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No Right to Privacy When Your Computer Is Repaired
Billosaur writes "ZDNet's Police Blotter bring us the interesting story of a Pennsylvania man who brought his computer into Circuit City to have a DVD burner installed on his computer and wound up being arrested for having child pornography on his hard drive. Circuit City employees discovered the child pornography while perusing Kenneth Sodomsky's hard drive for files to test the burner, then proceeded to call the police, who arrested Sodomsky and confiscated the computer. Sodomsky's lawyer argued in court that the Circuit City techs had no right to go rifling through the hard drive, and the trial court agreed, but prosecutors appealed and the appeals court overturned the lower court's decision, based on the fact that Sodomsky had consented to the installation of the DVD drive."
Circuit City employees discovered the child pornography while perusing Kenneth Sodomsky's hard drive
And they were TIPPED OFF BY HIS NAME
The theory of relativity doesn't work right in Arkansas.
This is like bringing your car in for repair with a body in the trunk. Part of a repair person's job is to look things over, if they stumble on something blatantly illegal while doing so, well, don't be so stupid.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
Truth in advertising? How is it that people busted for sex crimes manage to have names like [Sodom]sk[y]?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion.
Yeah, with a name like that, would you expect him to NOT have porn on his 'puter?
Why would they do that when testing a DVD burner? What possible reason do they have other than nosiness?
The fact is that they should have kept their damn noses out of his personal items unless they had a reason to be shuffling around in there. They were installing a DVD burner! That requires basic OS access and nothing more! "Looking for files to burn" is utter BS. How about burning a plain text file, or a large test file/folder from a pen drive?
I'm not arguing that once it's been found he shouldn't be reported, but when I have an electrician in, I'd be pissed if he started rummaging through my wardrobe (not that there's anything to hide... ehehe). It's unprofessional, and the employees should be sacked.