Slashdot Mirror
Orkut Linked To Drug Ring Bust
Dynamoo writes "Google's Orkut service has been allegedly used to sell drugs by a Brazilian outfit, according to a BBC news report. According to the report, the dealers offered pot and ecstasy for sale via the system to Brazil's large Orkut user community. Google is reported to be investigating. One interesting issue that springs to mind is: how can you monitor and moderate such a large, multilingual community such as Orkut? And what are the limits of criminal liability in a case like this?"
I'm sure such services facilitate the transaction between brewers of beer and makers of wine. Why does marijuana which is less damaging than both when injested instead of inhaled deserve any attention from police? MDMA is different and has been linked to brain damage by multiple studies I believe.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
And what are the limits of criminal liability in a case like this? Gee, I don't know... what are the limits of liability for the phone companies, postal server, or the package delivery companies if they are used by drug distributors? I beleive the answer is "no liability whatsoever". Why do people think that everything is different if it's done on a computer?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
i've seen drug offers/deals on IRC before.
go shut them down.
oh wait, u can't.. haha.
why can't u be a man and go out, stand on the corner, and sell your drugs, instead of trying to be bill gates and use a computer.
...the phone companies were charged with conspiracy to sell narcotics after it was discovered that people were using the phone to help sell drugs. Not.
Seriously, I don't see any legal implications for Google, as they didn't set up the system to sell drugs... it was just an avenue of communication that drug dealers/users took advantage of to sell and buy drugs.
Any form of communication can be used for that purpose... photocopiers, phones, carrier pigeons.... Actually, that's not a bad idea... hmmm...
$0.02 (CDN)
People are using a communications medium for drugs and it's something newsworthy? I would think the proper response would be duh. Careful guys, next thing you know they'll start using IRC networks even, or maybe IM services like AIM and ICQ! Criminal liability? What a joke. What next, holding telephone service providers accountable when a drug deal goes down on their network? Give me a break.
"We invented personal computing." - Bill Gates
Why do the authorities even bother looking/searching for drug crimes? They lost this war decades ago, didn't anybody tell them it's time to surrender? Or maybe it's time to adopt a new approach to dealing with drugs.. What a waste of fucking resources this whole god damn thing is. Let me go back to smoking my Canadian hash, thank you.
What you need to know about using a Mobile Telephone in most parts of the world: They use something called GSM technology. Every GSM phone has a unique number. And every GSM customer in (almost all parts of the world) are required to be registered with the provider. It is illegal to provide anonymous cellphone subscriptions in this country and most others. Furthermore, cell phone providers must comply when police and other authorities require a real-time tap of your calls, a printout of all your text-messages and most importantly a mapped feed on your location at all times based on your phones distance from the GSM masts all over. This is how these cell phone companies are liable for criminal activity: They MUST assist fully to uncover and prove crime when asked to do so. They ARE HELD LIABLE if they are asked to comply in any criminal investigation and fail to comply.
9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
What's the liability of the government for building the roads on which the drug transport takes place?
This space for rent.
what has made Orkut such a popular site for Brazilians?
Brazilians.
That's how social networks function ^_^
The fact that there's a lot of Brazilian people on it already. I know, I know, but it's a positive feedback loop thingy.
qntm.org
Blame the lack of necessity. I can travel in the U.S. and Canada, an area about the size of Europe, and except for small enclaves, everyone will know English. On the other hand, a French person is unlikely to be able to travel more than a few hundred miles before he needs to speak another language to blend in with the culture.
You have it slightly wrong. Most French people at least know a couple other languages. The vast, vast majority of Americans simply do not have any ability in any language other than English. Blame the crappy setup of the school system.
That isn't all that true. I would imagine if you counted the numbers of both legal and illegal immigrants, and the numbers of college educated individuals in the U.S. you would have a fairly sizable portion of the U.S. that speaks two or more languages.
One of the main reasons why you don't find high levels of foreign language capacity in the U.S. is due to relatively successful economic integration. By the third generation, 97% of immigrants to the U.S. are speaking (americanized) English as their primary language.
Singling out a specific country as an example would denegrate the analysis, but a number of countries in Europe have large 2nd and 3rd generation cultural enclaves which have not integrated economically. The result of which is an economic need to support multiple languages within their society. Basic economic utility dictates that the language of commerce will become your most common language. When you have segmented economic markets within your society you will naturally have segmented language markets as well.
-- No matter how great your triumphs or how tragic your defeats, approximately one billion Chinese couldn't care less.
What next, pub owners held liable in Ireland because they let IRA bomb plotters meet during happy hour? The London Underground Authority held liable because it is so trivially easy to leave a backpack filled with about 5 kilos of plastic explosives (or a bunch of repackaged M80 firecrackers) and ball bearings behind, yet SOMEONE must be found at fault?
This is a pretty lame argument against Orkut, etc. Who is to say that the "criminals" using the cell phones in other countries are actually who they say they are, even though the phones have to be "registered"? If it is trivial to buy fake visas and other credentials, it is probably not that hard to come by falsely registered cell phones or phones registered to non-existant people or entities (especially if they've been hacked outside of the country where the crime has been facilitated).
What if the phones had been cleverly hacked in Brazil to be from Brazilian government accounts?
Cuba has a pretty low (petty) crime rate. Why? Because of the ever-present fear of oneself being turned into the internal security aparatus or police, where tattling on your neighbor is pretty common (and a good way to earn a few pesetos). But not too many people from Cuba or who have been in Cuba say that things are particularly free there, as in, open exchange of words, associations, etc.
It's too bad, really. A few people acting madly have such a huge effect on everyone else. Car-jacking and road rage cause everyone to just cave in and let things happen which in the past would have been dealt with and de-escalated.
In SoCal, it's OK to completely follow 10 other cars through a red light to turn left, because getting in an altercation is perceived to greatly increase the risk of pissing off the offender to the point where he does a u-turn, follows you down, and beats the shit out of you basically for the hell of it.
We Americans like to talk about the "tyranny of the majority", but more or less it has really turned into the "tyranny of the minority" (and, no, I'm not referring to the puritanicals ranting against 'the gay minority wagging the dog' [sic]) in so many facets, not the least is if you happen to stop someone from robbing a store, and happen to cause intense physical pain to the creep, and perhaps a few broken bones in the process, you get sued by the perp, and the perp wins.
So in some arenas the courts enforce this tyranny as well.
Oh well.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
The vast, vast majority of Americans simply do not have any ability in any language other than English.
:)
More often than not, many of them lack also the ability in proper english.
Its/it's, your/you're, there/their, then/than, etc. anyone?