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Child Porn Probe Uses Live Internet Wiretap

Posted by michael on from the can-we-hear-you-now dept.

rrkap writes "The Sacramento Bee is reporting that Jason Heath Morgan, a suspect in a child porn case was subject to the first 'live internet wiretap.' According to the story, 'Technology used in the surveillance is very similar to a phone tap. Agents attached a monitoring device to Morgan's phone line, then tracked his Internet activity from remote computers.' This packet sniffing was authorized by the PROTECT Act - officially Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act, which authorizes such tapping of internet connections."

4 of 364 comments (clear)

  1. Silly act names by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant
    The PROTECT Act?

    To think how much effort they spend thinking of such titles. They already have the PATRIOT act and the PIRATE act. What will they think of next?

  2. Someone in the gubmint can't spell by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Redundant

    "This packet sniffing was authorized by the PROTECT Act - officially Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to End the Exploitation of Children Today Act..."

    Wouldn't that make it the PROTEECT Act? I dunno, maybe he had an accent.

  3. Bad laws -- rule of thumb by Compact+Dick · · Score: 1, Redundant

    More thought went into the acronym than the law itself.

    --
    Use ISO 8601 dates [YYYY-MM-DD]
  4. So... by tokachu(k) · · Score: 0, Redundant

    ...they fired up Ettercap on a switch and watched the packets?

    Network administrators in corporations have been doing that for many years now (at least where I work), although they tend to use it to debug and track down virii.