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?"

Comments

Legal Liability

[netruner]

What is Cingular, T-Mobile and Verizon's legal liability for illegal activity ranging from petty drug dealing all the way up to terrorism when their products and network are used to perpetrate those crimes?

Re:Legal Liability

[xiando]

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.

What is wrong with Marijuana?

[linzeal]

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.

Re:What is wrong with Marijuana?

[0x0000]

The Reagan administration also told us catsup is a vegetable. Now the same idiots think they can convince teenagers to stop having sex.

People who trust everything the government says are fools

While that was once true, times have changed. Nowadays people who trust anything the government says are fools.

Re:What is wrong with Marijuana?

[runderwo]

To elaborate on your statement against the inevitable rebuttal, saying that it is foolish to trust the government does *NOT* mean that none of the propaganda the government puts out is true. (Some of it *is* true.) It just means that so much of it is demonstrably false that now a statement being made by the government is an extremely weak predictor of whether or not the statement is actually true. Or in other words, even a broken clock is right twice a day.

Multilingual?

[the_rev_matt]

Since when is Orkut multilingual? I gave up on the site many many months ago when posting something in english in any of the dozens of forums I was in resulted in 20-30 abusive responses in portuguese.

The Brazilians took over Orkut long ago, it's useless to anyone else.

Re:Multilingual?

[wronski]

You should welcome your new Brazilian overlords!

Re:Multilingual?

[Anonymous Coward]

Todas as suas bases estão pertencendo a nós!!!

Re:Multilingual?

[Wonko]

Americans, especially, are totally obnoxious when it comes to languages: many of them refuse to speak any other language unless they REALLY have to

That is a completely FALSE statement. I am an American, and I absolutely REFUSE to put myself in a situation where I would be required to speak any other language.

:)

Re:Multilingual?

[IronChef]

How do you know the replies were abusive if you don't speak Portuguese? Maybe they were inviting you over to meet their sisters.

Duh!

[Locke2005]

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?

GoogleDrugs

[Lord Marlborough]

332 dime bags jamacain hashish to kilos ::search:: 332 dime bags = 0.71548362344 kilos

Who's Fault Was It?

[greymond]

So since Ortuk is an "Invite Only" community who invited thier Law Enforcement friend? Guess they don't have to worry about getting "wacked" since on the internet everyone is anonymous...oh wait...shit...

Thank God they were caught!

[hotspotbloc]

And that will put an end to illegal drug sales. The War on Drugs has been won!

Re:Think of the implications...

[mabhatter654]

this is the result of the misguided idea that law enforcemtn is to prevent crime rather than punish it. Like you just said, openness of the internet is a 2 way street!! reading a public page and "worming" your way into a social circle "old school" is the best way to go! What it means in the USA is we have to become more "amoral" like the europeans and less reactionary and prudish. We need to reduce the number of silly laws officers must enforce... things like public swearing, blow-jobs, some low end drugs, and the host of silly laws designed to give officers a reason to "harrass" you. We need to rid ourselves of the prudish, "bible belt" rules that have everybody checking themselves in fear at the sight of and officer... that's not how a free society should live! Banning nailclippers at the airport checkpoint is no substitute for 100 citizens paying attention to the people around them... i.e. the creepy guy acting stupid planting a bomb!!

back on track, used properly, they could net a lot of good intel in the drug trade keeping quite instead of playing cowboy... there's no reason Google wouldn't cooperate with investigations by providing logs or even fake accounts if the police just asked rather than made a heavy-handed power grab out of everything they don't understand.