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Wiretapping Made Easier

Posted by michael on from the hurray-for-eavesdropping dept.

An Anonymous Coward writes "Less than a week after it was decided that virtual child pornography was legal, a bill has been introduced into Congress that makes it easier for wiretaps to be authorized by allowing material constituting or containing child pornography to be valid grounds for requesting a wiretap."

7 of 18 comments (clear)

  1. Every ISP? by anthony_dipierro · · Score: 2

    a bill has been introduced into Congress that makes it easier for wiretaps to be authorized by allowing material constituting or containing child pornography to be valid grounds for requesting a wiretap.

    So that constitutes basically every ISP, I guess.

  2. material == grounds? by tps12 · · Score: 2
    I don't follow...they are proposing legislation, okay got that.

    This legislation allows child pornography or offensive material to be grounds for a wiretap?

    What even does that mean?

    Does the existence of the "material" somewhere in the known universe allow them to tap anyone's wire? (I sure hope not!)

    Or do they only get to tap a wire that is carrying such material? But if they don't have a wiretap yet, how can they know?

    Presumably, the crime they would be trying to gather evidence for is related to the "material"? Yeah?

    :(

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    1. Re:material == grounds? by medcalf · · Score: 2

      From the article:

      The bill essentially makes it easier for law enforcement to obtain wiretaps on persons suspected of engaging in or having material constituting or containing child pornography
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  3. I feel like I should be getting riled up here... by realgone · · Score: 4, Interesting
    ...but I'm not quite sure about what.

    A quick read-through of the bill -- and as bills go, this one is really short, so hop on over and take a look -- makes it seem as if all they've done is add owning/distributing child porn was added to the list of wiretappable crimes. If there's more there, I'm missing it.

    Other than the faint unease I may feel at law enforcement's gradual erosion of our communal privacy, I'm not really getting a Big Brother vibe off this one. But it might be a useful stepping-off point for a /. discussion on wiretaps in general...

  4. Front Page? by Rosonowski · · Score: 2

    I'm not sure why this isn't on the front page, but it ought to be.

    Anyways, I have to agree. Although it may be a bit broadscope to say that this would cover all ISP's, the government isn't unlikely to pull it off.

    The thing that pisses me off, though is that this whole "destroy child pornography" bit over-reaches power. Does anyone remember the Fourth Ammendment?

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  5. How many wiretap laws are needed? by zmedico · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Why can't we just have one wiretap law for all types of crimes?

  6. Is child porn a Thought Crime? by zmedico · · Score: 2, Interesting

    There is an interesting article at http://www.alternet.org

    Thought Crimes
    http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID =12959

    Even the Supreme Court recognizes that sexual fantasies -- even about children -- are not necessarily rehearsals for harmful actions.