and the Nazi stormtrooper service's abbreviation is intentional.
In general, if the cops seize your computers, assume that you're going to need a new computer. I suggest purchasing a lightweight laptop (AFTER the SS seizes your computers -- otherwise they might come after you for "concealing evidence"). I also suggest that you retain off-site backups, perhaps with co-workers that the cops won't think of immediately as friends, perhaps in some other semi-anonymous fashion, so that you won't lose 20 years of your writings just because some Nazi stormtrooper wannabe with a police uniform got peeved that you called him by name.
-E
Send mail here if you want to reach me.
I know this situation ALL too well. This could have happened to me.
..
I have recently encountered a similar situation with my local school district (which I am not a student at).
My local school districts website address is "school-district".org. In late October I registered "school-district".com and "School-district".net.
I setup both sites to forward to page I had setup where I had a parody of a fundraiser they were currently running. Everyone who saw it thought it thought it was funny. You'd have to be an idiot to mistake it for the real website.
The result? Near Christmas I received a cease and desist letter demanding I take down my "libelous and unfounded attacks" against the district .
"If you do not cease and desist your activities within ten (10) days of the date of this letter, the District will pursue any and all legal remedies available to my client in a Court of competent jurisdiction for injuctive relief as well as money damages."
Money damages. Yeah what money damages? It's a FUNDRAISER in question. What, of the 76 unique visitors my page had I damaged your fundraising ability? What the hell?!
"You are in violation of both [my state] and Federal law; including but not limited to the anticybersquatting provisions of the Lanham Act and [my states] Unfair Trade Practices Act."
Pretty amazing how I can be guilty of cybersquatting when I never tried to sell the domain, never represented myself as them and for the past oh what.. FIVE YEARS they never had enough brains to register it themselves. Aren't such laws designed to protect the rights of corporations being taken advantage of my domain speculators?
I'm also apparently guilty of the PA Trade Act. How can I be guilty of a trade act when there's no TRADE INVOLVED?! Once again, I can't figure it out
They also had a "proposal" that I transfer the domain name to them "in exchange for the District's forberance in bringing any claims against you."
Having no other choice then well, get sued, I took down the content and notified them I did that. The domain name however, I have kept, and said nothing about it to them.
Individuals can't afford to throw money at a lawyer to fight against the bottomless pockets of orginizations and corporations hellbent on destroying our freedom.
Freedom of speech is slowly dying as rabid packs of lawyers and policemen attack our first amendment rights of fair use and parody. I am disgusted at the actions my local district took, and I am disgusted at the police in that case.
When I was in 6th grade (about 15 years ago), for Halloween everyone in class was to write a "scary story" with illustrations, and some of us would read those stories out loud to either a 1st or 2nd grade class on Halloween. Our teacher, apparently not quite expecting the average student's exposure to horror movies of the day, told us to write anything we wanted, no matter how bad it was.
Well, we did. She was not amused. Half the class (mostly the male students) had written stories revolving around axe murderers and the like, complete with gory descriptions. We never got around to the illustrations.....
Anyways. Guess what the consequences of writing these horrific stories were?
*shocker* We were told to rewrite them and leave out the excessive gore. */shocker* Nobody got in trouble. Nobody went to jail. Nobody was sent in for psychiatric evaluation. We just had to redo the assignment. The stories were recognized for what they were. Harmless creative works in poor taste, not setting the stage for a group of lunatics.
All of this was pre-columbine however. We had bullies, cheating, bad grades, talking in class, and the occasional indescretion among some of the students. Every once in a while, some reckless and heartless bastard would throw pencils into the ceiling tiles. But nobody even fathomed the idea that someone might bring a gun to school and start shooting at random because he was distressed. Now everyone is overreacting and jumping on any even potential danger and eliminating them. Its unfortunate, and it has to change. SOON.
Its stuff like this that makes me want to be a parent, just so I can participate in the educational system and tell some those idiots to get their head out of their ass. Of course, I could just social engineer my way to become a school administrator and accomplish the same goals. Judging from what I've seen, I probably exceed the qualifications for the job.
-Restil
Play with my webcams and lights here
Here is what he was actualy charged with:
IV. A person is guilty of the computer crime of misuse of computer system information when:
(a) As a result of his accessing or causing to be accessed a computer system, he knowingly makes or causes to be made an unauthorized display, use, disclosure, or copy, in any form, of data residing in, communicated by, or produced by a computer system; or
(b) He knowingly or recklessly and without authorization:
(1) Alters, deletes, tampers with, damages, destroys, or takes data intended for use by a computer system, whether residing within or external to a computer system; or
(2) Intercepts or adds to data residing within a computer system; or
(c) He knowingly receives or retains data obtained in violation of subparagraph (a) or (b) of this paragraph; or
(d) He knowingly uses or discloses any data he knows or believes was obtained in violation of subparagraph (a) or (b) of this paragraph.
-------------
is it possible his downloading code from the website was making an unauthorized copy? If so people should be really concerned about copyright, fair use, etc.
Unless he is slandering the police, posting false information that he claims is true that damages the image of the police he will not be convicted of any crime (if he does I'm moving).
ianal, but afaik, slander is not a crime. It is a tort, meaning that it can be used as the basis for a civil suit. That is assuming he is slandering an individual. If he is accused of slandering an organization or institution, especially a government body, I don't even know if it can be litigated at all, at least in the US the First Amendment generally protects anything that might normally be considered slander if it was said against a private citizen. The exception would be advocating violence, which can reach a level that can be prosecuted criminally.
Work for Change & GET PAID!
I don't know about you all, but I might just have some spare web space to post my own "obscene" website about said police department.
Just a thought.
And I don't live within the confines of their little juristiction... tee hee hee
Okay. The cops in Salem, New Hampshire--after a month-long investigation--determined that this kid had copied the text from several web sites related to the police department, modified the text, and had replaced photos on one site with rotating porn pictures.
This is clear, and compelling, proof of two things:
But something stuck in my mind about "police" and "New Hampshire"...
Of course! The ultra-Libertarian legislator who got elected in November, before anybody noticed the outrageous comments he'd posted on the Web about cops. I looked up the article, figuring I'd post a link to it here. Here's the MSNBC article. But the article includes a neat little point right at the bottom--it turns out that the cop-killer wannabe isn't the only state legislator in trouble. It seems that while the Salem cops were busy with their month-long investigation of a parody web site ("Uh, sarge--how do you spell 'freedom of the press'?"), the town elected an ex-con living under an assumed name to be their legislator:
In a separate case, state Rep. Ron "Tony" Giordano has revealed a criminal past he didn't disclose to New Hampshire voters. The Republican from Salem said this week that he did two stints in jail in Massachusetts during the early 1980s for five check-forging convictions and one handcuff-stealing incident. He was known as Ron Gordon at the time.
"We all make mistakes. I've turned my life around," Giordano said.
Giordano, who moved to Salem six years ago after changing his name, said he would step down only if his 6,000 constituents demanded he quit.
Whatever parody this kid put up had better be hilarious--because the officials clowns are pretty funny all by themselves....
Christopher Hemmah, 19, was arrested Thursday night after a month-long investigation.""
....
From the logs of the Salem Police:
Day 1 - Website making fun of us still up.
Day 2 - Website making fun of us still up.
Day 28 - Website making fun of us still up.
Day 29 - Website making fun of us still up.
Day 30 - Arrested Christopher Hemmah.
I would like to help.
But, with the information available to us at this time, I can't stick my neck out on this guy's behalf.
IF everything is as it APPEARS to be then yes, this is an unjust bust, and the guy should sue the pants off everyone involved. It would be wonderful to see. And my gut says that there's nothing fishy going on here.
But the fact is, dear slashdotters, that we can't be sure we know the REAL story. For example, maybe the porno images the kid used were the vilest, most stomach-churning kind. Any of you willing to mirror that? Any of you guys SURE that his site would fail an obscenity test?
I think we should support the guy, but be cautious about your approach until all the facts are in. When the facts ARE in, if things stack up, I'll contribute to his legal fun myself, and I encourage you to also.
Go here
Many thanks to slashdot user Procyon101 for this link I found buried in some replys to an earlier thread. Just thought I'd post it with a +2 initial score.
Friends don't let friends use multiple inheritance.
This of course, is possible, as there are many Judge Kaplans out there
/.
/. - tommorow the WORLD!)
:)
Hey, that's a neat (if tired) way to protest - try to start using "JudgeKaplin" as a verb (to mean "to misjudge / to prejudice / to sell one's values, etc") and see if we can get it to catch on in
(Today
Or perhaps just "Kaplin" for short.
"I see the Salem Police JudgeKaplined free speech today"
Ok ok, but it could make for some nice in-jokes
RE: I'm embarrassed that this is happening is Canada
Why? Canada does not have free speech, it hates nonconformists, and as for bullying and kicking the unpopular, it's part of the political landscape as much as it is the classroom.
Read the newspaper, or watch the National with Peter "I'm in the employ of King Jean" Mansbridge. Gun owners are responsible for crime, not criminals. Westerners are evil, holocaust-denying hicks and racist homophobic rednecks. According to Westerners, it's all the fault of the Quebecois, and the welfare leeches in the Atlantic provinces. The Quebecois think they're being held down by the "g*ddamn*d J*ws in West Montreal", unquote (not my view!), don't forget Parizeau's comments on live TV about "thanks to the J*ws and Ethn*cs for screwing up the referendum on soverignty for the REAL people of Quebec". (I was horrified to hear any of this, and I left Quebec over the last statement, never to return.)
Canada's just signed laws that allow the cops to come into your house without a warrant, strip the drywall off your interior walls, destroy your home, take away your right to remain silent, charge you with a reverse-onus crime (you have to prove your innocence) etc etc etc just because they might have some cause to believe that perhaps you might have access to a firearm.
I never believed the propaganda of that little socialist collective that it was a Disney-esque scene from Bambi where evreryone is loving and friendly and whistles that irritating song on the way to work when I was born and raised there, and I don't believe it now.
Canada's got REAL problems, don't be surprised at the kid going to jail over threatening his school. The Prime Minister can strangle you on live TV and smash your face into the ground, or send SWAT teams in to pepper spray your teenage daughter and club her half to death just because she was peacefully demonstrating against a murdering socialist dictator coming in from Indonesia, and noone says "boo" about it. They can rob you of half your income for "health care" while simultaneously taking all the money out of health care to fund hotels in the P.M.'s riding. You can mod this one down for all I care, but it's the truth and must be told. Canada is slowly becoming more and more of a police state, and now they want to confiscate all the guns to make that a total reality. Don't protest the symptoms, protest the cause.
--- Jump!! Fire!! Bullet time!! - Lego version of the Matrix
In Hemmah's home, police say they found seven computers and how-to books on computer hacking.
I have lots of computers and hacking books, am I breaking the law? Unless he is slandering the police, posting false information that he claims is true that damages the image of the police he will not be convicted of any crime (if he does I'm moving). You can't go around calling saying the local police kill small children (unless of course they do). If he posts information of reasons he dislikes the police, then thats what the 1st ammendment is all about and he shouldn't be touched.
Of course, police love to do things like this to people they know won't be convicted because the police know that his equipment will be seized. He will likely never see any of his 7 computers or "hacking books" ever again no matter what happens because it will be filed as evidence. Read "the hacker crackdown". Of course, that book would be "evidence" if you are ever raided.
...a Ottawa-area 16-year-old got bail after spending a month in the can for reading a story in drama class. I shit you not.
On the one hand, it was a story about a student who blows up his school after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers. On the other hand, it was written for a drama assignment after years of abuse from bullies and ignorance from teachers, including an incident about a week before where he was pushed to the ground, kicked in the head several times, and went home bloody. His parents contacted the school and police about the incident, but got no help. No schools or students were directly named in the story. Despite a police search of the school and his home finding no weapons, bombs, or "plans", he was arrested anyway on the charge of "uttering death threats".
More details in these Ottawa Citizen stories:
A teen's "Twisted" cry for help - this article also has the story that started it all.
Writer jailed for his 'imagination'
Prominent lawyer to defend teen writer
Someday, you're going to die. Get over it.
He is charged with misuse of computer system information, a felony.
As IANAL, I won't comment on whether or not the charge will stick.
Note that test (c) is very hard to pass. Even nudie magazines like Playboy are not considered obscene because they have at least some (however miniscule) literary, artistic, political, or scientific value. Political speech, including speech critical of police or government officials, is protected in the highest degree.
Wrong. Wrong wrong wrong. The standard is not "lacks any [adjective] value"; it's whether it lacks serious value. There's an enormous difference. Remember, Miller was a decision by the Burger court during the seventies. Do you really think they'd let you get away with anything as long as it had any value whatsoever? Miller was specifically decided so as to avoid the situation where a work of complete filth could be saved by inserting a single page of Shakespeare.
Miller was a compromise that ended a decade of legal wrangling over the subject of obscenity. It affirmed that legal obscenity must be sexual in nature (which this website likely is) and must violate community standards of propriety. Playboy isn't relevant, because playboy is a national magazine which may or may not violate community norms in New Hampshire.
(Incidentally, in R.A.V. v. Saint Paul, White's concurring opinion would have given governments plenary power over what sorts of obscene speech to declare illegal (instead of our present broad bans). Thankfully, that opinion wasn't signed by four other justices. Unfortunately, it won't help you here, since the obscenity ban in question bans far more than just political obscenity.)
Please, stop pretending to be lawyers on slashdot. Slashdot barely has any journalistic credibility in the wake of that hooters link that got on the front page yesterday. Don't undermine it even more by giving people false and misleading legal advice. In many jurisdictions, giving false legal advice is itself a crime. If you must wallow in your own ignorance, then don't drag others into the morass with you. Please.
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