Slashdot Mirror
Open WAP = Probable Cause?
RockoTDF writes "A court in texas has ruled that an open WAP is not a sufficient defense against child pornography charges, a ruling which could carry over to p2p users. In addition, it appears that an open WAP could be seen as probable cause by law enforcement."
Just to clarify before a hundred people comment without understanding this distinction. The court in this case ruled that child pornography tracked to a given open access point was probable cause to search that residence and specifically the rooms belonging to the person who ran the open access point. They did not rule that running the open access point proved that the owner was guilty of transmitting the child pornography, but ruled him guilty because of the stacks of DVDs found in his room.
The identity of the user was only questioned after the fact. They actually found kiddie porn in the IP address registree's room. I'd bet that he'd stand much stronger, legally if they hadn't, but he's trying to get the case thrown out of court because he'd set up an unsecured Wifi, which his lawyer argued made it unlikely enough that it was him that the police should have walked away...
The headline is highly misleading. What the court ruled was that if an IP used in the commision of a crime, in this case child pornography, is traced back to you, then that's probable cause for the issuance of a warrant to search your house. The court did not rule that just having an open WAP was probable cause for anything, nor did they rule that an open WAP wasn't a possible defense against the charge if there is no other evidence. After obtaining the warrant, the police found CDs with child porn in the individual's bedroom. That's the evidence that convicted him. He tried to have the evidence thrown out, arguing that there was no probable cause to issue the warrant. The court disagreed. If you have an open WAP, someone else may use it to commit a crime. But the probablity that you did so is sufficient to issue a warrant to search for additional evidence. So it's more like saying that if you buy a gun and someone else uses it to shoot someone, the police are going to get a warrant and come search your house.
"The legitimate powers of government extend only to such acts as are injurious to others." Thomas Jefferson.
Sure thing. Check out the recently-approved Data Retention Laws. Link 1 Link 2. They are cursory introductions, you can dig further if you wish. The articles don't talk about wifi spots but they are regulated too: they have to keep a copy of ID for each customer and be able to track them individually, as I said. Anyway you are perfectly right in not just believing me, so check it out. You'll be appalled.
Global warming is a cube.
Given the number of libertarians that post on slashdot, I'm surprised nobody has enlightened you to the concept of Jury Nullification. In the US legal system, juries judge the case *and* the law. Here's more information.
Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
-- Pablo Picasso