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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."
Open WAP = Probably Cause?
CmdrTaco = Editor?
Just a reminder to ACCEPT jury duty if you get called. It is one of the best ways to directly affect how things work in the U.S.
Idiot.
I have secured my wap.
:-)
I hope nobody finds out that the passphrase is 0x01020304050607080910111213
I also hope others do not do the same and we all create open accesspoints that are actually secure
Now we can claim we were hacked! problem solved and stupid lawyers and police are end run for at least a few more years.
This guy gave a conditional guilty plea even though "evidence" linked the yahoo account to his roommate. You don't accept a deal for 4 years in prison if you're not guilty. Clearly, someone is lying here.
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 stack of Kiddie Porn DVDs convicted him, not the open access point. The whole thing revolves around the fact that they found an IM of somebody with an IP originating from his residence that contained a child porn picture. This got them a search warrant, and they found additional evidence including a stack of DVDs with child porn images on them (and think HOW MANY images are needed to fill more than one DVD).
The only point where the open access point comes in to it is that he claimed that because it was open, it means that ANYBODY could have used IPs from inside his house, and thus the search should have been thrown out, and the evidence gathered suppressed. But the judge didn't go for it.
In non-technical terms, it's like claiming that your house is always unlocked, thus any evidence they ever find there should never be admissible, since anybody could have put it there. And as I said above, the judge didn't go for it, and rightfully so IMO. So this isn't "police look for open access points, and go fishing wherever they find one" but rather "an open access point doesn't get you out of finding DVDs of illegal material in your house."
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.
If you did what you suggest---go to a bunch of open WAPs and do child porn searches---then none of the people you target will ultimately get in trouble. They might get their homes searched, but the FBI wouldn't find any evidence of child porn, because you're long gone.
Furthermore your second paragraph isn't a fair characterization of what happened here. The cops aren't going around searching for open WAPs. It was the defense that brought this argument, not the cops. The allegedly illegal IM traffic came from the defendant's IP address, and he used the open WAP argument to suggest that since it could have been a drive-by or neighbor, that they didn't have enough evidence to search his house. Well, they may not have had enough evidence to convict, certainly---but you don't need nearly as much to get the search warrant. I frankly agree with that decision. The evidence stated that a crime was committed in the vicinity of that house.
I'm told it is viral and will give you open sores.