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Google Turns Over Data on Suspected Pedophiles In Brazil

Dionysius, God of Wine and Leaf, points to a Yahoo! story which begins "Google on Wednesday handed over data stored by suspected pedophiles on its Orkut social networking site to Brazilian authorities, ceding to pressure to lift its confidentiality duty to its users, officials said."

445 comments

  1. Once the government's bitch, evermore their bitch by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful
    On Wednesday they handed over information on pedophiles

    On Thursday they handed over information on terrorists

    On Friday they handed over information on file-sharers

    On Saturday they handed over information on everyone

    Wednesday was the hardest. Every day after that it got easier and easier.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  2. Ask by Joseph1337 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Let`s ask Google how much our private data is worth.
    Many times 'suspected' means 'guilty' after emotions applied

  3. Do no evil by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Cause you know, everyone is entitled to protection of privacy unless suspected (quite possibly innocent, but suspected) of crime-du-jour, whether today's hatred is towards child abuse, terrorism or being member of a communist party. And of course, a government would never abuse the special right to treat suspects of such a crime differently to, say, use suspicion of such a crime as a pretext to get at others. Oh, no, that'd never happen!

    As much as I may hate child abusers and terrorists, I think suspects of such crimes should be offered the same Ius Commune rights as everyone else -- they should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, and mere suspicion should never be enough to remove rights that you and I enjoy. But then again, I'm a commie mutant, so I probably shouldn't have any rights either...

    1. Re:Do no evil by Tim+C · · Score: 1, Troll

      Cause you know, everyone is entitled to protection of privacy unless suspected (quite possibly innocent, but suspected) of crime-du-jour, whether today's hatred is towards child abuse, terrorism or being member of a communist party.

      Playing devil's advocate for a moment, but surely investigation of a person suspected of criminal behaviour requires an invasion of their privacy? How else do you gather the information necessary to ascertain their guilt or innocence?

      Now TFA makes no reference to subpoenas being served, which is what I find troublesome; it appears that google caved to the threat of legal pressure, rather than due process - *but* I don't know what due process in Brazil is.

      they should be treated as innocent until proven guilty, and mere suspicion should never be enough to remove rights that you and I enjoy

      It's not as cut and dried as that unfortunately. Sometimes certain rights - like the right to liberty - need to be denied suspects until their innocence is proven, due to the risk of their committing further offences, or of fleeing justice.

    2. Re:Do no evil by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Okay but.
      It does appear that they where posting data to a social networking site. Sorry but right there I say even if it is marked private it isn't really all that private.
      Also it does look like they where guilty of the crime. Sorry but child abuse isn't exactly the crime-du-jour. Kiddie porn has been an issue for a while and so child molestation.
      I am trying to see just what is wrong here? It isn't like Google was handing over bloggers that where pushing for democracy. It looks like Google turned over data of people that where systematically molesting children.
      Sorry but this seems like a whole lot of getting bent over nothing.
      BTW a judge can order a search on suspicion as long as the suspicion is good enough that it reaches probably cause.
      A good example would be if your wife is missing. The night before people heard you fighting with her. I can see a judge giving a search warrant based on that suspicion. I think most people could. And that is mere suspicion.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    3. Re:Do no evil by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Suspicion should never be enough to get a warrant. Probable cause, yes, and even strong suspicion with corroborating evidence. But mere suspicion? Never. That will open the barn door to abuse, and we're back to McCarthy.

      Or, for immediate actions without a warrant, only when you can justify a belief that immediate action was needed to save the lives or health of others.

    4. Re:Do no evil by FauxPasIII · · Score: 1

      > It's not as cut and dried as that unfortunately. Sometimes certain rights - like the right
      > to liberty - need to be denied suspects until their innocence is proven, due to the risk of
      > their committing further offences, or of fleeing justice.

      That all depends on where your society places its priorities. Is it more important to take
      every possible opportunity to capture lawbreakers, even if it means casting an overly wide net?
      Or is protecting the rights of the innocent the most fundamental priority?

      Myself, I agree with Ben Franklin "that it is better one hundred guilty Persons should escape
      than that one innocent Person should suffer". The accused MUST be treated as though they are
      innocent until their guilt is proven. If that means that some means of collecting evidence are
      unavailable, then that's the wages of living in a free society.

      --
      25% Funny, 25% Insightful, 25% Informative, 25% Troll
    5. Re:Do no evil by DrWho520 · · Score: 1

      He stressed that Brazilian officials had received 50,000 allegations of pedophilia in recent years, and that Orkut was suspected of being an online gathering point for sexual predators of children.

      The state prosecutor for Sao Paulo, Sergio Suiama, last month said 90 percent of the 56,000 pedophilia allegations received in the past few years related to Orkut.

      "They are exchanging telephone numbers, names of possible victims, the situations in which they live" as well as photos, the senator said.

      How many allegations do you need? This is not a conspiracy made up of politicians in the back room, this is a plea for help. 50,000?!? Did you read it? This is not "thinkofthechildren." They are not cracking down on P2P sites or warez traders. They are not blaming violence on video games. THE ARE GOING AFTER KID TOUCHERS, YOU GIANT DOUCHE!!!

      --
      The cancel button is your friend. Do not hesitate to use it.
    6. Re:Do no evil by nametaken · · Score: 1

      I guess the difficult part then is context.

      I'd rather 1 innocent person had their Orkut info turned over to their Gov than let 100 pedo's get away with the things they do.

      Now if we're talking about falsely imprisoning or god forbid executing 1 innocent person in our efforts to lock up 100 pedo's... the situation becomes unacceptable.

      Maybe it would be a non-issue if I had a better idea of the difference between suspicion and probably cause was, in Brazil.

    7. Re:Do no evil by arth1 · · Score: 1

      But where's the link to the individuals they want the information on? The problem is that it's a blanket dragnet that will hit innocents too, and not targeted at individuals for which there is probable cause.

    8. Re:Do no evil by MrMacman2u · · Score: 1

      Oy!!! Sorry man! I heard what you said but I'm WAAAY to busy falling down this slippery slope to reply right now!

      --
      This signature is lame.
    9. Re:Do no evil by Opportunist · · Score: 1

      The problem is, that this is more like "having a million innocent people's info turned over to the feds to maybe catch a criminal"

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Do no evil by gatzke · · Score: 1


      Privacy is something we expect from our government. Google Orkut and other online services are not our government, they are private entities. They aren't even common carrier (at this point).

      Think of another bad slashdot analogy: Coffee shop. You are the proprietor and you overhear a bunch of pervs meeting every Tuesday to share pervy info about kids. You should probably call the cops, not just wait for a warrant or the police to ask you what you know. Call the cops with a tip and maybe some supporting evidence, let the cops get a warrant to collect legally binding evidence, supply the evidence as requested, then send them all to jail.

      I assume Google could put something like that in the EULA for their services. "Private" to google should mean we don't publish it online to the public, not that they can't ever look at it. I think that fits under "do no evil" as in users should do no evil too.

      If you want to make a private perv net with a private perv-friendly EULA, go ahead. It is like moving your perv coffee house meetings to a private location with sufficient privacy for your needs. Cops would have to do traditional procedures for wiretapping suspects which I think are better established without a third party involved.

    11. Re:Do no evil by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 1

      A good example would be if your wife is missing. The night before people heard you fighting with her. I can see a judge giving a search warrant based on that suspicion. I think most people could. And that is mere suspicion.

      No, that's suspicion supported by evidence.

      --
      I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
    12. Re:Do no evil by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      Not really. What evidence? Just about everybody has disagreement with a spouse. That isn't much evidence at all. And people do just take off sometimes.
      You need to learn what evidence is.
      You issue a search warrant to get evidence.
      And you are assuming that there was no probable cause in this case. Seems to me that is very unlikely. I don't think Google turned over all the data for everybody on their site for the police to sift through.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    13. Re:Do no evil by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      Exactly. Suspicion alone should never be enough to get a warrant but it should be enough to get someone watched. We'll stick to the pedophile theme here.

      You get some single man with no kids who likes to go to the park and watch the children play. He'll he brings a lunch and makes a day of it. Suspicious yes, illegal no. Probable cause, no. Now if you see that same man trying to lure a child off alone, now you have probable cause. But is the man just talking to the child? That is suspicious but not enough for probable cause.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    14. Re:Do no evil by csartanis · · Score: 1

      It's not as cut and dried as that unfortunately. Sometimes certain rights - like the right to liberty - need to be denied suspects until their innocence is proven, due to the risk of their committing further offences, or of fleeing justice. Never. This is completely unacceptable. If you have no evidence of wrong doing, no rights shall be suspended.
    15. Re:Do no evil by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 1

      I am certainly not a lawyer. 'Evidence' may not be the correct legal term. However, if your wife is missing, and people can be confirmed to have heard you fighting right before you went missing, that would seem to indicate more than an unfounded suspicion that it would worth looking into you as a suspect. Certainly no reasonable person would question the police checking your past history and whereabouts based on that information.

      The concepts of evidence and warrants are not as tightly connected as your post implies. My understanding of US law is that you request a search warrant to get access to protected premises or items that are not otherwise legally available to the authorities, such as your property inside your house or locked vehicle, bank records, or, we'd desire, your browsing history. A cop does not need a search warrant, for example, to seize a bag of pot laying in plain sight on your car seat, if he sees it when issuing you a ticket. The pot then becomes evidence, no warrant required, and you, sir are about to have legal issues.

      Case law is also quite clear that cops can search your garbage, no warrant required, and items found will be used as evidence against you. A cop can seize a weapon used in a bar fight, no warrant required, and it certainly becomes evidence. The controlling concept, as I understand it, is reasonable expectation of privacy, as embodied in the fourth amendment, which can be seen here.

      Our browsing history is not in 'plain sight', and under US law, that means that it would normally require a warrant, which requires reasonable evidence of probable cause(I'm probably mis-using that e-word again).

      At any rate, that's quibbling over the major point, which is at what point does an investigation become founded on some fact, and more than a fishing expedition which we are protected against by our laws.

      --
      I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
    16. Re:Do no evil by LWATCDR · · Score: 1

      But google didn't had over browsing history. It granted access to "private" data on a social networking site. The very idea of private data on a social networking site. The Police must have had some suspicion to ask for the data. So I would guess that they had probable cause. Also what you and I are forgetting is that these users are in Brazil. I have no idea what laws apply in Brazil as far as search. All too often the US government, companies, and even individuals have been accused of ignoring or interfering with the legal systems of other countries. In this case Google is getting hammered over what seems to me like a cooperative good deed. For all I know Google fought it for a while. Maybe they decided to check and see what is on their own server and went ewwww... and handed the data over to a foreign government after they where sure that there was wrong doing. I just don't know from the story but to me it all seems like it is on the up and up.

      --
      See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
    17. Re:Do no evil by russotto · · Score: 1

      How many allegations do you need?
      Depends on the quality of the allegations. I could pick male-sounding names out of the phone book and make up a bunch of allegations of telephone-related suspected rapists. Doesn't mean the phone company should be turning over conversations or even call record data for all of the arbitrarily accused.
  4. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    they want to HAVE SEX WITH CHILDREN. you think its a bad thing the police dont know about them? fuck privacy

  5. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Xacid · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Actually, on Friday I'm in love. :) However, privacy and yadda yadda yadda. Pedophiles are the lowest of the lowest in my book. Why not use social networking sites as tools to catch those guys? If anything it'll deter them from using those sites to chase their prey.

  6. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by KDR_11k · · Score: 1

    We need to wage a War on Crimethink!

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
  7. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Who knows if they already didn't? JAIL FOR THEM ALL!

  8. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by saleenS281 · · Score: 1, Insightful

    they want to QUESTION THE RULING REGIME OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. you think its a bad thing the police know about them? fuck privacy.

  9. There must be a reasonable middle ground somewhere by JSBiff · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Don't get me wrong, I'm all for protecting people's rights from undue invasion by governments. But there is also a need for governments to get access to information for criminal investigations. It's just as unreasonable to say that government should have no access to information about suspected terrorists and pedophiles, as it is to say that the government should have access to *everyones* information.

  10. The slope, she be slippery! by Khisanth+Magus · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Although I usually hate the "slippery slope" argument, I think this is really one case where it is valid. Today they decide that it is ok to release the information on SUSPECTED pedophiles. Once you've opened the gates on something like this it is very hard to close it. If suspected pedophiles are ok, how about suspected terrorists? Suspected murderers? Where do you draw the line?

    1. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Chrisq · · Score: 1

      Where do you draw the line? Suspected copyright infringes? Suspected "time thieves", who are using the internet at work? ..... oh.
    2. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by InlawBiker · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You draw the line with a court order. No court order no data. This way it becomes a legal issue instead of a moral issue.

    3. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by arth1 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Also, when did pedophilia become a crime? Child abuse, yes, that is a heinous crime.
      But why should someone who just fantasizes about sex with children be treated as a criminal? Because he or she might have a higher risk of abusing children in the future? Is that potential risk a criminal act people should be punished for? Does our hatred of the crime blind us so much that we are willing to harshly punish others who have done no wrong in order to possibly save more children?

      In my opinion, this doesn't turn the pedophiles into monsters; it turns us into monsters.

    4. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by iamsamed · · Score: 1
      Or, how many of us fantasized about robbing a bank, taking over a small country, or even, as Bush himself admitted, being Dictator of America? Would that make us a bank robber or a traitor?

      Any writer of crime fiction could be considered a criminal. Or a Tom Clancy type of writer who writes about plots to assassinate the President. Does the SS investigate them?

    5. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      This was an action in Brazil, dipshit. Ordering all nations to come into line with the US on courts or just the US in general is a particularly stupid thing to do.

      I *am* confused with someone on the US TSA hit lists and I hate it. You can't ever get off no matter how innocent you are. I also got confused with someone in a 3rd world country while going through a background check there. They made a check, figured out it wasn't me and I haven't had a problem since.

    6. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      If they have a reasonable lead and take it to a judge then I really fail to see your line of reasoning here.

      If there *is* a strong suspicion that someone is involved in murder or terrorism (whether through physical evidence or witness testimony) and a judge clears this then I hope to heck they don't pussyfoot around the guy's privacy.

    7. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

      But why should someone who just fantasizes about sex with children be treated as a criminal?

      Because BEST CASE is someone who doesn't act on their desires. That is the best case. Figure everyone is somewhere close to the middle of best/worse case scenario. That is the law of averages. Now think about that. Your next door neighbor loves fantasizing about sex with children, and you have a child. Said neighbor has the likelyhood of being somewhere in the middle between "Harmless man who likes fantasizing about children" and "Man who will chain your child up to a bed and rape them a million times over, after which, he beats the child to death with a baseball bat".

      It is like a heroin junky fantasizing about heroin. In the BEST case, they won't ever use again... but we all know how often the best scenario unfolds

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    8. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Wouldn't someone have to take the pictures or video of the child(ren) though in the first place for someone to search for it?

    9. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by sakdoctor · · Score: 1

      Also, when did pedophilia assimilate the meaning of ephebophilia.
      Are we simplifying the language to make thought-crime impossible?

    10. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by VeNoM0619 · · Score: 1

      Despite going against the flow of karma. I agree

      This morning while walking in to work, I saw a parent smoking around her (5-7? yr old?) child while holding the child's hand (so, right next to it).

      That's right, how often she does this I do not know, but think about it. How much worse is smoking around a child than touching a child? It's normal for parents to touch their children in certain areas while bathing them, but the second the parent somehow gets a "joy" out of it, its criminal.

      Yet, comparing the two offenses (hell looking a child and getting a "joy" out of it is criminal in itself nowadays) which hurts the child more?

      I'm not against smoking, and I'm not for child abuse/ponography, but I AM for EQUALITY, therefor I am only making an observation to an equation for you to solve.

      --
      Disclaimer: I am not god.
      We may not be created equal
      But we can be treated equal.
    11. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by LordActon · · Score: 1

      Don't you think it matters what evidence the authorities showed Google? If you were Google's lawyer and the police showed up with enough evidence to convince any judge of the need for a warrant, why would you fight it?

    12. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by InlawBiker · · Score: 1

      Do you for some reason believe that there are no courts in Brazil?

    13. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      are you saying we should categorize people based on Best Case Scenario and start acting against those who we see fit ?

    14. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by inviolet · · Score: 1

      But why should someone who just fantasizes about sex with children be treated as a criminal?
      Because BEST CASE is someone who doesn't act on their desires. That is the best case. Figure everyone is somewhere close to the middle of best/worse case scenario. That is the law of averages.

      No "law of averages" says any such thing.

      It so happens that most natural continua fall onto bell-shaped curves, but you have ZERO data about the distribution of paedophilic urges in humanity.

      More generally, if a social issue seems simple to you, then you do not understand it. After all, the fewer the data points, the smoother the curve.

      --
      FATMOUSE + YOU = FATMOUSE
    15. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Hatta · · Score: 1

      It's like someone fantasizing about killing their boss. Sure the BEST case scenario is that they'll forget about it and come back to work Monday, but you can't be too sure. Best to imprison everyone who's ever thought about killing their boss, even just for a second.

      Substitute boss with president, wife, etc, etc, and everyone would be in jail. This is why "thoughtcrime" is a bad idea.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    16. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What planet are you from?

    17. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by TheRealMindChild · · Score: 1

      Apparently you have never had to deal with a heroin junky. Fact of the matter is, YOU want to throw out the notion that you can't judge a person based upon so little facts. Well let me tell you something. A heroin junky is a heroin junky. Their face and name doesn't matter, because they are all the same. Like it or not, that is how it is. Certain behaviors are fundamentally compulsive and dangerous, whether you think it is fair or not. Take a person who likes to play with fire (pyromaniac). Like it or not, at SOME POINT they are going to light something like a house or a forest on fire.

      --

      "When life gives you lemons, don't make lemonade. Make life take the lemons back!" -- Cave Johnson
    18. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 1

      Right before they get to suspected marijuana users, I hope.

      --
      I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
    19. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 1

      Pedophiles aren't arrested for their internal fantasies. They are arrested for possession and distribution of child pornography.

    20. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Schadrach · · Score: 1

      In common parlance? About a decade ago. If they're 17 years, 364 days, 23 hours, and 59 seconds old, their older partner is *clearly* a pedophile. In a medical sense, however, it's more interesting. By the DSM, pedophilia only refers to such an interest in those who are prepubescent. Ehpebophilia isn't in the DSM at all, as from the current medical/psychological standpoint someone who is interested solely in postpubescent persons as partners is normal.

    21. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      "and courts started issuing threats of contempt"

      You get held in contempt if the *court*, not the cops, asks for the data. The court did ask for the data, and as such not providing such data puts you at risk for contempt of court.

      IANAL, and this is Brazil, not the US, so their legal grey areas are different than your home nation's, unless you too are Brazilian.

    22. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

      Take a person who likes to play with fire (pyromaniac). Like it or not, at SOME POINT they are going to light something like a house or a forest on fire. That's a bit of a Hasty Generalisation.

      Seriously though, the fact that somebody who likes to play with fire is more likely to burn something down is not a reason to lock up all pyros.
      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    23. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

      You had an argument at smoking. Then you said touching and lost it.

      Touching is horrid. The question is not smoking vs touching. The question is smoking vs our rights as a civilization (Innocent until proven guilty).

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    24. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by computational+super · · Score: 1
      but we all know how often the best scenario unfolds

      Um, actually, no, we don't. We have no idea how many people fantasize about heroin use but then don't use it again. In fact, the only ones we ever find out about are the ones who do use it again. It could be 99% for all we know.

      --
      Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
    25. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Belial6 · · Score: 1

      Who doesn't like to play with fire? I know very few people that didn't go through at least a phase where they liked to play with fire. Hell, just drive through your town, and look at all of the fireplaces. Unless you live in a third world country, every single one of them is there because people like to play with fire. With very few exceptions, fireplaces are massively inefficient for heating a home, yet people love them. Why? Because people love to play with fire. Fortunately, most people learn very young that there is a limit to what you can do to safely play with fire, and realize that crossing that line isn't worth it.

      Your use of playing with fire in this argument actually works against you.

    26. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by VeNoM0619 · · Score: 0

      Then you have missed the entire point:
      My "argument" is what is worse for a child? Seeing how the GP is arguing that when did pedophilia become a crime.

      --
      Disclaimer: I am not god.
      We may not be created equal
      But we can be treated equal.
    27. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      Take a person who likes to play with fire (pyromaniac). Like it or not, at SOME POINT they are going to light something like a house or a forest on fire.

      That is complete and utter(udder?) BullShit! I love to play with fire. I love to watch things burn, come up with creative ways to set things on fire, I even built a flame thrower when I was a kid. Hell, yeah, I'm a pyromaniac and I'm proud of it. I like to blow shit up too.

      Guess what? I've never had the desire to burn down a house, well yeah I have, but only if it would have been a legal burn. Lets just say I've never lit one up. I hate people that start forest fires, what a complete waist of resources and just pure natural splendor.

      Heroin is a complete different cow too. You can't compare a pyromaniac, or even a pedophile, to a heroin junky. Heroin itself causes a addiction much like nicotine only stronger. It causes physical discomfort and mental trauma if not acted on. My little fixation with liking to watch things burn causes me none of that.

      I assume its the same for pedophiles. They maybe depressed they can't act on their urges but it won't kill them.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    28. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Alas thanks to the overhype on the subject a lot of people don't realize the differnce.

      Child molesters are scum, criminals, and several other choice adjectives.

      A pedophile on the other hand in someone who is sexually attracted to children.

      While most child molesters are indeed pedophiles, not all pedophiles are child molesters. the differnce here is that one has actually committed the crime and one is at a statistically (unknown) higher risk of committing that crime. One is hurting children, one might. Say hello to thought crime!

      Infact I'm willing to bet most pedophiles quietly hide who they are for fear of being found out, find themselves a girlfriend with small tits who likes to shave and do their best to pretend they are normal. But we don't care if its someone who going to go molest children in the park washroom or someone who quietly trying to get on with life, think of the children! Oh my god! I'm defending the pedos! what kind of horrible monster could I be?

      I'm someone who thinks everyone is entitled to their rights, no matter what. Thats why they are rights
      And its fucking sad that we've come to a point where you MIGHT commit a crime so you should be treated like a criminal.

      Child molesters are bad bad people, but we go on and on about how great it is to live here, how western society is so much better, and our rights and freedoms make this the greatest place on earth.

      But if we are willing to take those rights and freedoms from people only because of what they might do, we are most assuredly worse than those we are trying to catch.

    29. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Heh. I might not agree with the guy, but how much of an idiot do you need to be to actually confuse casual fireplace usage and plain adolescent irresponsibility with PYROMANIA?

    30. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In Brazil, you may freely have a picture of a child having sex with and adult.

      But, if you share it, for money or not, it's a crime.

      It's like the difference between drug users and traffickers.

      What the Brazilian Justice wants is to find out if the people who appear in the pictures in those albums are the album owner's. But, as people may now flag the albums as private, they can't simply just look there anymore.

      If I have a picture of you having sex with a kid, you are the criminal, not me.

    31. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Somewhere in the middle? somewhere in the middle between 'look and don't touch' and 'chained to a bed' would probably be;

      The dude finds him self a short woman, with small tits, who likes to get waxed.

      Look on the net, theres plenty of short women in porn who have small tits (most of em asian), hell there's sites who specialize in models who look underage but are not. (though i mean theres sites for lego porn, so no porn speciality site should come as a surprise :P)

      Best case or not (though you seem to think best case is locking somebody up because of how they think) its about impulse control.

      Somebody may be sexually attracted to children, however as sentient being we have this handy thing. The ability to reason. So one applies logic and understand that acting on that desire is bad. In this case fap material like fiction would actually HELP since he'd have a safe outlet for his desire.

      If you need a more personal example since you seem to react by emotion rather than logic lets examine my impulse control in relation to you.

      Your idiocy makes me want to hunt you down so I can slap some sense into you, however that impulse is checked when logic applies.

      Tracking you down through only a /. username and number (TheRealMindChild (743925)) to start with would be a hassle, (but it should be noted with the ever eroding privacy laws world wide its probably possible if I'm willing to spend that much time and effort) and the likelihood that your not even in the same country as me leads me to decide its not worth the effort no matter how much personal satisfaction I might derive from the experience.

      Logic wins over blind impulses.

      The reason I think your an Idiot, since it obviously isn't clear to you (you said it after all) is because you want to lock someone up for what they MIGHT do. Thats simply not acceptable.

    32. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What's with all the pedophile apologists on slashdot these days? I thought you guys preferred to troll on wikipedia.

    33. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Wavebreak · · Score: 1

      Even disregarding the blatant generalization (If it's true in my experience, it must always be true. Fuck that.), how is heroin relevant to this in any way whatsoever?

      --
      Nobody expects the British Columbia Human Rights Tribunal.
    34. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I suggest you test this theory by writing down a fantasy involving sex with a child, then next time you see a cop, casually mention that you wrote it.

      Consider that CARTOON kiddie porn (involving no real children whatever) is illegal as well. So be sure to tell your cop friend about the drawings you made of little girls in just their underwear, too.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    35. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 1

      I suggest you write down a detailed story about assassinating the current president and casually mention it to a cop. Be sure to tell the cop about the line-of-sight schematics you drew up for the president's next public appearance.

    36. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I made that very point (tho not in such fine detail :) in another post. And yep, it won't matter one bit that it's just a silly fantasy.

      There's a video game where you get to play the JFK assassin. One has to wonder if merely *possessing* a copy of this game could be construed as a crime.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    37. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by MyNymWasTaken · · Score: 1

      How is a cop supposed to know that it's just a silly fantasy?

      JFK Reloaded is an example of historical fiction, not current viable planning. Even the act of writing down current viable plans isn't illegal, however it could provide probable cause for further official investigation. If the police found illegal armaments while conducting the investigation, that is what the suspect would be arrested for.

      The GP's point was that pedophilia is prosecuted as a thoughtcrime. It isn't. The thought isn't legally actionable, but the action of ownership & distribution of contraband (e.g. child pornography) is.

    38. Re:The slope, she be slippery! by Reziac · · Score: 1

      But the real point was -- if there are no actual children involved (as with written fiction, hentai, etc.) WHY is that a crime? Written or cartoon kiddie porn is FICTION. Yet possessing it is a crime, prosecuted just as zealously as that involving photographs of real kids.

      So -- explain to me how possession of FICTION is NOT a thoughtcrime?? What makes it a crime, other than a law which fails to distinguish fantasy from reality??

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  11. What's worse? by jackflap · · Score: 0, Troll

    I'm not necessarily saying that it's alright to provide personal information of its users, but how bad are paedophiles comparitively really? To be honest, I think paedophiles are the worst offender, far worse than terrorists. At leasts terrorists can be looked at in a positive light, i.e. freedom fighters. What good have paedophiles ever done? You can't even play devil's advocate and say that they're doing anything good. Yes I know my argument is ignoring all specifics of the two types of people. Let me address that, I believe paedophiles have mental health problems, meaning they need medical treatment and not imprisonment. However, the number of paedophiles and rapists who live in our society and never get caught, I reckon, is far far higher than most believe. I do believe something needs to be done to address the issue.

    1. Re:What's worse? by RHSC · · Score: 1

      are they worse than murderers? Their victims at least tend to live

    2. Re:What's worse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      To be honest, I think paedophiles are the worst offender, far worse than terrorists. At leasts terrorists can be looked at in a positive light, i.e. freedom fighters. What good have paedophiles ever done? You can't even play devil's advocate and say that they're doing anything good. they founded the terrorists' religion!!

    3. Re:What's worse? by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Pedophiles are often looked down upon in a worse light than murderers. I won't claim to know which is truly worse, but there are some who would claim that there are far worse things you can do to a person than kill them.

      Read "Night" by Elie Wiesel. It is a first-hand accounting of the Holocaust, and what gets me is that the book isn't all angry, nor someone looking for pity. The author doesn't recount how horrible the Nazis were. While in the camp, he is brainwashed, turns on God, and begins to empathize with them. He begins to resent his father for being old and weak.

      The Nazis didn't kill Elie Wiesel, but for a while they killed who he was, and everything he believed in. Perhaps a better example would be how the US government did everything to destroy Native American culture, even after they stopped killing Indians themselves. They had a policy of "Kill the Indian, Save the Man".

      Which is worse? Killing a person, or destroying a culture and trying to wipe it from history?

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    4. Re:What's worse? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      Pedophiles are often looked down upon in a worse light than murderers. I won't claim to know which is truly worse, but there are some who would claim that there are far worse things you can do to a person than kill them.

      Psaw and balderdash, I say! If those who say rape is worse than murder truly believe this to be the case, they would advocate legal euthanasia for rape victims.
    5. Re:What's worse? by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      There is a very interesting discussion here on suffering, the quality of human life, why it is humane to euthanize dogs, and evil to euthanize humans, etc.

      However said discussion would be quite lengthy and off-topic.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    6. Re:What's worse? by MrMacman2u · · Score: 1

      Whoa now buck-a-roo, Pedophiles != Child Abusers

      First you need to get your terms straightened out.

      Pedophilia is the love of children, like a foster parent who loves the children he/she is caring for as their own.

      Child Abuse is the physical, mental or SEXUAL abuse of a minor.

      Just an FYI!

      Now, while I agree that those that abuse children SHOULD be caught and punished for their crimes.

      I AM going to play devils advocate for a while because, in my mind, if you can't see both sides of an argument, then you shouldn't be arguing.

      I'm not so certain that these people are the, to paraphrase from your statement, "useless, mentally disturbed" individuals that you seem convinced that are.

      Here's a thought, people used to consider "radical" things such as homosexuality a "mental illness" yet science has proven that to be incorrect. Now, here's my logic. Humans are still driven by "basic" instincts such as hunger, thirst and the want to pass of their genetics via reproduction.

      On that note, a male is fertile for the vast majority of his life span while a female has a comparatively "narrow" span where she is able to reproduce.

      Therefore, logic suggests that a male will always attempt to find the youngest fertile female possible because she will be able to produce more of his offspring than if he had chosen an older female.

      As for females, they will always want the best possibly genetics from the male and it's ALSO been proven that sperm quality decreases with age. Therefore, again, logically she would seek out younger mates who would be able to best impregnate her.

      Who says that this instinct or genetically influenced "drive" for a "prime" age to reproduce has not "drifted" to younger or older ages for some individuals?

      I believe it has in some cases and we only hear about cases of child abuse because an 18 year old finding a 30 or 40 year old is not such a big deal.

      Again, this was me playing devils advocate, however, my stance about people who abuse children is one of such disturbing cruelty that I would probably banned for sharing it...

      Cheers!

      --
      This signature is lame.
    7. Re:What's worse? by megaditto · · Score: 0, Troll

      You can't even play devil's advocate and say that they're doing anything good. Of course they are doing heaps of good as long as sex follows a legal marriage, and as long as the parents and the child consent to such union. Look, kids are gonna fuck around anyways, so you might as place sex in confines of a holy matrimony and with an experienced and loving husband instead of the backseat of dad's car or behind bushes with a drug-infested dumbass.

      Young marriage can strengthen Family. For example, a lot of Muslims can marry girls as young as 4 as long as they wait until she's 9 before having sex. Similar practices are true for some fundamentalist Christian sects, Orthodox Jews, and many other religions. Young girls "grow into it" if you like, instead of accepting promiscuity and infidelity as the norm becoming insecure slutty whores.

      Late marriage, on the other hand, leads to high divorce rate, lack of trust amongst partners, a feeling of transiency and general insecurity of the relationship. Sexual diseases are at an all-time high in promiscuous late marriage societies encouraging random sex. Currently, 1 in 4 teenage girls in America has an STD: how's that for "Think of the Children" for you?

      Traditionally, early marriage is the norm. For most of human history 12-14 was the acceptable marriage age for girls, and certainly some of your ancestors had sex with children by modern definition: girls would be introduced by the time they are 13-14 and married off to an older man within half a year of that. If the girl was single at 16 she was considered to be too old. By 20, an old-maid destined to remain alone forever (read Pride and Prejudice or War and Peace or some other older books for examples of that; notice how some of the characters were pregnant at 15, and certainly mature enough for it. Both books are in the public domain right now).

      Also consider that people advocating against marriage to young girls are the very same people that oppose abstinense, chastity, and morality of any sort in general. These tend to be the abortion/homosexualism zealots with their beliefs rooted in devil-worship, bestiality, and occult/nazi practices of yesteryears.
      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
    8. Re:What's worse? by jackflap · · Score: 1
      I'm not really sure how well you're paraphrasing my statement when you say:

      I'm not so certain that these people are the, to paraphrase from your statement, "useless, mentally disturbed" individuals that you seem convinced that are. If you check the background of the term mental health (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mental_health) you'll find that within medical circles mental health problems are very common and also is something that needs to be addressed in all areas of society. Also I specifically argued that they should not be locked up:

      Now, while I agree that those that abuse children SHOULD be caught and punished for their crimes. But to counter-argue your main point, being that as men, we're programmed to find the youngest females, I would have to disagree. Impregnating girls under the age of 16 (maybe 15 depending on where you are) I should think will significantly reduce the chances of my offspring's survival, simply because I don't think girls that young are physically or emotionally mature enough to bear, raise and support children and provide them with higher chances of survival than a woman who is more in her prime.
    9. Re:What's worse? by jackflap · · Score: 0
      Nice one, I like it :) Since they're married, then it's okay. Damn, so all this time, the largest demographic of people I thought were actually commiting rape, weren't actually carrying out rape, they were just forcing the other person to have sex with them. Ohhhh.. http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/r159.pdf

      Women are most likely to be sexually attacked by men they know in some way, most often partners (32%) or acquaintances (22%). Current partners (at the time of the attack) were responsible for 45% of rapes reported
    10. Re:What's worse? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      What the hell are you smoking? Please tell me so I can avoid it at all costs!

      You make numerous contradictory statements that are reminders of biblical times and your religious references are simply hilarious.

      You also use ancient lifestyles and practices as a references that have died out or changed to fit into modern lifestyles.

      Go stuff your head in a woodchipper and turn it into mulch, maybe then your brain will get some use.

    11. Re:What's worse? by Tim+Browse · · Score: 1

      First you need to get your terms straightened out. Pedophilia is the love of children, like a foster parent who loves the children he/she is caring for as their own. O RLY?
    12. Re:What's worse? by megaditto · · Score: 1

      I suppose your suggestion that I "stuff my head in a woodchipper" fits the "modern lifestyles" all too well.

      Regardless, you best remember that arrogance cannot remedy ignorance.

      --
      Obama likes poor people so much, he wants to make more of them.
  12. I hope their police know what tey are doing by Chrisq · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lets hope the police are better than the UK police, who basically ruined this man's life on a false allegation of being a paedophile.

    It would be one ting if they had a reasonable amount of evidence, but it seems that it was all based on his credit card being used to pay for kiddie porn. Like how many purvs will use their own cards. Anyway, he later found that the computer that entered his details was in Indonesia, and could prove that he was in the UK at the time ... something the police should have looked into before charging him.

    1. Re:I hope their police know what tey are doing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I read that article, and while what happened to Mr Bunce is truly horrible, I fail to see how the police ruined his life.

      I mean... like it or not, but possession of child pornography is a crime. And while the fact that Mr Bunce's credit card (the abstract card, not the actual piece of plastic) was apparently used to purchase it doesn't mean he's guilty, it does mean he's suspect - reason enough to investigate.

      That's just what the police did.

      It turned out he was innocent, too - granted, he himself proved that, but I don't know why we shouldn't assume that the police would not have arrived at the same conclusion, given that he WAS innocent.

      The truly horrible thing about it all is not what the police did, but rather what everyone else did when they heard he was suspected (ONLY suspected) - his employer fired him, his family disowned him, and so on. THEY are the ones that should be ashamed, because THEY are the ones that ruined his life. (In particular, I think his employer should be sued for compensation.)

      As for the police... they weren't the shining beacons of swift investigation that they're supposed to be - seriously, sitting on computer you've confiscated for months is not excusable -, but it's not like they tried to frame him or something.

    2. Re:I hope their police know what tey are doing by jeffmeden · · Score: 1

      As long as he doesn't get treated like he resembled a terrorist, then he got off light!

    3. Re:I hope their police know what tey are doing by underpants_gnome · · Score: 1

      For those that don't remember (or know) Jean Charles' case, here goes the obligatory Wikipedia link. =P

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jean_Charles_de_Menezes

  13. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Phyrexicaid · · Score: 2, Funny

    Pedo's ruin it for everyone!

    --
    The meme is dead, long live the meme!
  14. Once you're suspected.. by Janos421 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    "Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him."
    -Cardinal Richelieu

    I took this quote from Scroogled story...

    1. Re:Once you're suspected.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      "Give me six lines written by the most honorable of men, and I will find an excuse in them to hang him."
      -Cardinal Richelieu

      I took this quote from Scroogled story... Would you please write 5 more lines?
    2. Re:Once you're suspected.. by c4ffeine · · Score: 1

      Why bother? He's already admitted to copyright infringement (he took the quote from another source without documenting it properly). Screw fair use, lynch him!

      --
      "73% of quotes on the Internet are made up" -Ben Franklin
  15. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by kabocox · · Score: 5, Insightful

    On Wednesday they handed over information on pedophiles
    On Thursday they handed over information on terrorists
    On Friday they handed over information on file-sharers
    On Saturday they handed over information on everyone
    Wednesday was the hardest. Every day after that it got easier and easier.


    What are you talking about? Wednesday they had to hand over every one's data because everyone is suspected of being a pedophile, which is now defined as communicating in any form with a minor.

  16. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Klaus_1250 · · Score: 1

    Guess your post says it all. For those who didn't RTFA, here is the really short dramatic version:

    ... Authorities had threatened Google with criminal and civil lawsuits ...
    ... ceding to pressure to lift its confidentiality duty to its users ...
    ... a wide-ranging deal that would see the US company systematically providing data on suspect Orkut users to Brazilian authorities ...
    ... the company had "no problem cooperating with Brazilian justice" ...
    --
    It only takes one man to change the Wisdom of the Crowd to Tyranny of the Masses.
  17. re: Sometimes, Google scares me.... by King_TJ · · Score: 1

    I was watching some TV news show 2 or 3 weeks ago, about the idea of businesses becoming "Big Brother". (May have been a Dateline episode or some such thing... I only caught the middle of it.)

    But anyway, it went into the ways the big ISPs and search engine sites are co-operating with govt. and law enforcement, happily turning over considerable amounts of information. It told a story, for example, of a guy who was convicted of murdering his wife on the beach, despite his initial alibi holding up. Apparently, he claimed shots were fired from across the road, in the brush someplace, and his wife was struck by them. The only thing that really got him convicted was the fact that law enforcement demanded Google turn over his complete history of searches he'd done from his computer's IP address, going back YEARS. Google did so, and they found out he'd done a number of searches, about a year earlier, on such things as how to murder someone and get away with it, info on bullet projectiles, etc. etc.

    Google admitted that they do store EVERY SINGLE SEARCH anyone ever does, and can go all the way back to when their operation first started.

    My more cynical side wonders if this is *really* the reason Google stock is valued so highly? As this TV show touched on, Google is in position to be the most comprehensive and powerful data-provider on the planet for people paying for someone's personal information. Depending on how many free services a person has availed themselves of, Google would be able to cough up photos of a person's friends, family, relatives, pets, home and car, and who knows what else. If they use Google Checkout, they'd have info on income they received from Internet sales. If they use their free online Office applications, they could even provide copies of any Excel spreadsheets or Word documents they worked on through it. They've got a complete archive of any email correspondence they did via Gmail (and other mail accounts too, if someone forwards their email to Gmail so they can check it all with just one account). And obviously, they have a pretty good profile of the individual based on all the searches they've ever done while online. Don't forget, if they watch videos on YouTube, that ALSO gives some info on the person and their interests.

    This totally eclipses what traditional credit agencies and "data miners" are able to sell their customers, and means they're positioned to generate FAR more revenue than from things like ad banners and "placement"!

  18. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Tim+C · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Oh now I'm as rabidly pro-privacy as the next person, but questioning authority and planning to commit a crime are entirely different matters.

    I'm not supporting Google's actions, just pointing out that your counter-example is wrong.

  19. "suspected" is the key word by Animaether · · Score: 1

    I don't know anything about Brazilian law - so somebody who does might clue the rest of us in, but...

    In most countries the deal is that if you know somebody is a pedophile (convicted or registered by choice - rare as that may be), then a case worker gets to know 'their every move' as it is, including online dealings. If the caseworker thinks the person has a MySpace account and wants access to it - that case worker can order the person to reveal their login details. If the person then refuses, they can get a court order for MySpace to reveal the details of the account. MySpace could then opt to refuse, but that'll get them in a world of hurt.

    Seems to me that the brazilian authorities didn't even do the Court Order thing:
    "Authorities had threatened Google with criminal and civil lawsuits if it did not comply with opening the restricted online photo albums of users under suspicion."
    'Comply with opening' under court order? Then yes, Google should get suits against it. 'Comply with opening' under an informal request? Uh, no.

    But to get back to the subject.. what's worse is that this isn't even people who they know are pedophiles.. they're just suspected... "The US Internet giant delivered 3,261 files to a Brazilian senate commission" - that's 3,261 people they suspect might be pedophiles. "Torres said he believed Google's data would incriminate around 200 pedophiles." - That's 200 they think actually will be found guilty of violating laws against pedophilia. That's more than 3,000 people whose 'private'* information they have but don't actually expect to get any convictions of; either by lack of solid evidence or simply because those people are innocent. So what happens to their data? (Other than the obvious screening for other possible illegal behavior)

    To top it off, Google plans on making this fully automatic in the future. "Google ... negotiate a wide-ranging deal that would see the US company systematically providing data on suspect Orkut users to Brazilian authorities."
    Lovely.

    * remember, once it's written down anywhere, it's no longer private - no matter what that little "Private" checkbox on Orkut, MySpace, FaceBook, etc. says.

    1. Re:"suspected" is the key word by vbraga · · Score: 1

      That's mostly because Google did not comply with previous orders from Brazilian courts, saying it will only comply if a order was issued by a US court.

      That's the reason Senate requested it. From former court orders.

      It's not all that bad at all.

      --
      English is not my first language. Corrections and suggestions are welcome.
    2. Re:"suspected" is the key word by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      In most countries the deal is that if you know somebody is a pedophile (convicted or registered by choice - rare as that may be)
      You can't be convicted for what you think, in most places. Pedophile != child molester, though it often overlaps-- and yet sometimes it doesn't, in both ways. There are pedophiles who've never molested children, and child rapists that aren't pedophiles. The important thing to remember is that rape and molestation isn't about sex, it's about control, about power. The vulnerable people are far more likely to be victims of both, which is the whole reason that drunks are more likely to get raped or molested, or seniors, or children.
    3. Re:"suspected" is the key word by SuperQ · · Score: 1

      How do you know that 3261 files is actually not just ~16 images per person in their profile?

  20. Wednesday's Child... by AioKits · · Score: 1

    ...is full of woe.
    Thursday's child has far to go.

    Or if you like the original 1887 version:
    Friday's child is full of woe.
    Saturday's child has far to go.

    --
    "Quote me as saying I was mis-quoted." -Groucho Marx
  21. Won't someone think of the children!?!? - NT by street+struttin' · · Score: 0, Redundant

    no text

  22. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by TufelKinder · · Score: 1

    And that's what's called the Slippery Slope fallacy.

    Where is the link between information obtained on criminal activity and information obtained on everyone?

    As for your inclusion of file-sharing: that's an issue of the law, not an issue of privacy. If it becomes illegal to share files, then it's the fault of the lawmakers for making it so, and the voters for voting them in, not Google or anyone else for complying with the law and turning over information on criminal activity.

    Of course, there's a time and place for civil disobedience, but that's an entirely different topic.

    --
    If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
  23. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    They always start with the "lowest of the low" precisely because they know no one will object to it. But they NEVER stop there. The next step is "Well, since you gave us information on these really bad guys, you can't object to giving us info on these *sorta* bad guys" which snowballs to the point where the government eventually just has its own monitoring room at your facility to watch *everyone*.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  24. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by saleenS281 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I just want to point out you completely missed the point. Questioning the ruling party IS a crime in nearly ALL fascist states. THAT is the path we are currently heading down, and THIS is yet another example. Give away your privacy, think of the children!

  25. Bending over backwards to protect criminals by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    It's funny how everyone bends over backward to prevent companies from doing the right thing and then at the end of the day they wonder why our society is going to hell in a hand-basket.

    The other day some local journalists were very upset because police used their unedited film footage to identify and arrest store looters (rioting occurred after a local hockey game).

    I mean, the *nerve* of that police! How dare they try to arrest looters? Today they're using the footage to arrest looters, tomorrow they'll use it to arrest rapists! What's next?!

    Do everyone a favor and reserve your complaints to when the government cracks down on people that do *not* cause want-on harm to society. After all, they weren't cracking down on the pedophiles because the way they look or because of their personal beliefs, rather they did this because some of these people actually went out and abused children!

    1. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by arth1 · · Score: 1

      After all, they weren't cracking down on the pedophiles because the way they look or because of their personal beliefs, rather they did this because some of these people actually went out and abused children!

      Note your words "some of". Should the rest of them be punished for what some of them did?

      This isn't about protecting criminals. It's about protecting innocents, because it does happen that innocent people become suspects. That's why they're called suspects, and not criminals.
      Except by the lynch mob who want to string people up first, and ask questions later.

    2. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

      After all, they weren't cracking down on the pedophiles because the way they look or because of their personal beliefs, rather they did this because some of these people actually went out and abused children!

      Note your words "some of". Should the rest of them be punished for what some of them did?

      This isn't about protecting criminals. It's about protecting innocents, because it does happen that innocent people become suspects. That's why they're called suspects, and not criminals.
      Except by the lynch mob who want to string people up first, and ask questions later. I'm not advocating the lynching of anyone who is sexually attracted to children but does not act on it. What I *am* advocating is that anyone with said attraction be kept away from children. If a pedophile does not keep their distance and a child they had communication with *does* get abused then they're fair game for investigation. That's not abuse of their rights, it's common sense. Similarly if person A lusts the wife of person B and person B ends up dead you can be sure the police will investigate person A as a possible suspect.
    3. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by arth1 · · Score: 1

      I'm not advocating the lynching of anyone who is sexually attracted to children but does not act on it. What I *am* advocating is that anyone with said attraction be kept away from children. If a pedophile does not keep their distance and a child they had communication with *does* get abused then they're fair game for investigation. That's not abuse of their rights, it's common sense. Similarly if person A lusts the wife of person B and person B ends up dead you can be sure the police will investigate person A as a possible suspect.

      In that case, there is a crime. You want to take action before any crime has been committed (and where none might be committed at all), which is a different kettle of fish.
    4. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

      In that case, there is a crime. You want to take action before any crime has been committed (and where none might be committed at all), which is a different kettle of fish. If you read the article it states that a crime *has* been committed. Over 50,000 of them actually, and 90% of them are alleged to be related to Orkut. It's not as if police approached Orkut out of the blue and demanded private information.
    5. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      It's also common sense that every black is a criminal and every muslm is a terrorist? You want to live in a society like that? The problem is you are trying to outlaw thought crimes. You can't make someone a criminal because of what they feel or how they think.

      Personally I wonder how big this pedophile bogeyman really is. From what I read there is one under every rock. I also have to ask if some sicko's are trading 40 year old picture of naked kids online, as long as they are not actually hurting kids, who gives a fuck?

      Child molesters and rapist are a different story. They can do serious harm to children.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    6. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

      It's also common sense that every black is a criminal and every muslm is a terrorist? You want to live in a society like that? The problem is you are trying to outlaw thought crimes. You can't make someone a criminal because of what they feel or how they think. That's not what I said. What I said was that it is reasonable to investigate people with motive or prior history when a crime occur. You seem to imply that all things being equal some guy who is sexually attracted to children is just as likely to have raped one as someone who is not. That is simply not true. I am not saying you convict people for being sexually attracted to children (I already wrote that in a prior post) but rather that it quite logical to investigate them as potential suspects when a crime occurs. Put another way, if the girl was in contact with 100 people over the past month and 90% of them were under the age of 10 then it makes good sense to investigate the other 10% a lot harsher. That's because probability-wise they are far more likely to have committed the crime. You can't convict someone of a crime based on their thoughts, but you better damn well investigate them on such because that's how *motive* works.

      Personally I wonder how big this pedophile bogeyman really is. From what I read there is one under every rock. I also have to ask if some sicko's are trading 40 year old picture of naked kids online, as long as they are not actually hurting kids, who gives a fuck? Right, except that:

      1) By generating money for people who produce such photos you support the actual molestation of children.

      2) Statistically speaking it seems that people who are attracted to children are extremely likely to act on it, and re-offend in the future once released from jail. I didn't create human beings or these statistics but unfortunately it seems that's how we're wired.

      My point (again) isn't that we should convict them based on their thoughts but rather take those thoughts into consideration when investigating relevant crimes.
    7. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      2) Statistically speaking it seems that people who are attracted to children are extremely likely to act on it, and re-offend in the future once released from jail. Speaking as a pedophile who's known several other pedophiles, I can tell you that you are completely wrong on that. Especially in today's "Pedophile?! BURN HIM!!" climate. The chance a pedophile is likely to be a child rapist is around the same chance a heterosexual is likely to be a rapist; probably a bit higher because we can't legally indulge.
    8. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      "if some sicko's are trading 40 year old picture of naked kids online, as long as they are not actually hurting kids, who gives a fuck? "

      The problem with that is that somewhere, someone had to take the photo. The child in the photo was abused/hurt so that people could trade the photo.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    9. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      The child in the photo was abused/hurt so that people could trade the photo.

      Now lets take this to the next step. Can you prove that child was harmed in taking that photo? That picture was taken 40 years ago. Can you find the child in that picture as an adult and ask her? Now what if it wasn't a crime when that picture was taken? Should it be a crime today to look at it? What if it still isn't a crime?

      Up until now we have only been talking about nude pictures not hard core pornography with a child. Can you say with 100% certainty that all children that are capable of having sex are harmed 100% of the time if you take pictures of them having sex? Lets bring Traci Lords back to the table. She was a child legally when her porn career was in full swing. Was she harmed? Should it be crime to watch one of those videos in your own home?

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    10. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Schadrach · · Score: 1

      Pretty much. Note that they expect to get ~200 arrests/convictions out of 3261 people's data. What does that tell you? It tells me that 94% of their targets have really good lawyers and a ton of money, are innocent, or are underage themselves.

    11. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by LandDolphin · · Score: 1

      I knew I gave t oshort of an answer... Danr work :-)


      IN the case of a 40 year old photo with unknown origins, nothing can be proven...


      But what about this case, or child pornography in general, made you assume that we are dealign with 40 year old photos that had ot be scanned, versus recent photos that were taken by a digital camera? I ask because I did not RTFA, so I don't know if it mentions that all the found were 40 year old photos of unknown origin, or if that is an assumption that you threw out there..


      So, I guess you are right, in the case a 40 year old photo of unknown origin, who cares. But I highly doubt that 40 year old photos of unknown origin make up more then 2% of child pornography on the internet.

      --
      Spelling and Grammar errors have been added to this post for your enjoyment
    12. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      Well actually I'm pretty sure we left the argument of the article about 10 miles ago but I do think you just made my point for me. That point is, you don't know. You assume, and there is a good chance that you are correct but you can't assume you are correct. You have to be correct.

      Emotionally I think is wrong for a bunch of grown men to sitting around jerking off to 40 year old pictures of naked children. I feel that it's disgusting, and wrong. Once I disconnect the emotion machine, intellectually I can't find anything illegal with it. Notice, I said illegal, not wrong. I don't see where these people are hurting anyone.

      So if we are going to paint all people who look at naked pictures of children with the same brush lets make sure we are doing for the right reason and not simple because we don't like them. Lets make 100% sure that taking pictures of a child naked harms them.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    13. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by tinkerghost · · Score: 1

      The problem with that is that somewhere, someone had to take the photo. The child in the photo was abused/hurt so that people could trade the photo.

      Not really, people used to take pictures of their kids running around the yard naked all the time. Also bathing babies in the kitchen sink was considered cute & momentous enough to be captured on film. These are now 'child pornography'.

      IIRC they have successfully prosecuted people for child porn - where the images were clippings from catalogs.

      Go look at any major art museum & you will see paintings of nude children - replicate that composition with a camera & it's child porn nowadays.

      Just to make it clear - nude != porn. In no way does this advocate child porn/abuse/etc. What it advocates is a rational approach to this rather than it's an adult with a picture of children - lynch him. If a nutjob is going to get his jollies from looking at kids, he's got plenty to look at down at the local mall - charging kids with taking pictures of themselves isn't going to stop it, nor is it going to do anything to 'protect the children'

    14. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by d34thm0nk3y · · Score: 1

      The other day some local journalists were very upset because police used their unedited film footage to identify and arrest store looters (rioting occurred after a local hockey game).

      I mean, the *nerve* of that police! How dare they try to arrest looters? Today they're using the footage to arrest looters, tomorrow they'll use it to arrest rapists! What's next?!


      We have these things called checks and balances for a reason. The police can try to arrest anybody they want so long as they subpoena that footage properly.

    15. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

      We have these things called checks and balances for a reason. The police can try to arrest anybody they want so long as they subpoena that footage properly. Better tell that to the journalists. History is full of them rejecting subpoenas and choosing to go to jail.
    16. Re:Bending over backwards to protect criminals by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      But I highly doubt that 40 year old photos of unknown origin make up more then 2% of child pornography on the internet.

      Okay, then less address this. Modern pictures of naked children even in lewd or obvious sexual positions designed to stimulate sexual desires. Do they harm the child in question? I'm talking only about nude pictures, not hard core pornography. If so how?

      Now I admit that I'm unconformable with this subject but I want to know what people think of this question. I'm having a hard time seeing where even this would bring the world ending harm to said child that the "protect the children" industry is running.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  26. Well, don't try to fuck little boys... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    That way, there will be no information for the government to go after in the first place. Really, it can't be that hard to go your entire life without sticking your cock in a little boy. You should try going cold turkey before you get busted.

    1. Re:Well, don't try to fuck little boys... by dfghjk · · Score: 1

      Of course there will be information. The government is the biggest stockpiler of the stuff.

  27. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by arth1 · · Score: 1

    There's a mile of difference between "probable cause" and "suspect".
    If I called in a tip that I heard my neighbor's kid cry the other day, that would make my neighbor a child abuse suspect, no matter how likely he is to be innocent. Should that be enough to void all his rights to privacy?

  28. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wednesday was hard for you I'd imagine. No more child porn and nothing to do with your life but pay for a lousy Slashdot subscription? You must have been climbing the walls.

    You're a dirty child-fucking bastard.

  29. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    And how long did it take after 9-11 and the Patriot Act before the U.S. government was data-mining every single citizen?

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  30. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by kestasjk · · Score: 5, Insightful

    They always start with the "lowest of the low" precisely because they know no one will object to it. But they NEVER stop there. The next step is "Well, since you gave us information on these really bad guys, you can't object to giving us info on these *sorta* bad guys" which snowballs to the point where the government eventually just has its own monitoring room at your facility to watch *everyone*. Are you saying Google shouldn't do everything it can to wipe this evil from our planet? Pedophile!! Burn the witch!
    --
    // MD_Update(&m,buf,j);
  31. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Sancho · · Score: 2, Insightful

    From the article, it looked to me like they were asking Google for access to private photo albums. I don't know what evidence they had on the matter, what the privacy standards are like in Brazil, or whether they had a lawful subpoena, but if something like that was tried in the US, freedom-loving people would be throwing a hissy-fit, and possibly rightfully so.

  32. Hurray for Google by Acid-Duck · · Score: 0, Troll

    I applaud their move. Some people might try (and I'm using the word try ) to argue some things are worst, i.e. : murders or whatever else, but the truth is that children whom have gone through such experiences are often terrified and have a very difficult time to talk about it, not only because it's an awful thing to go through, but often their vocabulary doesn't permit them to express themselves as they want to, and this will result in the person growing up with deep psychological issues all his/her life.

    I usually laugh at the people trying to ban violent video games (OMG think of the kids!!) or other similar non-sense but the truth is

    Pedophilia is no laugher matter. Hurray for Google even if they did this only because they felt the pressure, I hope others follow in their footsteps!

  33. As far as I can tell... by obonicus · · Score: 3, Informative

    what the Brazilian government asked for is access to several private photo albums for these suspected pedophiles. Apparently there were several Orkut communities being used to trade kiddy porn.

    1. Re:As far as I can tell... by novakyu · · Score: 1

      And all I am asking is access to several bedrooms and bathrooms in your house. Apparently there are reports that your house is being used as a meth lab.

      Do you see a difference here? Except for the change of the alleged crime (and that I am attacking you, not some hypothetical pedophile), there is no difference whatsoever. Is what I am asking a reasonable thing to ask, if I were a warrantless police officer?

  34. Proven guilty? Excuse me? by iamsamed · · Score: 5, Insightful
    ...need to be denied suspects until their innocence is proven,...

    Interesting slip there.

    You are innocent until proven guilty; at least, in theory, in America.

    1. Re:Proven guilty? Excuse me? by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

      You are innocent until proven guilty; at least, in theory, in America.

      That's pre-911 thinking, citizen.
      --

      You can't take the sky from me...

  35. Sorry to inform you, but... by hummassa · · Score: 4, Interesting

    They use the word "suspects" but they really have probable cause and Google has being trying not to comply with DA's subpoenas for a long time now.

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
    1. Re:Sorry to inform you, but... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Actually, they do NOT have probable cause. RTFA -- they failed to get subpoenas due to lack of probable cause, and resorted to this instead.

    2. Re:Sorry to inform you, but... by tinkerghost · · Score: 1

      They use the word "suspects" but they really have probable cause and Google has being trying not to comply with DA's subpoenas for a long time now.

      Not really, they have been trying to find a way to satisfy the privacy laws in both the US & Brazil simultaneously. Had Brazil gone to the FBI & requested assistance in a joint task force, the FBI would have produced a US subpoena to serve the US operations of Orkut. Google BR couldn't comply with the Brazilian subpoena because they didn't have the data, and the Google US couldn't comply because of US laws on providing data on customers (It generally requires a subpoena unless the customer has released the info).

      Best guess: either Google has played legal distribution games with the data, or BR will be going through some legal channel in the US - with specific data points pre-arranged to avoid any future disputes.

    3. Re:Sorry to inform you, but... by random_culchie · · Score: 1

      They use the word "suspects" but they really have probable cause and Google has being trying not to comply with DA's subpoenas for a long time now. Here is the underlying difficulty with comparing different legal systems. This practice might be common and acceptable in Brazil.
  36. Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    If a minor appears in a pornographic image, then a crime has already been committed. What, you can't find any willing partners, so you have to get off looking at pics of kids who were either forced or coerced by older, wiser adults? Doing so makes you a party of the original crime.

    1. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by arth1 · · Score: 1, Interesting

      What about stories? There doesn't have to be any actual children involved for pedophilia to occur (except the inner child of the person who presumably never grew up, but I'm not a shrink and don't know how their minds work).

    2. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by dreamchaser · · Score: 0

      Thank you. The consumption of such pictures leads to more and more abuse. I have no problem with Google or anyone else supplying information of this nature as long as due process (i.e. subpoenas/warrants) is followed.

    3. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by arth1 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Where did pictures enter this story?

      A pedophile doesn't require pictures any more than a normal male needs pictures of grown women. Fantasies, stories and drawings work just as well for them as for the rest of us, I reckon.

      Yet, we make them having stories and drawings a crime, and if we could read their minds, I'm sure a lot of people would have advocated making their fantasies a crime too.

    4. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by everphilski · · Score: 1

      Where did pictures enter this story?

      From the article, which you apparently didn't read while you were pontificating:

      The US Internet giant delivered 3,261 files to a Brazilian senate commission looking into allegations that illegal images of minors were posted in restricted-access photo albums on the site.

    5. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by arth1 · · Score: 1

      And do you know whether those "illegal images" were photographs of minors or, say, Hentai images of non-existing minors (which is also illegal to possess)?
      Or are you just assuming guilt until innocence is proven?

    6. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Therein lies the false assumption; that all minors performing in any kind of sex act must be victims of some kind. Where is it written that all persons under the age of 18 don't desire having sex? That's a completely new and unsupported theory to me.

      You tell me, what is the real crime, having sex with someone younger than you, or forcing someone to have sex regardless of age? I would say that the latter is the actual crime, and I'm not entirely sure how one justifies that it's a greater crime against a child than against an equally helpless adult. You're basically saying that a 25-year-old rape victim is less of a victim than a 15-year-old who willingly engaged in sex.

      Unfortunately for humanity, most of America shares your deranged ideas about sex and morality.

    7. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      And what if the suspects have material found that is not pictorial in their files (a text file for example) that contains a story that involves sex with children?

      No pictures at all, just a story that they wrote for their own personal use (so they didn't get it from someone, and they have not distributed it to anyone).

    8. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Interesting argument, but I don't think it'd hold for any other crime.

      Anyway, it doesn't describe why you'd got jail for LOOKING AT computer generated child porn.

    9. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      If a minor appears in a pornographic image, then a crime has already been committed. ...
      Doing so [looking at pictures] makes you a party of the original crime. Forget about the children for a moment, and think about crime in general.

      What if one was to look at images of other crimes being committed?
      If as you say, to merely look at evidence of a crime has become a crime, what about all the police tv shows.
      When does someone come to arrest me for stealing a car that I saw drive down the highway on 'Wildest Police Chases', or even the nightly News?
    10. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by everphilski · · Score: 1

      I presume nothing. Your quote,

      Where did pictures enter this story?

      They enter the story in the article. I answered your naive question.

      And do you know whether those "illegal images" were photographs of minors or, say, Hentai images of non-existing minors (which is also illegal to possess)?

      No, and it's not for me to know or find out. The authorities can handle it, now that Google handed the information over. If it's just drawings they should get away scott free, unless such is illegal in Brazil. I wouldn't know.

    11. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by towelie-ban · · Score: 1

      A crime has already been committed, sure, but that doesn't mean you're committing a crime by looking at the pictures. If I watch a snuff film, will I get charged for homicide? If I look at a video of a dog getting beaten, will the police arrest me for animal cruelty?

    12. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by jollyreaper · · Score: 1

      If a minor appears in a pornographic image, then a crime has already been committed. What, you can't find any willing partners, so you have to get off looking at pics of kids who were either forced or coerced by older, wiser adults? Doing so makes you a party of the original crime. Let's say I'm a necrophiliac with a penchant for crime scene photos. Does masturbating over a murder scene make me an accomplice to the original crime? "No," some might say. "Perhaps if the murder was for the purpose of sexual gratification and you purchased the images, then yes." So let's say I did have snuff images that I downloaded off a p2p service, no money exchanged. According to the MAFIAA, I have most certainly 100% deprived the content creators of any profit for their work. So by their very definition, I would not be an accessory to snuff or to kiddie porn for that matter. So would I be a criminal at this point or just a sick puppy?

      See, the problem I have with this case is this stuff is that we're applying emotion rather than reason. I'm going to take a brave stand and come out against kiddie porn. Yes, yes, I know this is going out on a limb here and may get downmodded but I can't stand back and say nothing: I am against kiddie porn. By extension, I'm also against kiddie pornographers. But in prosecuting such people, we have to go with the rule of law and convict them by the rules, not winking and overlooking violations of due process because "they deserve what they got coming to 'em." It's no different from protecting the Klan's right to free speech. If even assholes like that are given a chance to voice their view in public without molestation, then the rest of us can rest easy knowing our rights will be protected.

      The figures for criminally deviant sexual inclinations are a lot higher than we'd suspect, based on research I've seen. The point is, not as many people are likely to go through with it, much in the same way that a guy may think a 3-way with his wife and another woman would be hot but it never happens, or the way someone could be bi-curious but never ever take the plunge into homosexual activity. There are people who like rape fantasy within the confines of their own mind or role-playing with consenting partners but would never do it in real life. There are people who would love to cheat on their spouses with the hot guy or chick at the office but never do, just like there are people of pedophilic inclination who would never act upon it, even if they think it.

      The problem, of course, is that we never know where the break will happen between fantasy and reality, between dreaming and doing. Is the moody loner at school the next columbine killer or will he never snap and thus grow up to be a well-adjusted, successful computer programmer? (ok, maybe not well-adjusted, but successful!)

      The thing I wonder about, it can be tough to tell the difference between legal and illegal girls. Traci Lords was able to make her first pornos while underage and nobody thought she wasn't legal, it certainly wasn't obvious to look at. I've seen some women I know over the age of 18 who are very flat-chested and would probably look totally illegal if naked. So given these observed facts, how likely is it that people looking for legal porn, downloading what they think is legal porn, have actually picked up illegal porn instead? Based on the rules, a girl 17 years, 11 months is just as illegal as one who's 8. The conviction on the record would look no different. Nobody in the media will parse it as "Joe Smith, convicted sex offender, though in his defense she looked totally legal." If law enforcement decides to go on a fishing expedition, will they be able to grep someone's history and find out "Ha! We know the girl in this file was three days before her 18th birthday, we have a child porn conviction here!"
      --
      Kwisatz Haderach
      Sell the spice to CHOAM
      This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
    13. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Hatta · · Score: 1

      The consumption of such pictures leads to more and more abuse.

      I assume you have data to back that up? I'd like to see it.

      From what I know, widely available pornography decreases the incidence of rape, but that's only for adults. The situation with child porn is likely to be different, but I'd like to see the data first.

      --
      Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
    14. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      The consumption of such pictures leads to more and more abuse.

      Has that been proven? I mean 100%, is this something that can be tested?

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    15. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

      I definitely agree that people use too much emotion when going after pedophiles- it's certainly similar to witch hunts (except their actual rate of getting their target is higher, since pedophiles actually exist).

      I'd say the line can easily be drawn when actual children are being hurt. The difference between robbing a bank and talking, dreaming, fantasizing about robbing a bank are the actual action required.

      It's perfectly legal to write a book, draw pictures, and role play about robbing banks. The only crime is actually doing so (or seriously conspiring to do so).

      Now obtaining child pornography is slightly different, because you are definitely benefitting directly from the result of a crime- whether it's paid for or stolen. If you receive money from somebody else who robbed a bank, you're still receiving goods (or "bads") from a crime.

      So I feel that not only distributing, or creating, but just obtaining child pornography should be considered illegal. But I think it should be less of a which hunt. If you post a link to child porno pic, and label it "18+ teens" and I click it, does that mean I've broken the law? The file is now on my hard drive, and even if I delete it, it'll be hard to get rid of.

      And if I'm 17 and my girlfriend is 17 and we take nude pics of eachother. Are we really commiting a crime ? Sure our parents should get upset- but how is that any more of a crime than getting knocked up at that age? (Which isn't a crime, but has more gravity).

      The point is, do away with due process, and you do away with distinction between these things. I absolutely do not advocate child porn. But at the same time, I believe anybody involved (on purpose, or accidentally) in child pornography deserves the exact same privacy rights and access to due process as myself. Otherwise, what keeps people who disagree with me from encroaching on my rights?

      --
      Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
    16. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      One thing that can make it a lot easier, is to ask yourself, "Is this a drawing or a picture?"

      If it's a drawing, then it's not real.

      I suppose it's possible that there was a live model... ...but then, if I write the words "naked ready hot 15 year old girl," (which, you being a man -- I know you'd never be attracted to -- only mentally deranged men in need of psychological help would find the idea attractive) you can't know whether there's a model or not.

      Should you have me arrested on suspicion, or perhaps committed, for having a (demonstrated) psychologically deranged character?

      What are we permitted to think, draw, imagine, fantasize, or talk about?

    17. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Reziac · · Score: 1

      If you look at the FBI's crime stats, there are two timepoints where the rate of rape and sexual assault drops significantly:

      The first is in the late 1980s -- concurrent with the rise of BBSs, which for the first time let anyone with a phoneline and a modem download porn, with somewhat better anonymity than you got from your plain-brown-wrapper subscription magazines.

      The second, much larger drop is in the mid/late-1990s -- concurrent with the internet becoming ubiquitous. Now anyone with a modem and a phone line could get all the porn they wanted, with complete anonymity.

      One can conclude that thanks to the internet, now anyone who has issues with getting his rocks off can do it in the privacy of his own bedroom, thus feels less psychological pressure to go HUNT for whatever turns him on. In short, if you can rape a fantasy woman at home, it reduces the "need" to go rape a real woman out on the street (and better yet, fantasy rape at home is free of risks like being maced or arrested).

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    18. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      So what your saying is that an increase in easy access porn has lead to a decrease in rape?

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

    19. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Reziac · · Score: 1

      According to the government's own stats, yes.

      One might dismiss it as just part of the general decline in violent crimes (per other gov't stats) except that both of the two significant drops correlate exactly with the rise of easy access via first BBS and later Internet.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    20. Re:Who posed for the pics, jackass? by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

      Do it does.

      This is one of the things that really pisses me off about people. They would rather stick their heads in the sand than study a problem.

      I've propose here on /. that there is a problem in black America just be called a racists because I think there is. Yes there is. Anyone who doesn't think so is a fool. Why are their so many of them in prison , and why are their so many of them being shot by police? White racist say because blacks are inferior to whites. Blacks say its because the white man is keeping them down. But if you call bullshit on ether and want to study the problem with a neutral point of view your evil.

      Same with medical mary jane. Goberment based on a 50 year old study say smoking pot has no medical value. They even refuse to reopen the case. Where doctors say that it has tremendous medical value but they can't use it, because the goberment doesn't want to hear it. Its evil....

      Same with child porn, pedophilia, and all that shit. Are the effects that ether side say true? Can't study because to study it might bring out some truths that people don't want to hear. What if we did find out that letting pedophiles have access to child porn decreased their urge to rape? No we would rather stick our fingers in our ears and scream real loud than check out an uncomfortable subject scientifically.

      --

      Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  37. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by elrous0 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    If you had RTFA, you would see that the government didn't get warrants for any of these "suspects" and freely admitted that there wasn't enough evidence to do so. This isn't a case of some cop going before a judge and saying "Your honor, I need to subpoena this guy's records because I suspect he's a pedophile and here's my preliminary evidence." This was a case of the government saying "Here's a list of names. Give us all their information and don't ask any questions."

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  38. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    yeah! death to the commies! ...tsk tsk tsk

  39. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by SD-Arcadia · · Score: 1

    Ofcourse TV can talk to children as much as it likes! Cartoon networks and commercials for kids is the only wholesome communication for our kids. Hop off the pedo's lap, sit on Ronald McDonald's lap!

    --
    https://dalgamotor.wordpress.com/ - Elektronik beyinlere ozgurluk asisi (Turkish)
  40. Wow that's ignorant by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

    Wow... what a shocker.

    In the old days we had these things called phone *wiretaps*. Someone would *suspect* someone was distributing crack in the local neighborhood. They'd then ask a judge to wiretap their line, thereby infringing on that sacred privacy you mentioned, and collect enough evidence to convict them.

    That's how the world works. There is no such thing as unlimited rights, nor should there be.

    If some girl with a profile on MySpace arranges to meet with some guy and subsequently gets raped without seeing her attacker then police have very good reason to want to look into that online profile's private information and search the guy's house for evidence.

    Stop bending over backward trying to defend criminals. There isn't any sort of discrimination going on here against a person's beliefs, rather it is their harmful *actions* we are talking about.

    1. Re:Wow that's ignorant by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Privacy advocates like the GP are exactly the reason why we have terrorist problems these days.

      While I respect the GP's desire for privacy, giving the right of privacy to the likes of Osama bin Laden is just the same as harboring terrorism and, in my eyes, is equivalent to treason. Look, every time you crazy privacy advocates write a stupid post on Slashdot, one of your soldiers in Iraq dies to a suicide bomber! And a 5-year-old girl gets raped by some Arabian pedophile! Right in your home country! Do you see how stupid is that?

  41. Let me clarify one thing by prxp · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If a crime is committed, there will be a police investigation. The police then requests court orders to acquire private data belonging to the suspects. If the court finds there's reasonable evidence backing up the requests, it will gran them.. The police will then present the court order to the ISP and the ISP has to comply. That's how things already work in the US for all ISPs, including google.
    The exact same procedure was followed in Brazil for this pedofilia case. As a matter of fact, the procedure was followed several times, but google failed to comply with all Brazilian's court orders regarding this matter. The case had to reach a senate comittee investigation ( which in Brazil functions similarly to a judicial investigation, but with more resources) in order to Google to comply with the court order.
    Google's excuse for not complying with court order, you ask? Well, google told the Brazilian justice system that since the order wasn't isued within the USA they couldn't do a thing about it.
    So that's it, folks, do panic for the same thing that's happening in Brazil has been happening in the US for quite a long time. The only difference is that google has kind of a hard time respecting Brazil's sovereigny.

    1. Re:Let me clarify one thing by novakyu · · Score: 1

      The only difference is that google has kind of a hard time respecting Brazil's sovereigny. I think you got it backwards. Brazil has hard time respecting U.S. sovereignty. Does Google have a presence in Brazil? What jurisdiction does Brazil possibly have over Google?

      As long as Google is a U.S. corporation with all its offices and servers in U.S. (I don't know this for a fact; but I'm sure if they had offices in Brazil, they could have simply confiscated equipments there), Brazillian courts have absolutely no authority over Google's servers. They should have gone through the proper channel---U.S. judicial system.

      As an hypothetical example, do you think Nigeria should be able to get to your private data by using just the procedures that their government declares is "due procedure", and ignore all U.S. (or U.K., or wherever you actually live) laws about how they should do it? Because that would be a great loop hole for corrupt FBI and CIA agents to exploit---get their foreign contacts (with looser laws about what due procedure is) to request information through their channel that is not recognized by U.S.
    2. Re:Let me clarify one thing by prxp · · Score: 1

      Google has offices in Brazil. If Google doesn't want to face Brazilian Justice system it should not have opened offices there. All pressure, legal and political, that was applied to Google was applied to its offices in Brazil. Regarding the US sovereignty being disrespected, Google is a multinational corporation, and not just a US corporation. I underdtand the internet raises a lot of international law issues, but since this is still an imprecise territory, I think the way Brazilian authorities went about this issue is not at all a disrespect to anybody's laws. Actually, as you probably already know, Google has complied with the court order in the end, and I saw no complaints from US authorities regarding this matter. This is because google can freely move data among its subsidiaries (including the Brazilian one) and as long as the data is physically stored in Brazil, there's no obstable for complying with Brazilian's laws. In the end, Google has more discritionary power on this matter than both governments (US or BR) and it decided to comply with the Brazilian Senate requests.

  42. TFA does not say, but... by hummassa · · Score: 1

    The fact is that Google _has_ being served subpoenas all the time for this. And it has resisted complying ("we are Google Brasil, the data is at Google USA, we don't know anything...") for a long time now. So, after some time threatening to prosecute Google Brasil for criminal and civil charges, they woke up and said "ok, ok, here is the data you subpoenaed us for..."

    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  43. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Sancho · · Score: 1

    That reasonable middle ground is due process. The article was extremely light on the details of how due process works in Brazil, and whether or not such processes were followed.

    If this had been the US government, the Constitution and years of constitutional law and judicial rulings would have required a subpoena, signed by a judge, and pertaining to specific data before Google would give up the information.

    Of course, 6 years of recent executive power would have required only the waterboarding of Google's CEO in order to get the information.

  44. Have you guys even followed this case? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative

    These people had POSTED private albums that contained pornographic images of children. The gov wanted their identity in order to prosecute them.

    It's not a case of "let's see if they are doing something wrong", it's a case of "what is the identity of the people who posted those images there and what else is in the now-private albums?"

    http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/infotech/view/20080410-129449/Brazil-Senate-orders-Google-to-identify-website-pedophiles

    The case for investigation has been made a long time ago not only for pedophiles groups but also for communities that were being used to traffic and sell illegal drugs. Google just didn't want to open up for search claiming the Brazilian court had no jurisdiction over it.

    Some of you people seem to think privacy trumps everything else even when anyone with an ounce of common sense can see that crimes are being committed.

  45. Isn't the entire story. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article simply says "Authorities had threatened Google with criminal and civil lawsuits if it did not comply with opening the restricted online photo albums of users under suspicion".
    Which isn't quite the entire truth.
    See, for example, http://www.denunciar.org.br/twiki/bin/view/SaferNet/Noticia20071019015559En
    and you'll discover
    "But Google faced a growing wave of complaints, many instigated by Mr. Tavares. Sérgio Gardenghi Suiama, a federal prosecutor in São Paulo in charge of human rights, began flooding the company's Brazil office with subpoenas seeking identifying information, such as email addresses, of Orkut users accused of committing crimes online.

    Under direction from Google's U.S. headquarters, Mr. Hohagen refused to accept the subpoenas. Google's chief legal officer, David Drummond, traveled to Brazil to explain the situation."

    Eventually, authorities threatened to start arresting Google employees in Brazil, and courts started issuing threats of contempt, so they complied.

    Not sure what else you guys were expecting to happen?

    1. Re:Isn't the entire story. by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Please mod parent up. This is probably the most useful post I've seen for this story.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:Isn't the entire story. by fmobus · · Score: 1

      Still, there was no due process. The subpoena should have been issued in the US, not in Brazil. The subpoena'd data was in the US; Google violated the right to privacy (in US) of the users and the service's EULA by handing the information. In theory, this information is of no value as evidence. It may be useful as leads to suspects, thou.

      Still won't change a thing. This is Brazil after all, no one is going to be arrested. Children will still be abused and pedophilia imagery will still be easy to find.

      I'm also betting here the some hephebophilia (sp?) (14-18yr) cases will emerge on this, mostly the "piriguetes"; scantly clad girls who willingly post pictures online. Can you sue them?

    3. Re:Isn't the entire story. by jdp · · Score: 1
      Very interesting article (seems like a reprint of something from the Wall Street Journal), thanks for posting.

      The international jurisidiction issues here are complex.

      In April 2006, Mr. Drummond testified at a congressional hearing requested by Mr. Tavares. He said Google wished to assist authorities, but Orkut data were all stored on computer servers located in the U.S. Therefore, he said, the data were subject to U.S. laws, not Brazilian ones.

      Those laws include strict protections on users' private data and typically don't allow Google to reveal private communications without a user's express consent, except under very limited conditions and when ordered by a U.S. judge. And some crimes being investigated by Brazilian authorities -- like racist speech -- aren't crimes in the U.S. If Google met Brazilian demands, what would it do if Saudi Arabia, where homosexuality is a crime, began asking it to unmask gay users?


      And the precendents on Orkut may will apply to gtalk, gmail, and perhaps even saved search results.

      Then again I certainly see where the Brazilians are coming from: just because the data is stored elsewhere isn't an excuse for a multinational corporation to avoid local laws. Tricky.

      jon
    4. Re:Isn't the entire story. by shentino · · Score: 1

      If you are a US company, or ANY company for that matter, doing business in another country, you have to follow their laws.

      By your logic I could say that Microsoft should be immune to the EU anti-trust regulators.

    5. Re:Isn't the entire story. by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      I'm confused. If users in Brazil were the ones running a pedophilia community, and the Brazil government is going after people in Brazil, would they have any legal grounds to issue a subpoena in the US?

      And where in the Constitution does it say you have a clear right of privacy? Hint, hint, it doesn't. It merely says you can't be forced to self-incriminate.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    6. Re:Isn't the entire story. by fmobus · · Score: 1

      I'm confused. If users in Brazil were the ones running a pedophilia community, and the Brazil government is going after people in Brazil, would they have any legal grounds to issue a subpoena in the US?

      Of course, provided the Brazilian justice required it to US judicial system using proper diplomatic channels or Interpol structure. They didn't, because they are a Senate/Congress Investigation Commission (CPI), the greatest Brazilian joke.

      And where in the Constitution does it say you have a clear right of privacy? Hint, hint, it doesn't. It merely says you can't be forced to self-incriminate. "the enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," The constitution does not enumerate rights. It enumerates rights that cannot be revoked.

      So... let's say you are a American and Google hands your data (which lives in the US) to US government without a proper US subpoena. It would be wrong and illegal. Now, change "American" to "Brazilian" and "US Govt" to "Brazilian Govt". It is still wrong and illegal.

      People complained about DOJ's fishing expedictions in the past, for it violated the privacy of social networks users (mostly USians). I see no difference in this case: Brazilian users' data, if held in US, cannot be handed without a US subpoena. This subpoena would be granted by the US Justice, because paedophilia is also a crime in the US; but Brazilians refuse to do things the right away and prefer to strongarm google into giving data. Seriously, threatening to arrest employees? WTF mate.

      Any Brazilian knows this Senate/Congress Investigation Commission (CPI) thingie is merely smokes and mirrors, a political thing. Nothing will come out of it. It will end up in "pizza" as we say. It is an absurd in and off itself: the legislative branch should be... legislating! Investigation and prosecution should be left for the courts. But our democracy/republic is a joke, and no one seems to care. Sigh

    7. Re:Isn't the entire story. by fmobus · · Score: 1

      MS is physically selling stuff in the EU. Google's merely passing information that lives outside Brazil. When I connect to Orkut.com (i.e. do bussiness), who is serving me? Google Brazil? No! Google Inc. is serving me and they reside in the US, outside Brazilian jurisdiction.

      Analogy time: If I, Brazilian, post "racist speech" (illegal in Brazil, legal in US) in a Orkut forum (which are hosted in the US), am I infringing Brazilian law? I don't think so.

    8. Re:Isn't the entire story. by underpants_gnome · · Score: 1

      That's a tricky one.

      Sure, you are posting in a US based server. BUT, you are also posting it FROM Brazil.

      So, technically, you'd be under Brazillian jurisdiction, no?

    9. Re:Isn't the entire story. by fmobus · · Score: 1

      what if I'm posting from yet another country using a Brazilian proxy or a pwned windows box?

      That reminds me of the "Cicarelli-gate". A famous model and TV host was filmed having sex on a public Spanish beach by a paparazzi. Multiple copies of the video ended up in Youtube (an US service). Cicarelli demanded Google to remove offending videos. Google complied as possible, but some copies still survived.

      Cicarelli SUED Google Brazil (who did not hold the data) over some arcane Brazilian law regarding honor, and demanded Youtube (the whole service!) to be blocked in the whole country. An injunction was given on a friday night saying youtube was to be blocked by ISPs. Some ISPs proceeded do block it without being officially notified of the court order (youtube is a bandwidth hog for them) and were also sued by users for that. The court order was overruled two days later. By that time, the video was all over the Internet. I was in Germany at the time and promptly forwarded copies to all my contacts. Was I infringing any law? Clearly not. All the resources spent (both by Cicarelli and our Justice) were for nothing? Yes.

      Internet sees censorship as damage and routes around it. Unfortunately, this also works for pedophilia.

    10. Re:Isn't the entire story. by underpants_gnome · · Score: 1

      That's why I said "tricky one".

      You know that "Electronic Crimes" are not well defined in Brazilian law. It's a very gray area.

      And yeah, I know the whole Cicarelli case. My ISP (Brasil Telecom) was the first to block YouTube. And still does traffic shaping there to this day. =/

    11. Re:Isn't the entire story. by martin-boundary · · Score: 1

      Not sure what else you guys were expecting to happen?
      How about they don't store private information, so this sort of thing CANNOT happen?

      The evil of Google is that they keep truckloads of information about people because their engineers are too lazy to throw away and unbundle the information that they *don't* need.

      It's obvious that sooner or later, some organization at home or abroad wants to tap that information, and it's reasonable to expect that google will be forced to comply eventually in those cases.

      The point is: no information to start with, no problems later. At the very least, Google should build chinese walls.

    12. Re:Isn't the entire story. by Walter+Carver · · Score: 1

      Stop doing business in Brazil.

  46. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by owlnation · · Score: 4, Insightful

    We need to wage a War on Crimethink!
    I suspect that's a war that's already lost. But count me in, we've had 8 years of oppression in the UK and the US and no-one's done enough to challenge any of it. When the sun completely sets on freedom and truth (and it's coming folks) we all have ourselves to blame. The writing's been on the wall for a long time now, and like I say -- no-one has done enough to stop it.

    Do we really have to go through another Kristallnacht, another Auschwitz or Sachsenhausen for people to fight tyranny, totalitarianism -- and yes, Crimethink?
  47. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    And if you saw him cut of the head of his child that would make him a murder suspect. Should that be enough to void some of his rights to privacy?

  48. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by EsonLinji · · Score: 1

    There is a reasonable middle ground. It's called a warrant. The government shows to a judge that they have sufficient evidence to show probable cause a) that the person did the crime, and b) that the person they're asking for information from has specific and relevant information to this case. If they can do this, then, and only then, they can get the information. It would help if the judges involved have some backbone and actually demand the government makes a decent case.

    --
    Considering Phlebas, whoever the hell he is.
  49. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by TufelKinder · · Score: 0, Troll

    Well, considering the fact that monitoring != "data-mining," I'd say you're just jumping to unverified conclusions and propagating fear to try to justify your illogical position.

    --
    If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
  50. Privacy?! We don't need no stinkin' privacy! by TheRedSeven · · Score: 1
    I'm surprised at the shock (shock!) among /. readers. Honestly, I would've assumed that more people in this forum would realize by now that no matter what promises are given by XYZ corporation, despite mottos, EULAs, whatever, that their 'private' data and tracked browsing patterns are kept, and therefore subject to examination by authorities.

    Look, I don't like it any better than the next guy that the government can decide it needs information on $class_of_people (suspected terrorists, pedophiles, spammers, Chinese government hackers, whatever); but I also know that that is one of the tradeoffs for the convenience of using the web.

    And, when it all comes down to it, it is a matter of convenience (and perhaps efficiency), nothing more. There is very little (if anything) I can do online that I cannot do with a pay phone and the yellow pages.

    I, for one, am willing to accept the fact that my browsing habits are being tracked by Google, by any other search engine, by my ISP, by social networking sites, by my company, by the government. If I want to do something off-the-radar, I'll pick up a phone or use a proxy.

    So the point of all this? If you want real privacy, prepare to inconvenience yourself. You can't have an infinite degree of convenience without sacrificing something, be it security or privacy.

    The only big news here is that Google has shown that if they are pressed hard enough and long enough, they will cave to government pressure. I figured it would be the case, even though they've stood up to the US a couple times in the past (though not some other governments). Cue renewed US demands for information in 3...2...1...

  51. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by msormune · · Score: 2

    Only if the adult is male.

  52. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by RiotingPacifist · · Score: 1

    Given that goggle have been using picture analysis to help catch paedophiles for a long time, and that catching pedos inst evil by anybody's standards, id say that they draw the line at paedophiles.

    Also this has nothing to do with google search, just their social networking site.

    --
    IranAir Flight 655 never forget!
  53. And had they not complied by needs2bfree · · Score: 1

    the headline would have read "Google shields pedophiles from Brazilian police".

  54. Nothing wrong with being a commie by davidwr · · Score: 1

    Burn the mutant!
    Burn the mutant!
    Burn the mutant!

    --
    Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
  55. Law difference by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    In Brazil, the government (with permission from a judge) has the power to get information from telephone lines, for example. The same is applied to Internet ISPs and many sites. Google was not giving the information that they should according to the laws of the country, alleging they couldn't access the servers, that were on the US (they said that to the authorities, even though I know people working on the Orkut code here in Brazil).

    The argument is: if Google is here in Brazil earning money from brazillian people, they should do it by the laws of the country.

    I think the problem is that the laws here are different from the US ones, specially when on the privacy and free-speech stuff. Here, for example, you go to jail if you offend someone with respect to the skin color, even on the Internet. I suppose that this is not a crime on the US.

  56. Ahh, good old liberal boogeyman Joe McCarthy... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Nevermind the fact that Soviet sympathizers, and indeed Soviet agents, had penetrated some of the highest government offices. That's what happens when you oppose liberal fascism, though. You make alot of enemies who continue to assassinate your character long after you're gone.

  57. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by dfghjk · · Score: 1

    Wanting is not a crime.

  58. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Do you honestly believe the privacy should trump child molestation?

    Absolutes are wrong more often than not.

    Which do you think applies more to "Don't Be Evil", protecting pedophiles, or protecting privacy?

    And for the record, Google has the best privacy record out there. When the government wanted search data, Microsoft, AOL and Yahoo handed it over instantly. I believe Microsoft and Yahoo handed it over even BEFORE THEY WERE ASKED for the data.

    Google fought to protect it. Privacy should be preserved, but not at the expense of other more important things.

    If I were Google, and I had a motto of "Don't Be Evil", I wouldn't hand over all data and let people try to find pedophiles, but if I knew I had specific data on specific individuals that showed them to be pedophiles, or terrorists, I think I would in fact hand it over.

    Not to mention, that I'm not sure any of us here are familiar with the laws in Brazil. Did Google have a choice in the matter?

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  59. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by dfghjk · · Score: 1

    Who's planning to commit a crime?

  60. Re:If you don't like it... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    > use another search engine

    like what? pedophind.com?

  61. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Hatta · · Score: 1

    We're *all* suspected terrorists and pedophiles in the eyes of the government.

    --
    Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
  62. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    but questioning authority and planning to commit a crime are entirely different matters.
    Well said, I totally agr no carrier
    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  63. it wasn't kiddie porn, you idiots! by jollyreaper · · Score: 0

    This was a new document format I developed, Portable Document Object, .PDO for short. My PDO files come up under the google search and suddenly everyone is going apeshit!

    --
    Kwisatz Haderach
    Sell the spice to CHOAM
    This Mahdi took Shaddam's Throne
  64. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Please name one example of facism we have in the US where someone was prosecuted for speaking out against the government. Last time I checked, people do it every day in this country (including your post) and have the freedom to continue to do so.

    The Constitution (not that Congress knows what that is) prevents such a state from forming.

    You just keep insisting that the sky is falling. You do realize however that you remove credibility from the beliefs you intend to espouse when you make such statements, right?

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  65. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Ironsides · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm not seeing anything in the article that says they either did or did not get warrants. Then again, I don't know if warrants are even required in Brazil.

    --
    Fly me to the moon Let me sing among those stars Let me see what spring is like On jupiter and mars
  66. Do NO Evil: Please Turn Over Data On This by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



    War Criminal's e-mail.

    Thank you, Google, for supporting freedom and democracy around the world.

    PatRIOTically,
    Kilgore Trout

  67. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative
    The current investigation is not part of a judicial process. It's a congressional one. Kinda like how your congress brought in a bunch of baseball players to talk about performance enhancement drugs (so they could avoid actually getting work done).

    It is basically a flimsy list. Lots of it is just teenagers being raunchy. The line does get blurred between the 16-22 demographic.

    As an aside:

    If this had been the US government, the Constitution and years of constitutional law and judicial rulings would have required a subpoena Brazil doesn't use "English" Common Law. It uses "Roman/French" Civil Law, which means the only thing that is pertinent are the current laws on book. Judges give little weight to past jurisprudence.

    Also we don't really have a bill of rights. We have a section in the constitution that enumerates rights but it contradicts itself (Not a bill of rights because it doesn't supercede the constitution). It starts by saying that everyone is equal in the eyes of the law but then mentions a few special rights for special groups. People with college degrees get to be in a jail cell by themselves for example.

  68. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by wannabe-retiree · · Score: 1

    On Wednesday they handed over information on pedophiles

    On Thursday they handed over information on terrorists

    On Friday they handed over information on file-sharers

    On Saturday they handed over information on everyone

    Wednesday was the hardest. Every day after that it got easier and easier.

    On Wednesday I punched a person who attacked my child

    On Thursday I punched someone who said something mean to me

    On Friday I punched someone who cut me off

    On Saturday I just started punching everybody

    yup. just another stupid slippery slope argument.

  69. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by saleenS281 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The patriot act.

    The constitution only bars such a state when it is followed. The executive branch in this country has made a point of proclaiming they are above the constitution and the checks and balances it lays forth, and nobody has done anything about it. It's nice you think a piece of paper will somehow protect your freedoms. The reality is quite different.

  70. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Hognoxious · · Score: 1

    Well done, in resorting to reductio ad absurdam you gave a good example of something that in does constitute probable cause.

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  71. No minor needed by ClientNine · · Score: 0

    everyone is suspected of being a pedophile, which is now defined as communicating in any form with a minor.
    Not true. It can also include communicating in any form with an adult pretending to be a minor. You can be convicted of pedophile-esque crimes without an actual minor ever being in the picture, much less being harmed. Fascinating, really.
    1. Re:No minor needed by iminplaya · · Score: 1

      You can be convicted of pedophile-esque crimes without an actual minor ever being in the picture, much less being harmed. Fascinating, really.

      Yep

      --
      What?
  72. Search Warrants by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    This is precisely the reasoning in search warrants. When you have a warrant or probable cause, then up-holding laws at that moment trumps the privacy of the suspect.

    Honestly I will be alarmed and concerned when Google hands over data of every user in Brazil as a means to catch a small group of pedophiles.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    1. Re:Search Warrants by cowwoc2001 · · Score: 1

      This is precisely the reasoning in search warrants. When you have a warrant or probable cause, then up-holding laws at that moment trumps the privacy of the suspect.

      Honestly I will be alarmed and concerned when Google hands over data of every user in Brazil as a means to catch a small group of pedophiles. Key quote from article:

      "The state prosecutor for Sao Paulo, Sergio Suiama, last month said 90 percent of the 56,000 pedophilia allegations received in the past few years related to Orkut."

      Sounds like probable cause to me. I suspect the reason they couldn't seek a warrant is that the data servers are located outside their jurisdiction (as if often the case with websites). I don't believe there is a legal mechanism which allows local police officers to seek such an "online warrant", but there clearly should be.
    2. Re:Search Warrants by arth1 · · Score: 1

      "The state prosecutor for Sao Paulo, Sergio Suiama, last month said 90 percent of the 56,000 pedophilia allegations received in the past few years related to Orkut."

      Sounds like probable cause to me.

      Not to me. Because there's nothing that links this to the individuals who would have their chat logs and photo albums checked. It's like saying that because 90% of all alleged US spam appears to come from Florida, so we need to round up everyone with internet access in Florida and go through their private stuff.

      There will be people out there that have quite private pictures they DON'T want seen, like for example, pictures of consentual sex. Heck, perhaps even consentual sex with a police chief's wife.
      And they might have a few thousand Anime pictures, because they're anime fans. Or they might have gay pictures gotten from the same picture exchange group as the pedophiles used, but they are not yet ready to come out of the closet -- perhaps for career reasons. Perhaps a combination of all of the above.

      Should people be caught in a dragnet against pedophiles for any of that? (In the case of the anime collector, they might even be convicted, unless they can prove that the pictures depict 18+ year old fantasy girls.)
    3. Re:Search Warrants by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Bad analogy. The allegations were in relation to specific communities.

      And the 56,000 allegations were linked to 200 people. Investigating 200 people over 56,000 allegations is very different from saying investigating millions of people because there might be a few spam botnets in Florida.

      And your examples are pretty silly and far-fetched. Someone looks at gay porn in a private folder. Well, Google is asked to hand over data on the pedophile communities. The only way those two would overlap is if someone joined a pedophile community to post non-pedophile pornography, and someone else hung around in said community long enough to discover it, ignoring all the pedophilia there.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  73. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by jo42 · · Score: 1

    have the freedom to continue to do so I believe the question at hand is "For how much longer?" before a fascist police state is in full force.
  74. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by kypper · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I don't know that I would mod this funny... insightful, perhaps.

  75. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by WormholeFiend · · Score: 1

    On Saturday they handed over information on everyone

    Including information on the police, the lawyers, the judges, the politicians and their favourite prosties...

  76. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Hojima · · Score: 1

    Once the government's bitch, evermore their bitch Actually there is a way for Google to stop the snowball effect. The company only uses the data for statistical purposes, so the information that can tie an identity to an individual is not commercially valuable to them. What they can do is encrypt all the data so that no one can be associated to a single search. That way, you can only call to memory something like "Latinos who searched for X are most likely to search for:", and the system will respond:"Y". But if you say "what is the name of the person that searched for 'bombs'", the system can only say things like "9% of people who searched for 'death to America' etc..."
  77. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Oh no, it's the easiest. Or do you want pedophiles to run free? Are you supporting kiddy porn? Thinkofthechildren!

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  78. Slashdot defends pirates. Slashdot defends PAEDOS by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0



    Slashdot defends pirates. Slashdot defends PAEDOPHILES. Nothing to see here. Move along people.

  79. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Did you miss the "shunted its customers' internet traffic to data-mining equipment" sentence in the article or are you just illiterate? If it's the latter, there is help you know. I can give you a phone number to call.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  80. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by MrMacman2u · · Score: 3, Insightful

    It's just as unreasonable to say that government should have no access to information about suspected terrorists and pedophiles, as it is to say that the government should have access to *everyones* information. The problem with your statement is that pesky little word "suspected".

    ANYONE can be a "suspect" in the eyes of the government if they want information about you. Granted, your logic is all fine and dandy IF the ruling bodies of this country could be trusted any further than I could throw the White House. (Just a FYI, I CAN'T)

    It plays like this:

    Gov't: "We want information on the online activities Mr. John Doe of 333 West Burbank Ave., WTF, TX 11123"

    Web Service: "Sorry, that information is private to the individual."

    Gov't: "Ok then, we want information on the online activities of the SUSPECTED TERRORIST/PEDOPHILE/CURRENT 'EVIL' PERSON OF THE MINUTE Mr. John Doe of 333 West Burbank Ave., WTF, TX 11123, but, we don't have a warrant so we'll just invoke the 'Patriot Act'"

    Web Service: "Oh! Ok then!

    The sad part is, Mr. Doe has never done anything more wrong in his meager life than cross against the light.

    What's that do for your "warm fuzzies" for helping rid the world of "suspected evil"?

    The word "suspect(ed)" is used faaaaar too liberally by the government in order to get what they want. If they had our best intentions at heart and only used "suspect" when it was GENUINELY APPROPRIATE, I'd have far less of a reason to complain or worry.

    But they don't, so I do.

    Frankly, I'm disappointed in Google. Yes, the whole "stop the pedo's" has a strong pull, but there are so many ways to track/monitor/obtain evidence against "wrong-doers" today that there is practically no circumstances where a corporation turning over a individual's private information should be acceptable.

    Ignorance causes people to hide behind the falsity "If you have nothing to hide then why do you need privacy?". The sad fact is, everyone, and I really DO mean EVERYONE, has SOMETHING that they don't want to be made public knowledge, period.

    The all mighty governing body of this or other countries does NOT need to know everything about everyone and nor should they.

    Our society has regressed several hundred years and we're all the way back to the Salem Witch Trials where we are all going around accusing each other of being hepatics when now many of the REAL criminals and wrong-doers are RUNNING THE COURTS while the rest of the ones that should be being caught are still running around doing what they will because we're all too busy hurling accusations at innocent people.

    Just to wrap up here, allowing the government access to private factors of an individual by simply slapping the term "suspect" in front of their name is an extremely slippery slope that will only lead to tears as yet more of the principals this country was originally founded on crumble to dust.

    This was NOT a good thing.
    --
    This signature is lame.
  81. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by foobsr · · Score: 5, Informative

    Please name one example of facism we have in the US where someone was prosecuted for speaking out against the government.

    McCarthyism

    CC.

    --
    TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
  82. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1, Insightful

    Can you please be more specific?

    The Patriot Act is flawed, but most people cite it with zero clue what they're talking about. It is a bipartisan supported mega-block of cludgy legislation. It did provide in-roads for warrantless wire-tapping (again, which both parties keep voting to continue) which is the closest we've gotten to facism, but it doesn't apply to the question I've asked.

    When did we lose the freedom to question our government? We haven't! You prove my point for me, and prove yourself wrong by accusing our government of horrible deeds. Clearly you demonstrate that you have the freedom to do so.

    As far as the Constitution, I'd argue the Legislative branch is abusing it considerably more. They passed the laws for warrantless wiretaps. Back when Newt Gingrinch was Speaker, he said it wasn't Congress' job to worry about whether or not the laws they passed were constitutional. I'd argue the "spirit" of the 14th Amendment proves him wrong, but that is a little tangential.

    You say the Constitution is ignored and no one does anything? I say you are dead wrong. People have been pushing for Bush to be impeached, and the main reason it hasn't been successful is two-fold. 1 - They focus on invalid points, saying impeach him for starting a war, when Congress votes to go to war. 2 - Then they turn around and bring up wiretaps, again which is a shared blame with Congress. Congress can't hold him responsible without also pointing out their own blame.

    But these things aren't ignored. People write about them every day. People are quite vocal, and they won't tolerate this shit. There will be plenty of new bodies in Washington next year.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  83. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Inner_Child · · Score: 2, Funny

    Err... Isn't thinking of the children what got this whole thread started to begin with? Perhaps that's not such a good idea, eh?

    --
    Today is red jello day - all workers must eat all of their red jello. Failure to comply will result in five demerits.
  84. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    I asked for a specific example and you provide none.

    Please provide an example where you are not capable of speaking out against the government. In turn, I will cite how you in fact just did speak out against your government freely.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  85. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by ultranova · · Score: 4, Insightful

    However, privacy and yadda yadda yadda. Pedophiles are the lowest of the lowest in my book. Why not use social networking sites as tools to catch those guys? If anything it'll deter them from using those sites to chase their prey.

    Apart from the fact that "pedophiles" and "child molesters" aren't the same group, but two partially overlapping groups, the chances are that you are the lowest of the low in someone's book. If it's okay to ignore someone's rights because he's a pedophile, then it's also okay to ignore someone's rights because that someone happens to be you. Sure, you'd disagree - but then again, the people who's rights you refused to defend also disagreed, and it didn't do them much good, so it won't do much good for you either.

    Child molesters are certainly scum. However, if you allow them to be deprived of their rights - including the right to privacy - then you are eroding the rights of both them and the children. Please think of the children and nip this in the bud !

    Please also understand that "pedophiles" are, as far as authorities are concerned, no different than "terrorists" - a convenient boogeyman to keep people scared and act as X in "if we don't pass this law, the X win". It's a lot easier to turn the Internet into a tighly-controlled channel - and thus unable to threaten the status quo by letting people publish leaked information anonymously - if you can sell it as protecting children rather than protecting politicians.

    Finally, the pedophilia boogeyman is already starting to hurt the very children supposedly protected; as an extreme example, there was a teen who got busted for uploading her own pictures, not to mention the couple who were arrested for sending each other pictures of themselves. Of course it hurts everyone else too - for example, this guy was thrown to prison and put to sex offender register for writing fiction.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  86. Stop it by geekoid · · Score: 4, Insightful

    It was a valid use. Godwin's law came abut because Hitler would be used in extremely ridiculous examples.

    Can people like you even talk about WWII ?

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
    1. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 0, Redundant

      Complying a judge's order to hand over data on pedophiles does not compare to Nazi-era concentration camps.

      You did use an extremely ridiculous example.

      There is a high profile local murder case in the news these days about a child molester who raped his two daughters repeatedly. While he was on bail for the first charges, he then molested and killed another girl.

      The investigation took YEARS for the murder, because even though he was a convicted felon (he was convicted on the earlier charges) people were lining up to protect his civil rights, and his right to privacy.

      There was a big battle on whether or not the new murder trial was even allowed to mention whether or not he had been convicted previously of molestation.

      Thankfully, the resolution however was that there was sufficient grounds to investigate him, search his belongings (find evidence), bring up old testimony, etc.

      Privacy was trumped in the name of going after a pedophile, and I'd say justice was served. If we couldn't search anyone at any time (privacy trumping all, as many people so foolishly and fanatically suggesting here) we'd never be able to enforce any laws (or damn near it).

      Privacy should be upheld WITHIN REASON.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:Stop it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Independent of whether it was an appropriate use of Godwin's Law or not...

      Step #1 for the Nazis was to collect information on everyone.

    3. Re:Stop it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what a fucking moron... you have nothing better to do than criticize paragraph layout. get a fucking life asshole. It is perfectly readable and the idea is clear- Mission accomplished.

    4. Re:Stop it by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 2, Insightful

      "Privacy should be upheld WITHIN REASON."

      Well, that is the problem. Define REASON. It is about as easy as defining obscenity.

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    5. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 3, Informative

      Not really. The Constitution touches on this. You can't be forced to self-incriminate, thusly you have a semblance of privacy. However, you can be searched with probable cause.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    6. Re:Stop it by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1, Interesting

      And "probable cause" is an easy thing for any law enforcement agent to invent from thin air if they want to. And wouldn't taking someone's computer to see what they have been browsing be a form of self-incrimination if they find anything illegal? That is what I am saying - what is reasonable and where do you draw the line?

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    7. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Probable cause is pretty clearly defined in most places, and the judicial system keeps that in check.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    8. Re:Stop it by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 2, Insightful

      In theory. I had a friend get busted because a cop "smelled burning marijuana" when he was pulled over and the cop searched his car based on "probable cause". Didn't find any marijuana at all (my friend never smoked it, or even possessed it) but found some other drugs hidden in the car. He was prosecuted even though it was obvious the cop lied about the probable cause in order to illegally search his car. It was plea bargained down, but it is still on my friend's record. I know of other people who have been pulled over by cops for "swerving" but were subsequently let go after the cops figured out they were not driving drunk. Just a BS excuse for a cop to pull you over for no reason, or to search your car for the same. How many people that are searched illegally and then let go without any charges do you think lodge a formal complaint??

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    9. Re:Stop it by unlametheweak · · Score: 1

      There is a high profile local murder case in the news these days about a child molester who raped his two daughters repeatedly. While he was on bail for the first charges, he then molested and killed another girl. Speaking of logical fallacies... I will leave it up to you to figure out why your statement is a logical fallacy. It is so obvious that if you can't figure it out then you shouldn't be posting.
    10. Re:Stop it by Original+Replica · · Score: 1

      "While he was on bail for the first charges, he then molested and killed another girl. The investigation took YEARS for the murder, because" some dumb-ass let him out on bail, which is why the murder happened at all. The more highly-emotionally charged the example, the more important it is to carefully analyze where the flaws in system allowed for a repeat offense. Protecting someone's rights, must by definition always be right.
      I don't think Google would be wrong in complying with a search warrant (or the Brazilian equivalent) but I do think it would be wrong for them to open up everyones account for the purposes of data mining for pedophiles. Imagine if the data was stored in everyone's homes instead of stored with Google, search warrants naming individuals could be used to search their home PCs. Data mining would be cops going door-to-door searching everyone's PC in order to find which people are pedophiles. The heinousness of pedophilia would not excuse the violation of a nationwide door-to-door search of everyone's home computers and it does not excuse the mining of storage that was presented as and expected to be, private.

      --
      We are all just people.
    11. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      How does a Brazillian court create a warrant for data on US servers?

      They couldn't.

      And Google isn't opening everyone's data. The story mentioned 200 people tied to 56,000 allegations.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    12. Re:Stop it by not_potable · · Score: 1

      Privacy was trumped in the name of going after a pedophile, and I'd say justice was served. Technically, they were going after a sexual predator and murderer. Being attracted to kids - pedophillia - isn't criminal. Subsequently violating them is, yes. But pedophilia != evil sexual predator necessarily.
    13. Re:Stop it by silas_moeckel · · Score: 4, Interesting

      I have one better. It was early spring and my wife and I are having our first night out after a new baby. We decide to go visit the local private nature center since it does not close at dark and is a good place to do some star gazing. It's also a fairly common lovers lane for the teenage set. We are there for about 15 minutes and a cop pulls up and start to give us the move along bit. Now were a quarter mile in the woods down a private road with no lights on. He instructs us that the park is closed after dark etc etc etc. He checks our ID. I mention that the park is not closed at dark and point him to the prominently displayed sign that allows for hiking camping horseback riding catch and release fishing and the "enjoyment of nature" and only forbids cutting down trees, campfires outside of the provided fire rings and leaving trash about. He still insists that we leave or be cited for trespassing so we go. I get over the town line and call his supervisor he wont even take the complaint over the phone and cites that the officer catches a lot of underage drinking and DWI and that he can go onto any private property if he see something suspicious. I let it drop as it's not worth my time.

      A few months later the feds arrest the guy for getting underage girls to have sex with him and each other and videotaping it for sale on the internet in exchange for not arresting them on DWI underage drinking and minor drug offenses. He apparently had also been taking the teenage set with a low light camera while at the park.

      Long story short cops are rarely white knights most are people doing a job that lets them feed there families with little skills outside what they were taught at the academy. Some are the worst of the bunch abusing the authority that they have sought to there own ends. Ever think that cops and congress critters should be like jury duty?

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    14. Re:Stop it by MoonlightSeraphim · · Score: 1

      who ever the hell modded him offtopic is a freaken idiot

    15. Re:Stop it by Mister+Whirly · · Score: 1

      Must be one of my many "fans" modding me down for personal reasons. Oh well. I know - "Welcome to Slashdot. You must be new here!"

      --
      "But this one goes to 11!"
    16. Re:Stop it by brunokummel · · Score: 1

      How does a Brazillian court create a warrant for data on US servers?

      They couldn't.

      Well actually they could and they probably did. It is called rogatory letter

      --
      What is best in life? To crush your enemies, to see them driven before you and to hear the lamentations of their women.
    17. Re:Stop it by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

      Self incrimination means you say it vocally to a cop or judge or the like. Really it is a fancy way of saying you dont have to admit anything you dont want to.

      If it meant that any thing that you have influenced cant be used against you that would mean it would be impossible to use any evidence of a crime. What evidence is there that wouldnt be self incriminating under that definition. Example, because a person did something, it caused something, which left a mark, which was found, which is evidence. But since it started with an action of the individual, it cant be used. Because it would be self-incriminating.

    18. Re:Stop it by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

      Sorry to reply to myself, but I forgot to say one more thing. In your example of a laptop being searched, self-incrimination would be saying, "Gee officer, if I were you I would search C:/dontlookatme/illegalporn"

    19. Re:Stop it by Artuir · · Score: 1

      Are you even paying attention to the course of the discussion and why the guy referenced concentration camps? There was an entirely valid reason for it.

    20. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      How is this relevant?

      You had a dirty cop in your town, so cops can't be trusted at all?

      In Omaha, where I live, they police their own. They busted out a dirty cop who was also racist once they found out he was in the KKK by investigating him heavily. Any time a cop shoots a suspect, they are suspended with pay pending investigation, and around these parts that is usually a good 6 months or more. The investigation is fairly transparent and covered heavily in the news.

      Regardless, one anecdote about a dirty cop has little relevance on whether or not Google is evil in this instance. Google initially resisted handing over any data, and eventually conceeded to a judge's orders. Last time I checked, that was their company policy. They've stated they wont hand over any private data unless they are ordered to do so by a judge.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    21. Re:Stop it by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      That sound more like a diplomatic request for cooperation with a US court than a warrant.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    22. Re:Stop it by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      It seems to be a side thread. In any event I've had enough direct experience to tell me cops cant be trusted and the system is broken. This is usually the case where people and power are involved. It would seem a better system is needed and a solution was sought.

      Why are cops shooting anybody outside when a third party's life was endangered? Why do cops have lethal rounds chambered in the firearms? Why does it matter that a cop is in the KKK it's a legal organization isn't it (that is to show a point not support that bunch of idiots) did his mere membership put him under scrutiny? In general I've watched America turn into a police state over the last 30 years maybe it's just rebounding after feeing up after the whole communist witch hunts I wasn't alive for them so I cant really say. 30 years ago I lived in a town that didn't care what you did in your own home / land or anything without directly and adversely affecting another person. That get chewed away with the get tough on crime morality policing against drugs, DWI etc. Now I believe kiddy porn falls under the category of directly and adversely affecting another person with possession akin to having stolen property.

      Now that were firmly off topic how about them bears? Google seems to have done the required thing. I've had to look at kiddie porn cases for work before and in some cases we didn't wait for the paperwork in others we did because we used our own morals to decide maybe we were evil. When you see obvious abuse of a child (sex acts between adults and very young children) it's pretty obvious when you get a complaint and it's one kid in the bath tub it's not so clear.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    23. Re:Stop it by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I'm wondering how a member of the KKK got into the police force in the first place. Aren't they supposed to do better background checks on trainee candidates than that??

      But considering some of the crap I've personally seen cops do (lie on a deposition, threaten to arrest someone if they don't shut up, actually arrest someone for sitting on a public curb after dark) I've little reason to trust whatever screening processes are in place. It may well be that (despite a few good apples) cops are just like politicians: anyone who WANTS to be one is automatically suspect.

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    24. Re:Stop it by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      So were back to do we need serving as a cop to be like jury duty? Randomly pick people to server for short terms and make sure there normal job is waiting for them when they get back. Sure there are some people the join up because they want to serve the community others that just want a paycheck and others that go into it for the power or are seduced by it afterwards.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
    25. Re:Stop it by Reziac · · Score: 1

      I had not heard of that concept before today, but I'd like to see it tested. Would we get a more thoughtful police force, or would it suffer from the same problem that juries do? As someone once put it, a jury is "12 people too stupid to get out of jury duty".

      And what about the concept of Jury Nullification? Could these "jury-style police" likewise refuse to enforce stupid laws?

      Very interesting to consider, anyway.

      Hmm. Maybe we should do the same for politicians -- at the very least, it would get rid of the problem of career politicians and campaign bri^H^H^H contributions!

      --
      ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
    26. Re:Stop it by silas_moeckel · · Score: 1

      Places have tried it for politicians it seems to work well. I think you would still need some professionals at the detective level to deal with murder investigations and such but the beat cop (minus the gun) should be easy enough.

      --
      No sir I dont like it.
  87. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 2, Insightful

    You get a cookie. I will concede that you brought up a good example.

    However, despite the concession, I will point out that we universally declare that to be a big fucking mistake.

    McCarthy stands as an example of what we can not allow. And our current government (for all its flaws) is not the McCarthy-era government.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  88. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm pretty sure filesharers are the lowest of the lowest in the books of the RIAA. So who gets to decide where to stop? Or where to start? Or what to do altogether? You? The RIAA? The government?

    It's called the salami attack. You start with something everyone (or nearly everyone, except maybe the pedophiles) agrees with. Or at least doesn't dare to speak out against. Who'd stand up to defend the pedos? Many people would readily agree that this is actually a good idea. Some more won't care. And a few won't mind. Then you tackle the next fringe group. Terrorists are a good target, mostly because it's another group nobody readily allies with. In the wake you will find someone from another group that just happens to be in one of the first groups, which is a nice tool to say that this other group needs to be monitored, too, because you noticed that, say, a few gays also happened to be pedophiles, so it's time to monitor the gay communities. Again, some will agree, some will not care, some will not mind.

    Over time, it becomes the norm. And it doesn't matter anymore whether you agree, care or mind.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  89. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by geekoid · · Score: 1

    Don't use 'they'. It's is not some grand conspiracy. It is a perfectly natural reaction. You refer to the 'slippery slope'; which is a logical fallacy.

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
  90. Brazil not going to stop there by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    The pedophiles are just the first step. Brazil also wants Google to hand over information on those suspected of "hate speech against black people, Jews and homosexuals." Now that Google has caved on the pedophiles, those will be next.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
    1. Re:Brazil not going to stop there by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      What are the laws in Brazil?

      A company operating in a country must follow the laws there. For instance, in Germany, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust. Google must enforce censorship laws in Germany, and no one calls them evil for that.

      But they are evil if the follow the law in Brazil?

      I'm not sure what the law says in the matter, and no one knows what Google will do with this new issue, because they haven't decided yet.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:Brazil not going to stop there by LingNoi · · Score: 1

      Oh noes! The pedos and racists are doomed!

      This is the dumbest comment thread on slashdot, ever.

    3. Re:Brazil not going to stop there by Wooky_linuxer · · Score: 1

      Right on spot. In Brazil, racism, nazism and prejudice in general is a crime (though actually no one has ever been convicted of it, afaik).

      --
      Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
    4. Re:Brazil not going to stop there by mpe · · Score: 1

      A company operating in a country must follow the laws there. For instance, in Germany, it is illegal to deny the Holocaust. Google must enforce censorship laws in Germany, and no one calls them evil for that.

      No doubt quite a few people do... Note that "deny the Holocaust" actually equates to being openly skeptical of set of claims about a period of history. Such laws tend to indicate that at best the "legal truth" is unproven (more likely that there is at least one major lie involved. A wild guess would be that a proper investigation of this period of history would turn up the names of currently unknown collaberators.)

  91. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Thursday was then that you had to hand over everything else since someone noticed a minor lied about his age in the info sheet to gain access to adult content.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  92. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by nospam007 · · Score: 3, Insightful


    They always start with the "lowest of the low" precisely because they know no one will object to it.

    Problem is laws change over time. Once it was the liquor smugglers, the blacks, the jews, nowadays it's the peds or the maryjane growers.
    Lot's of cultures have no problem marrying/having sex with 10-12 year olds, some of those cultures even in the US if I believe the recent news about that mormon sect.
    Shakespeare had no problem in his puritan times with a play about Juliet being "not yet fifteen".

  93. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by tha_mink · · Score: 1

    The patriot act That is not an example of someone being prosecuted for speaking out against the government. A shifty deal that needs to go away? Yeah. Completely misused by the authorities? Yeah. But still...it's not an example someone being prosecuted for speaking out against the government.
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  94. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Sancho · · Score: 1

    Thank you for the interesting insights into Brazil's government!

  95. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by MrMacman2u · · Score: 1

    The problem with the whole scenario is there was no probable cause. They simply stuck the words "suspected pedo" in front of the request and Google folded like a wet blanket.

    For the record "Allegations" means accusations with no hard proof or evidence.

    I'm not protecting anyone here, I'm simply saying, show me the evidence and I won't have a problem with Google turning over their info.

    Funny how many people lose all good sense when the term "pedophilia" is brought up... They just fly off the handle and start foaming at the mouth and attacking anyone who looks like they are even remotely concerned about anything but "the children".

    I will agree with you that Google has an excellent track record for individuals privacy, however without probable cause or any evidence to justify turning over this data, it's still a black mark on their nose.

    --
    This signature is lame.
  96. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by tha_mink · · Score: 1

    I believe the question at hand is "For how much longer?" before a fascist police state is in full force. Do you *really* think it's possible for the US to become a "fascist police state"??? Really?
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  97. FIRST THEY CAME FOR XYZ AND I SAID NOTHING by circletimessquare · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    your average hysterical slippery sloper "ITS THE FIRST STEP TO 1984 FASCISM PAPERS PLEASE..." crowd sees any invasion of privacy, no matter how limited, no matter what the reason, no matter what the context, as something tantamount to pulling your pants down for a border guard

    yes, "WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN" as a mental state is a signifier pointer of hysteria eroding privacy. however, hysteria exists in the privacy defender camp as well. just look at some of the hypermanic comments here bordering on paranoid sschizophrenia. folks: if you wish to actually protect privacy, the first thing you want to do is avoid hysteria of your own

    this handing over pedophile information in brazil is not the unstoppable slide into fascists police statehood. its just not. if you believe it is, you have ceded your ability to reason to your own fear uncertainty and denial, and you are in the same mental state as the hysterics you say are eroding privacy. hysterics for privacy rights is not an asset

    so how do you protect privacy? with a rational, calm, realistic mind. if someone moves an inch down the road to no privacy rights, you don't act like they moved a mile down the road, and you don't act like its an unstoppable slide. the first thing you do when you think about prudence and realism, is you realize that sometimes, in limited ways, for valid reasons, with a set of rules in place and with public disclosure, privacy deserves to be violated. or that every now and then the authorities may overstep their bounds. shrug it off. really. privacy fundamentalism is not realistic, its just a naive idealism

    when i say that, if you immediately imagine jack booted thugs marching through the street, you are not an asset to the fight for privacy rights. you simply aren't. you are simply a victim of the same kind of hysteria you imagine powers the "WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN CROWD"

    gentle admonishment. not "OMG WERE ALL SLAVES". got it?

    otherwise, you are of the "WONT SOMEONE THINK OF THE PRIVACY" loony bin. passion for an issue is not useful unless it is also accompanied by an intelligence for an issue. a thrashing drooling psychotic fear is not a valuable asset in your fight for privacy rights. so calm the fuck down. argue rationally. or shut up. you're not helping any cause you think you are helping with histrionics

    something like this disclosure in brazil is not an unstoppable slippery slope into fascism and 1984. it really isnt. so snap out of it

    --
    intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
  98. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Do you honestly believe the privacy should trump child molestation?

    I believe privacy should trump having a hunch. There is a difference between "we have good reason to suspect that person and need something to nail the coffin" and "we think he might be a pedo, so hand over anything you have about him so we can get some evidence against him".

    I'm fairly sure you can nail me as a terrorist by my google search records. Or as a communist. Or drug cook. Or as anything you want, bluntly. I have a wide range of interests, none of which are in any way "illegal" per se, but can sometimes be used for illegal means.

    We're on the verge of making knowledge illegal. Scratch the verge, we're already there with making it illegal to inform people of bomb building. Yes, I know how to make a bomb out of rather easily gathered over the counter chemicals. That doesn't make me a terrorist. I know how to make LSD. That doesn't make me the next drug cook. I read "The Capital" online. That doesn't make me a communist. And I did a lot of other things online that can be forged into evidence with some creativity. I wouldn't even deem it impossible to make me a pedophile by my search records, maybe something I searched for was some sort of code for a pedo page.

    That's the difference here.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  99. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Cairnarvon · · Score: 4, Informative

    The sad part is that you got modded Insightful. Note that these are only *suspected* pedophiles, and apparently the authorities couldn't even be bothered to get a warrant to get the same information through legal, uncontroversial channels.
    Kneejerk reactions like yours ruin society for the rest of us, far more so than a handful of pedophiles, real or alleged, ever could.

  100. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    56,000 allegations of child molestation in Brazil linked to Orkut should be enough reason for Google to look at that data. That is more than a hunch. That is probable cause.

    And handing over data is different from convincting someone. Your search results may lead someone to look at you, but that isn't grounds to lock you up.

    However, for the record, Google is the only major search company that refused to hand over search data to the US government.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  101. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Actually, you are wrong.

    From the article.

    "He stressed that Brazilian officials had received 50,000 allegations of pedophilia in recent years.... Torres said he believed Google's data would incriminate around 200 pedophiles. They are exchanging telephone numbers, names of possible victims, the situations in which they live...90 percent of the 56,000 pedophilia allegations received in the past few years related to Orkut."

    Sounds to me that an investigation has already begun, and that they have a decent idea that proof exists to incriminate a set number of people. And 56,000 allegations constitutes probable cause in my book.

    Someone else here quoted another article stating Google did not immediately comply until the court system continued to apply further pressure.

    I suggest you do further reading on the issue.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  102. Similar thoughts by morgan_greywolf · · Score: 1
    Similar thoughts, paraphrased from a priest in Nazi Germany:

    When they came for the pedophiles, I remained silent, for I was not a pedophile.
    When they came for the terrorists, I remained silent, for I was not a terrorist.
    When they came for the file-sharers, I remained silent, for I was not a file-sharer.
    When they came for me, I cried out, but there was no one left to listen.


  103. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by TufelKinder · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I did miss that in the article, you're correct. I was responding to what the lawsuit alleges, not what the technician guessed.

    That doesn't change the fact that no one (outside the gov) knows what information was really being "mined" or even monitored. It's somewhat unlikely that secret spy rooms contained more storage space than, say, Google which is what they'd need to mine data from "every single citizen." Your paranoia and fear-mongered are based on ignorance of the capabilities of their equipment, not knowledge of what it's actually doing.

    Some of us don't see "secret NSA spy room" and wet our pants in fear that government computers are going to scan our email or web traffic. Now, I can see why someone who stalks children or downloads kiddie porn might get fearful.

    If you're not speeding, you don't have to slam on your brakes when you see a traffic cop.

    --
    If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
  104. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Get me a warrant, you get the data. Easy as that. If you have so many allegations, where is the problem to convince a judge it's time to sign that subpoena?

    I wouldn't even hand you my shopping list without one. With one, you can have whatever you demand.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  105. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    So you're comparing file-sharers to pedophiles and terrorists?

  106. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Well, no, that might be so in the US and the UK, where the public seem to see paedophiles hiding in every corner.

    Down here in South America we are not as squeamish. You can still praise a cute toddler to his/her mother in the street, and nobody will assume you are a paedophile.

  107. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Yeah, 'cause now it's not the reds, it's the bloody TERRORISTS! Very, very, very different, plain to see!

  108. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by tha_mink · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Given that goggle have been using picture analysis to help catch paedophiles for a long time, and that catching pedos inst evil by anybody's standards, id say that they draw the line at paedophiles. I think it's funny that the same people who would argue against the "slippery slope" stance when it's used in situations like video game violence or television censors, have no problem standing on the slippery slope soapbox when it comes to internet privacy. Why is it so hard for people to believe that yeah, there can be a line. If a law is being broken in full view of the public on the internet and Google can help the authorities find out who is doing it, then yeah, give it up. What's the difference between that and somebody watching a pedo grope a 5 year old in a store? If a person knows who broke a law, then they should report that person.
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  109. Define Crime. by Shivetya · · Score: 1

    Thats the problem, I bet I can get as many different answers as people I ask just on /.

    Now move this responsibility to government. The problem with government is that while it is formed with the best of intents is that its comprised of people. The problem with people is that they have bias and unfortunately some are more than willing to use the power given to them to show it and even enforce that bias.

    To get a wonderful idea, look at the recent raid in Texas of a "cult". Of course those who did the raid like to toss the word around because it has connotations that are not good. The problem is that it all originated from a false accusation yet the government is using its power, no people in the government are using the governments powers, to come up delay justice, look for crime, or coerce people to think a crime has been committed. Hell they have brought in psychological experts to declare just living there was abuse because of the religious beliefs. Does that give you pause? Just because someone thinks its wrong its automatically abuse even though no law was known to be broken they can just dig until they find one?

    Want a second example? How about the recent abuses disclosed here about TSA practices that the TSA in Washington disavowed yet had gone on for months? Why did it happen, because no one questions the abuse anymore because they guilt anyone who opposes into adhering

    "its for the children", "you want to protect children, right?"

    That is the problem I have with governments getting sway over corporations we entrust our information too, whether we do so directly or indirectly. The government has no right to go on a fishing expedition, especially when its most likely at some egotistical power abusive official.

    --
    * Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
    1. Re:Define Crime. by tha_mink · · Score: 1

      That is the problem I have with governments getting sway over corporations we entrust our information too, whether we do so directly or indirectly. The government has no right to go on a fishing expedition, especially when its most likely at some egotistical power abusive official. Um. Yes they do. You might think they shouldn't. But they do. So vote. Organize a protest, write your congressman, give a shit beyond bitching on Slashdot.
      --
      You'll have that sometimes...
  110. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Alpha830RulZ · · Score: 2

    When did we lose the freedom to question our government?

    This was certainly a pretty good attempt.

    --
    I was taught to respect my elders. The trouble is, it's getting harder and harder to find some.
  111. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Ioldanach · · Score: 1

    If there was the local equivalent of a judicially approved warrant provided to them, then I don't think the slippery slope argument would be particularly relevant. However, the article makes no mention of any such warrant or equivalent.

  112. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by tha_mink · · Score: 4, Informative

    If you had RTFA, you would see that the government didn't get warrants for any of these "suspects" and freely admitted that there wasn't enough evidence to do so. What??? What article are you reading? Please quote said passage in the article.
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  113. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

    Fail.
    Slippery slope is not a valid argument.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  114. Mod Parent UP! by steelfood · · Score: 2, Informative

    Wish I had mod points myself.

    Innocent until proven guilty is not by any means a recent concept. The concept was around even during ancient greece.

    This idea is key to democracy, as otherwise, there can be no freedom if everyone has to prove their innocence at every turn. Because the US is turning into a guilty until proven innocent state, especially where heinous crimes like terrorism or child abuse are concerned (and Iraq--musn't forget Iraq), it is exactly the kind of indicator that this country is turning away from democracy and into something far worse.

    --
    "If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
  115. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Deep+Orange · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Could we have just a moment of clarity and really think about something before we run circles screaming "All Governments are EVIL!". Complying with a legal governments request is hardly being someones bitch, not when someone is involving you with their crimes. Lets be real here, pedophiles saving their photos on a website involves the website. We can't reasonably expect all websites to be responsible for everything it's users post and upload for storage but the website is still being involved. If a friend of yours asks you to hold a bag for him and give it to someone else and that bag has a bomb in it he has involved you. Maybe you trust that friend and never peek in the bag and hence are innocent of any wrong doing, but if you do look in the bag I don't think anyone has any question as to what the right thing to do would be. Is there really any question as to what the right thing to do about pedophiles? While we are at it could someone please point out how chasing pedophiles in Brazil will cut in to my liberties here in the USA? Also please point out the "tyranny, totalitarianism".... lived here all my life and I keep looking for it when I hear people talking about how bad things are but never see it. Maybe things could be bit better... but do you really have any idea how much worse it could be?

  116. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by GodfatherofSoul · · Score: 1

    There's a difference between reporting what you think is illegal activity on your property and 1984-ish total information awareness. If you caught people using your blogs or your game's chat channels to trade kiddie porn links, you're saying you wouldn't report it?

    I'm big on privacy, and I don't see the problem here compared to phone companies letting the government listen in on whoever it tells them is a terrorist.

    --
    I swear to God...I swear to God! That is NOT how you treat your human!
  117. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

    If this had been the US government, the Constitution and years of constitutional law and judicial rulings would have required a subpoena, signed by a judge, and pertaining to specific data before Google would give up the information.

    I hope you don't expect that to protect you. You see that is how its supposed to work. Here is how it really works. They already have a sympathic judge lined up when they need the subpoena. Its pretty much paperwork anyway. Then they go a trolling. Fine more evidence and get a subpoena for that. There was a time when judges where to stand between you and law enforcement. Now they are on law enforcements side.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  118. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    That has been discussed here in this story-thread quite a bit.

    If the data is hosted on servers outside of the country, then they can't get a warrant for that data. Brazil's court system lacks the jurisdiction.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  119. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you *really* think it's possible for the US to become a "fascist police state"??? Really?

    Yes. Really. We've tested the hypothesis in small groups and under controlled circumstances -- Google the Stanford Prison Experiment. It happens whenever one group cedes authority to another group. Abu Ghraib was an uncontrolled version of the experiment scaled up, and the TSA goon who threatens you with "well I say it's a knife, now hand it over or I'll have you arrested for interfering with the safety of this airport, which is a federal facility" in response to "sir, that item with the bristles is not a knife, it's a toothbrush" is the uncontrolled experiment scaled down.

    Yes, it is. We're primates. Killing other primates not of our tribe is what we're good at. Every free nation has the capacity within itself to screw up. All we need is an excuse. Most Germans (even the Jews) of the Weimar Republic would have said the same thing in the 30s; "sure, it might get bad, but it'll never get that bad!"

    America's been lucky enough not to screw it up that badly so far. But when you get down to the genes, there's nothing fundamentally different between Americans, Germans, Chinese, or Russians. All we need is an excuse.

  120. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

    Regarding the "slippery slope" as a logical fallacy (which it is) is exactly how the people in power are able to do such power-grabs. So long as X + 1 does not infer x + 10, then there's nothing wrong with X+1.

    The real logical fallacy is ignoring psychology. Put a frog in a pot of boiling water, and it'll jump out. Put a frog in room temperature water, and let it boil, it'll never notice as it boils to death.

    We won't notice, x+1, so we'll ignore it. Then tomorrow when it's x+1 again, we'll be fine. The reason the "slippery slope" is relevant, despite it's inherent logical flaws is that it refers to a real strategy that actually exists, and is used against the population.

    Simply grabbing as much power as you can by claiming it's against a common enemy is a common strategy for gaining powers that can later be used to control the very people who thought it was protecting them. See step 1

    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  121. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by MrMacman2u · · Score: 1

    I did not believe I had made a counterpoint to that, I am aware that abuse investigations are occurring in Brazil, HOWEVER, they seem to be using a "shotgun" approach to solving the problem.

    The article does lack the information as to how may accounts they turned over. If they had turned over 200 accounts with probable cause and they find 195 abusers, great!

    When they turn over 200 accounts with NO probable cause and no evidence and they turn up 195 abusers........ I'm glad that they were taken down but I really cannot agree or approve of the method.

    As I stated before, if they showed Google evidence and/or a warrant and they complied, all my concerns go away.

    It just sounds like there was neither... I hate poorly detailed articles... I hope you can prove me wrong!

    --
    This signature is lame.
  122. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Do you *really* think it's possible for the US to become a "fascist police state"??? Really?

    I dunno, man, but with the Indiana primary coming up, You tell me.

  123. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by tha_mink · · Score: 1

    the TSA goon who threatens you with "well I say it's a knife, now hand it over or I'll have you arrested for interfering with the safety of this airport, which is a federal facility" in response to "sir, that item with the bristles is not a knife, it's a toothbrush" is the uncontrolled experiment scaled down. No, I'd say that that's the misguided bad behavior of a minimum wage troll.

    Yes, it is. We're primates. Killing other primates not of our tribe is what we're good at. Every free nation has the capacity within itself to screw up. All we need is an excuse. Most Germans (even the Jews) of the Weimar Republic would have said the same thing in the 30s; "sure, it might get bad, but it'll never get that bad!" Ah...Godwin's law, at last.
    --
    You'll have that sometimes...
  124. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

    Of course it hurts everyone else too - for example, this guy [www.cbc.ca] was thrown to prison and put to sex offender register for writing fiction. Wait a second- what law did he break? Seriously.. is this legit?
    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  125. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    this guy was thrown to prison and put to sex offender register for writing fiction.


    He was writing fiction about having sex with children. Not sure if you're aware of this, but most pedophiles spend quite a bit of time fantasizing about this sort of thing before they actually commit the crime. The more material they have available to fantasize with, the further they progress down the path of becoming a pedophile themselves.

  126. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Delwin · · Score: 1

    Joseph C. Wilson

  127. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Delwin · · Score: 1

    Steven J. Rosen and Keith Weissma

  128. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Instine · · Score: 1

    On Sunday they noticed a sharp fall in the crime rates

    On the following Monday a sense of relaxation amongst neighbours

    On Tuesday people smiled more

    On Wednesday gun laws were less needed yet more heavily question

    On Thursday people voted in a President who openly admitted [s]he didn't want to rule the world

    On Friday they everyone wondered why they'd been so finatical and absolutist about the ILLUSION of privacy and the centuries old constitution in the first place

    --
    Because you can - or because you should?
  129. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by BlackPignouf · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So... what's the difference between a communist in the McCarthy-era government and a terrorist in the Bush-era government? Ever heard about Guantanamo or Patriot Act?

    It seems like the US government always needs a vague foe (be it a with mustache in Russia or with a beard in an Afghanistan cave) to scare the population and keep it under tight control.

    Too bad it takes you 50 years to realize it!

  130. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Lord+Apathy · · Score: 1

    m fairly sure you can nail me as a terrorist by my google search records

    That is one boat you have plenty of company in. Just the other day I did a google search on lolicon. It was a anime/magna term that I wasn't familiar with so I did what I normally do. I google it. I was treated to a bunch of links to websites feature comic books about sex with underage girls. I closed it immediately of course but its in googles records now.

    When I want to know something just about the first thing I do is google it. When Mythbusters blows something up I've googled the bomb material they used. From my google records I look like a pyromainca murdering racist pedophile who wants to be a homosexual elf. What one search for online shouldn't never be used by law enforcement.

    On the subject of lolicon I should have wikied instead but I read about is legal status. I understand that child porn picture are illegal because there is a real child involved. I find the subject of lolicon disgusting but should it be illegal? No child is hurt because they are all drawings.

    --

    Supporting World Peace Through Nuclear Pacification

  131. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Apart from the fact that "pedophiles" and "child molesters" aren't the same group

    That's rihgt, just becuase someone likes feet (Latin: pedis) deosn't make them a paedophile.

  132. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by bluemonq · · Score: 3, Insightful

    "Not sure if you're aware of this, but most teenagers who go on homocidal rampages spend a lot of time fantasizing about that sort of thing before they actually commit the crime. THe more material they have abvailable to fantasize with, the futher progress down the path of becoming a murderer themselves."
    (paraphrasing Jack Thompson on why we should ban games such as Grand Theft Auto)

  133. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Faylone · · Score: 2, Insightful

    If you wait until you're personally being oppressed, it quite possibly will be too late to do anything about it.

  134. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    I don't see proof that the US government acted against him in any coordinated manner, though individuals most certainly did.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  135. "do no evil" = "do know evil" by peter303 · · Score: 4, Funny

    Google logo change.

  136. Thank Goodness by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    They're living up to their motto. Harbouring suspected paedophiles would definitely cross that line.

  137. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Did Rosen and Weissman hand over classified documents of national security? The trial isn't over and I don't presume to know the facts of the case, but that seems to be a whole different situation that merely criticizing the administration.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  138. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by witherstaff · · Score: 1

    Free Speech Zones are a good example of limitations of rights. Forget being prosecuted from speaking out against the government, these make it so you can't speak out against the government in person. A specific area for the 1st Amendment is asinine.

  139. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by WindowlessView · · Score: 1

    Please provide an example where you are not capable of speaking out against the government.

    Go to any public appearance of George Bush holding a protest sign. You can hold the sign - 4 blocks away in a fenced pen, surrounded by armed police, filmed by said police, and then put on a list to be passed around to other agencies.

    In turn, I will cite how you in fact just did speak out against your government freely.

    Yeah, explain away.

    --
    Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
  140. SUSPECTED !!! get a load of that !!! by unity100 · · Score: 1

    modern day shitheaded witch hunt. in middle ages, it was 'heresy' word that ensured your doom, now its just 'suspicion' of pedophile that can doom your life. dont like a neighbor ? snitch him for being a pedophile.

  141. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1, Insightful

    If a US citizen spoke out against the US government during the McCarthy era, they were put on trial.

    If a US citizen speaks out against the US government today, nothing happens.

    If you don't see the distinction, I won't bother trying to beat you over the head with it.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  142. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    That's funny, because I've seen people protest right outside the White House, and right outside Congress all the time. They're never fenced in or any such nonsense. My wife (not out of protest, but just for fun) took a picture holding up a Canadian flag in front of the White House.

    Next time, try again, but without the lies so much.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  143. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You seem to think that pedophilia isn't actually a problem and that people are using it as a boogeyman... but seriously, have you not been paying attention to all of the molestation happening in the Catholic Church? I run a very small blog website and I recently got some jackhole who started an "Intergenerational Love" website, which was a pedophilia advocacy blog. This problem is real and you can't just dismiss it.

    I'm not commenting on what Google did or did not do wrong, I'm saying you cannot be so flippant and dismiss pedophilia as a non-problem.

  144. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Only when people gather in large numbers, and only when it is necessary for safety. You can stand on any corner in this country and blast the President 99.9% of the time. When you get thousands of protesters being disruptive to other people, then measures are taken. When we first went to war, there was an organized protest of like 100,000 people in New York. People were laying in the street blocking traffic, etc. People attacked others, etc.

    Free speech doesn't give you the right to break the law. Harassing people as they walk down the street, inciting riots, blocking traffic, etc. These are laws being broken.

    What people fail to realize is that when you harass and annoy people, you aren't winning people over to your side. Neutral parties are more likely to suddenly disagree with you if you have a disruptive protest. It is the same thing with the pro-life protesters who carry huge pictures of aborted babies. All you're doing is disgusting and annoying people.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  145. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Fatality.

  146. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by witherstaff · · Score: 0

    I'm still surprised that I haven't heard more outrage about the fundamental mormon raid in Texas now that the supposed abused teen is probably a 30 something living in CO. Further the accused guy is on parole in Arizona and wasn't picked up, or even questioned before the raid. Even scarier, the police questioned the kids without lawyers or guardians present. The state will provide them lawyers in two weeks

    The parents are being forced to submit DNA to start the process of getting their kids back.

    It seems like the police went in with shoddy evidence for a blanket warrant, which they got. Sure the people in the compound may very well have been breaking laws, but wouldn't that be all the more reason for the authorities to wait until stronger evidence was found? It's the over the top actions that worry me, not waiting to make a case before getting gung ho.

  147. Not too hard to check if they ARE pedophiles... by joelwyland · · Score: 1

    Obviously Google has been resisting doing this for a long, long time... but what are you really going to do when the police is knocking on your door saying they think this guy is hosting pedophilia pictures in a restricted Orkut Photo Album and it's incredibly easy for an admin just to open it up and check? What happens when the admin sees there ARE actually pedophilia pictures in there? Are you really not going to turn over this guy's information? He's hurting kids and what's worse is that you are helping him. What kind of financial disaster is Google going to undergo when it comes out that they were told they were hosting pedophiles and did nothing to stop it and more kids got hurt?

  148. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I assume you mean Fascism and not the non-word Facism (pronounced Face-ism?)

    Oxford English defines Fascism as:
    noun 1 an authoritarian and nationalistic right-wing system of government. 2 extreme right-wing, authoritarian, or intolerant views or practice.

    Don't think that describes the U.S.?

    Take a look at Gitmo, Abu Ghraib and Iraq for some great modern examples.

  149. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Intron · · Score: 1, Insightful

    And what will you say when it turns out that some of the "pedophiles" were actually just political opponents? Governments are neither good nor evil, only individual acts by people are.

    --
    Intron: the portion of DNA which expresses nothing useful.
  150. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by courseofhumanevents · · Score: 1

    That's "the slippery soapbox."

  151. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Pvt_Ryan · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    I wouldn't even deem it impossible to make me a pedophile by my search records, maybe something I searched for was some sort of code for a pedo page.
    True BUT Do you have pictures of child porn in your online photo album?

    The point is its not search records, as far as i can see, being released its the unlocking of online photo albums.

    At the end of the day we need to redefine "rights", there are certain people who just shouldnt have any full stop.

    Human Rights is a load of balls, There have been more criminals getting away with something because of their "human rights" than decent people being protected by them.
  152. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by yuriyg · · Score: 1
    Reasonable middle group? How about this:

    The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Sounds reasonable to me. I understand that this was in a different country, however this reasoning behind this should be universal.
  153. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by LingNoi · · Score: 1
    You're right, I think you should go out there and tell everyone about how government is locking up those child molesters! Evil government bastards!

    We won't notice, x+1, so we'll ignore it.
    You must be new here,..
  154. Surprise! Google actually is evil. by farbles · · Score: 1
    I was on the fence about Google until today. Datamining their email clients, being insecure, turning over dissidents to China, all circumstantial.

    Today I saw my first Google ad for bulk emailers. I could not believe my eyes. I clicked on it to double check and sure enough, it was a real ad for a real bulk emailer guaranteeing 99% delivery and bullet-proof hosting.

    Google, the friend of my enemy is my enemy. Support the spammers and you are no friend of mine. DIAF.

  155. everyone now by superwiz · · Score: 1

    Brazil.... tanana-na-na-na... Brazil...

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  156. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by LingNoi · · Score: 2

    was thrown to prison and put to sex offender register for writing fiction.
    Can you not even read your own links?! Second sentence.

    He pleaded guilty earlier this year to distributing child pornography.
    He was distributing pictures of naked children, it had nothing to do with his fiction.

    Wanna stop your pro child pornography speech now?
  157. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by TilJ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The troubling thing is that the distinction isn't clear ... I can't tell if you mean that "nothing happens" in the "it's acceptable" sense or in the "there's no trial" sense. Depends on who you are, whether you protested in a "free speech zone", who you've phoned in the past few years, or which websites you've visited I guess. And that makes it worse, not better -- trials at least would allow for some form of check and balance oversight system.

    A transparent government exposes bad laws/inconsistent enforcement to public scrutiny. That doesn't seem to be "en vogue" anymore.

    --
    "The purpose of argument is to change the nature of truth." -- Bene Gesserit Precept
  158. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by corbettw · · Score: 1

    You might as well have mentioned the Alien and Sedition Acts (which really did outlaw speech against the government). Can you bring up anything that applies today and hasn't been overturned by either the courts or later legislation?

    --
    God invented whiskey so the Irish would not rule the world.
  159. Mod parent up by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    One of my best friends is a pedophile, who would never dream of acting on his desires, or harming or violating a child in any way. Actually violating a child is completely different, and if he was ever to do so, I would beat him to the edge of death and report him to the authorities.

    Shitstorm ensues.

  160. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by superwiz · · Score: 0, Flamebait

    they want to HAVE SEX WITH CHILDREN. you think its a bad thing the police dont know about them? fuck privacy Ummm, let me be very clear. I'd rather some sickos fucked with children than you fucked with my privacy. Clear enough? Go ahead, insult me. An insult from a person with your position will be taken as compliment.
    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  161. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by unlametheweak · · Score: 1

    56,000 allegations of child molestation in Brazil linked to Orkut should be enough reason for Google to look at that data. That is more than a hunch. That is probable cause. Your (continued) use of "probable cause" is highly spurious. Unfortunately when it comes to children people will use their emotions to decide what is right and wrong and not their logic.
  162. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by WindowlessView · · Score: 1

    That's funny, because I've seen people protest right outside the White House, and right outside Congress all the time. They're never fenced in or any such nonsense.

    Well, it certainly is comforting to have an experienced observer like you on the scene to give everyone the skinny about what's really going on in the country. However for people who prefer to have their reportage from people who don't have their heads in the sand they need only do the most basic Google searches. Here are a few of many, many examples and they don't even include all the abuses by local and state agencies, particularly those that need to justify their lucrative homeland security funding.

    http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2004/01/04/INGPQ40MB81.DTL&type=printable http://www.aclu.org/freespeech/protest/11419res20030923.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/21/washington/21protests.html

    And, oh, oh, Fox News so IT MUST be true!

    http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96474,00.html

    Next time, try again, but without the lies so much.

    Don't worry, that appears to be only one of several statements you have made that have come back to bite your ass today.

    --
    Leave the gun, take the cannolis.
  163. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by HiredMan · · Score: 4, Informative

    Yeah - no one would be arrested for voicing their opinions. Like in NYC during the Republican convention. Or just standing next to someone who was...
    http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/12/nyregion/12video.html

    The FBI wouldn't spy on you for being in a peaceful anti-war group, right?
    http://globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=viewArticle&code=MIL20060127&articleId=1835

    No one would be arrested because they wore an anti-Bush Tshirt, right?
    http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007/08/17/3243/

    And you accuse others of not seeing? Look the f*ck around.

    =tkk

  164. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Garnock · · Score: 1
  165. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by ultranova · · Score: 2, Informative

    He was distributing pictures of naked children, it had nothing to do with his fiction.

    The fiction is the pornography in question - you did know the term covers literature too, rather than just pictures ? From the link, with emphasis added by me for your benefit:

    On Tuesday, a judge sentenced Simon Houston to 15 months in jail, to be followed by three years of probation.

    He pleaded guilty earlier this year to distributing child pornography.

    Court heard Houston posted stories about having sex with children on a website called the North American Man-Girl Love Association.

    In his decision, the judge said pornographic fictional stories stimulate pedophiles and place children at risk in the real world.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  166. to the AC by superwiz · · Score: 1

    Dear Anonymous Coward who thinks that this is punishing the guilty,

    Please, keep in mind the fact that it is also opening the door to punishing the innocent. It may not punish the innoncent just yet. But it opens the door to it and that is why you are the sicko. Using any excuse to open the door to punishing the innocent is how freedom dies. We don't like that. The End.

    --
    Any guest worker system is indistinguishable from indentured servitude.
  167. Very bad article by underpants_gnome · · Score: 1

    I never thought I was going to say this, but... DON'T waste time RTFA. Is doesn't even tell 10% of the whole story.

    I'll try to explain this the best I can , since the majority here commenting aren't from Brazil, and never used Orkut.

    Basically, Orkut is the MySpace and Facebook of Brazil. Obviously, it's a big target for pedos. And, guess what. A lot of sub-14's use Orkut. Yeah, that means little boys and girls. And worse: little girls like to show themselves to the world. But, that's another case...

    Well, the thing is: until some time ago, anyone could see others peoples scraps (messages on the person's profile), photos and etc. And usually, pedos would "show off" their victims, so anybody could see them. We had a lot of these cases on the news. I'll even link one, in portuguese (sorry):

    http://www.juristas.com.br/n_30038~p_203~mp+quer+identificar+autor+de+pedofilia+no+orkut

    Some tidbits of that link (loose translation):

    "This Monday, thousands of Orkut users acted against the owner of the profile. More that 3.000 messages were posted on the Pedo's profile in the last days. All along the weekend, it totalled more than 70.000. Until 8pm of this Monday, around 550 communities against the criminal were created. Orkut (the service) has taken down the original profile, but new ones with similar name were created, along with 12 photos of minors engaging in sexual acts."

    You see, that was what Orkut (Google) was doing. Just deleting the pedo profiles WHEN someone complained. And, when the police requested the information about who created the account, his e-mail, and all other info, Orkut wouldn't give anything away.

    Now, fast forward to today. Scrapbooks, and photobooks are restricted to friends of the profile only, if the owner wishes. So, pedos can share photos between them freely, without anyone knowing. Unless, of course, someone leaks the info (be photos or profiles).

    As I said, similar cases like the one I cited happen(ed) A LOT, and this (poorly written) Yahoo news is just a result of a lenghty process.

    Now, you guys can say whatever you want, but consider this:

    If a pedo profile is found, and Orkut (Google) knows any info about the creator, it will have to pass the info to the police when requested, no?? Well, it never happened, so the Congress had to DEMAND IT, and what we see today is just that. Orkut giving away the info of these profiles.

    Oh yeah, sorry if it what's written above is not very, but English's not my native language.

    1. Re:Very bad article by Kazrath · · Score: 1

      Thank you for some first hand knowledge on the subject. The situation however has evolved significantly past the issue of Google giving information to the Brazilian government.

      The problem is in the US and most other so-called first world countries there are claims of rights and privacy which are constantly being abused by those in power. Are argument is that regardless of how morally unjust or emotionally driven an issue or crime is everything must be treated in the same way. We are not disagreeing that abusing children is wrong. We are disagreeing that it is okay to "Burn the child molesters at the stake" without solid evidence is wrong. In the US we have a history of pointing fingers and calling a person a "Witch" or "Communist" and now "Pedophile" and they are punished without any proof of guilt. This is what we are trying to avoid.

      So yes... please lock up all the child molesters... shoot them... do what ever to them. But lets have the facts and real hard evidence of a crime first.

    2. Re:Very bad article by underpants_gnome · · Score: 1

      Well, I can't account for ALL the data give to the Gov't. But, trust me, most cases are indeed crimes.

      There were photos of not naked kids. No, there were photos of adults penetrating kids. Not only 12 yo kids, but 9 yo and even 6 yo. Heck, one of these cases involved even the PARENTS of the kids.

      Look, i'm not advocating for any "side". I usually don't even buy in this "thinkofthechildren" thing. But in this particular case, there's plenty of proof.

      Obviously, I won't link any material of this kind. But if I want, I can just create an account on Orkut (disabled mine some time ago, got bored), and find this kind of crap. And if I report it, the profile will only be deleted. Nothing more.

  168. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by unlametheweak · · Score: 1

    So you're comparing file-sharers to pedophiles and terrorists? He is paraphrasing the trends of repression. Haven't you been reading Slashdot anytime within the past few years about how general P2P file sharing (among other things) is becoming more and more repressive over time?
  169. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Als die Nazis die Kommunisten holten,
    habe ich geschwiegen;
    ich war ja kein Kommunist.

    Als sie die Sozialdemokraten einsperrten,
    habe ich geschwiegen;
    ich war ja kein Sozialdemokrat.

    Als sie die Gewerkschafter holten,
    habe ich nicht protestiert;
    ich war ja kein Gewerkschafter.

    Als sie die Juden holten,
    habe ich geschwiegen;
    ich war ja kein Jude.

    Als sie mich holten,
    gab es keinen mehr, der protestieren konnte.

  170. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by computational+super · · Score: 1
    If a person knows who broke a law, then they should report that person.

    They should choose to, not be compelled to.

    --
    Proud neuron in the Slashdot hivemind since 2002.
  171. The devil's advocate by NoCowardsHere · · Score: 1

    Every once in a while, you hear a story of somebody taking a roll of child porn to CVS to get it developed, or taking their computer to be repaired with child porn on it, and the pictures get turned over to the police. When this happens, I don't usually get outraged at the violation of the criminal's privacy. Is this case really any different?

    Consider a theoretical case where a group of people meet regularly in a hotel room to trade child porn. Even though it may be occurring in a "private" place behind a locked door, it is still on somebody else's property, and if the property's owner finds out what's going on (perhaps a maid finds the pictures while cleaning the room) they may report it to the authorities. Similarly, if Orkut users upload illegal content to Google's servers, and Google finds the content, the fact that it was in a "locked" album seems irrelevant. I don't feel bad for the users in question, and I don't see a slippery slope here.

    There are distributed, encrypted, anonymous-by-design file sharing networks ideal for sharing controversial content. Orkut is not one of them -- it is a privately owned commercial site that can do what it wants.

    Orkut's terms of service probably state that Google reserves the right to view any content posted, even in a "restricted" album, in order to remove any content it finds in violation of their terms of service. They probably also state that they may freely share information with law enforcement agencies if they deem it necessary to the legal process. As such, it was well within Google's rights to do what they did.

    Finally, I would like to point out that Google has not turned over the identities of any Orkut users, only some of their files; the article implies that these files are the images they posted to the online album. (Though, if found to be illegal, the images will presumably provide the authorities with the evidence they need to get a warrant to find the users' identities.)

  172. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by ultranova · · Score: 1

    You seem to think that pedophilia isn't actually a problem and that people are using it as a boogeyman...

    No, I'm simply saying it's being exaggerated and turned into a boogeyman in an extremely cynical power-grab attempt.

    but seriously, have you not been paying attention to all of the molestation happening in the Catholic Church?

    Enough to know that the priests who were/are a part of it didn't find their victims through the Internet. Also enough to know that the priests got their position of trust in the first place by appeals to fear - "we are your protectors agains the forces of darkness" - just like the politicians who keep on bringing up boogeymen are trying to do.

    Catholic Church's problem is that people turned out to be more loyal to the institution of the church than the principles it was supposed to stand for. Thus when they found out about their fellow priests doing bad things to defenseless children entrusted to their care, they didn't make this information public, no, they helped hide said activities. That's a very human thing to do, to stand with your fellows even when they are wrong - but it can lead straight to Hell, as it did in that case.

    I run a very small blog website and I recently got some jackhole who started an "Intergenerational Love" website, which was a pedophilia advocacy blog. This problem is real and you can't just dismiss it.

    I'm not, I'm simply against hysteric exaggeration of it, where anything is allowed in the name of combatting it.

    But tell me: should it be illegal to start such a blog ? And if it is, should it be illegal for me to post this message, since it could be taken as defending the right of someone who advocated pedophilia to do so ? Should I be registered in a sex offender list for posting it anyway ? After all, arguing that pedophiles have rights might indicate sympathy, so better safe than sorry, right ?

    I'm not commenting on what Google did or did not do wrong, I'm saying you cannot be so flippant and dismiss pedophilia as a non-problem.

    I'm not commenting on Google's actions either, since there simply isn't enough information to do so, and I'm not being flippant or dismissing pedophilia as a non-problem. I'm simply pointing out that it is very rare - I mean actual pedophilia which means attraction to preteens rather than merely attraction to people under 18 - and that most pedophiles never molest children, just like most heterosexual males never rape women. And, of actual child molestation, most is done by someone who knows the child IRL, often by a family member.

    Given all this, the "online sexual predator" is an absurd stereotype of a nearly nonexistent phenomenom and needs to be dismissed, so that resources can be used in a rational manner based on actual reality rather than wasted fighting a scarecrow conjured up by some ruthless politicians in order to ascend to power on the backs of raped children and innocent people falsely accused of being pedophiles, as well as actual pedophiles who have nonetheless never actually done anything to any child.

    --

    Forget magic. Any technology distinguishable from divine power is insufficiently advanced.

  173. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kelbear · · Score: 1

    I don't think the point of dispute here is the definition of slippery slope.

    The problem with the slippery slope justification is that a "slippery slope" just proposes the theory that a marginal increase in "X" will also increase the threshold of tolerance to an amount equal to or greater than needed for the next increase in "X".

    What would need to be proven is that acceptance of an marginal increase of "X" must necessarily result in a sufficient increase in tolerance for the next marginal increase.

    One day we give warnings to traffic offenders, so we would then give fines, leading to jail time, and in the end we will be put to death for jaywalking. Why? Because we gave warnings. Slippery slope.

    Why doesn't it work in this context? Because it's absurd in this context. The train of logic isn't necessarily true. So what do we need to do? We need to examine each case within the context of the case. This may require some judgement but that is the burden and gift of intelligence.

  174. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Wooky_linuxer · · Score: 1

    It depends on how you define "probable cause". These accounts have been denounced. There might be screencaps (which can be forged, I know) attached. In some situations the public information available strongly suggests of pedophilia.

    It's like you saw someone screaming in your neighbour, a shot, and then some red liquid splattered on the window. Perhaps the screams and the shot came from a movie, and the liquid is just ketchup. But it is enough to warrant an investigation. IAB, btw.

    --
    Where is that guy who'd die defending what I had to say when I need him?
  175. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    >>> Harassing people as they walk down the street, inciting riots, blocking traffic, etc. These are laws being broken.

    Yeah, and you better pay for all that tea too!

  176. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by chad.koehler · · Score: 1

    While repealed now, it serves as a reminder that this can and does happen. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sedition_Act_of_1918

  177. Re: by clint999 · · Score: 0

    You might as well have mentioned the Alien and Sedition Acts (which really did outlaw speech against the government). Can you bring up anything that applies today and hasn't been overturned by either the courts or later legislation?

  178. Further clarification by tinkerghost · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Google's excuse for not complying with court order, you ask? Well, google told the Brazilian justice system that since the order wasn't isued within the USA they couldn't do a thing about it.
    So that's it, folks, do panic for the same thing that's happening in Brazil has been happening in the US for quite a long time. The only difference is that google has kind of a hard time respecting Brazil's sovereigny

    Mostly right except you are forgetting several things:

    • Google US is a US based company and is subject to US law
    • Google BR is a Brazilian company and is subject to Brazilian law
    • Google BR is not subject to US law - despite what US judges may think
    • Google US is not subject to Brazilian law - despite what Brazilian judges may think
    • Google BR was served with a legal request for data they did not posses - it resided in the states under the auspice of Google US.
    • Google US was requested to turn over the data - without a US warrant - they refused.

    Had Brazil requested help from the FBI they probably would have gotten their data. By trying to force a company to produce something it didn't have, they just created an impasse. Handling cases involving international corps isn't as simplistic as people try to make it out to be. In this case - Google US couldn't just acknowledge Brazil's sovereignty without disregarding the US', and Google BR just couldn't comply with the request because they didn't have the data to give up.

    1. Re:Further clarification by prxp · · Score: 1

      First of all, the crimes referenced in this pedophilia case were all committed by and/or against Brazilian nationals. Second, Had Google BR requested Google US back up copies of the aforementioned data, the sovereignty of both countries (US and BR) would still be respected. Google can move data among all its subsidiaries without violating any laws or privacy agreements (or their duties to their users, for that matter). By having the data physically stored in Brazil, there is no obstacle to comply with Brazilian laws. In the end, this whole issue is just Google trying to keep good PR (as the one that does no evil), and not Google respecting any laws. It's not like Google was really tied by any laws, they just didn't do it based on their own interests and discretion. A proof of that is that now, after the senate hearing has happened, Google has provided the requested data, and I have seen no movement from US' prosecutors because of that, have you? That's because no laws were broken.

  179. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by arth1 · · Score: 1

    I'm not commenting on Google's actions either, since there simply isn't enough information to do so, and I'm not being flippant or dismissing pedophilia as a non-problem. I'm simply pointing out that it is very rare - I mean actual pedophilia which means attraction to preteens rather than merely attraction to people under 18 - and that most pedophiles never molest children, just like most heterosexual males never rape women. And, of actual child molestation, most is done by someone who knows the child IRL, often by a family member.

    Indeed. You would prevent more child molestations by preventing fathers from having access to their children than restricting registered sex offenders.

    The statistics for "sex offenders" repeating is worse than you'd think, because it's not differentiated at all. People arrested for mooning a police officer, urinating in public, or soliciting a prostitute aren't any more likely to molest children than any of us others, yet they're prevented from doing so, and ostracized and persecuted long after any sentence has been served. And, honestly, a guy seeking out a grown-up prostitute has already shown that he's sexually attracted to grown-ups, so he's probably less likely to molest a child than the average man. The religious right might want to believe that all "sin" is the same, but it truly isn't.
  180. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by AceyMan · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'll be surprised if the OP can say he never read this quotation, since he paraphrased it so nicely, to wit:

    "Civilization, in fact, grows more and more maudlin and hysterical; especially under democracy it tends to degenerate into a mere combat of crazes; the whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by an endless series of hobgoblins, most of them imaginary."
    --H.L. Mencken (1917)
    cited from http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/H._L._Mencken

    --
    -- Experience is a wonderful thing. It enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again.
  181. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by fastest+fascist · · Score: 1

    If it's okay to ignore someone's rights because he's a pedophile, then it's also okay to ignore someone's rights because that someone happens to be you A big part of the issue is that the rights being infringed upon are the rights of people suspected of being [pedophiles/terrorists/unsavoury types]. When you ignore rights to gather information on suspects, you inevitably ignore the rights of innocent people. I don't see any way around that.
  182. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    If a US citizen speaks out against the US government today, nothing happens. BIll Mahar, the Dixie Chicks, and several others would like a word with you.

  183. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by unlametheweak · · Score: 1

    Fail.
    Slippery slope is not a valid argument. Nope. You fail. While slippery slope may be used as a logical fallacy, it does not mean that it is a logical fallacy.

    So for example, while people (most often police officers [an appeal to authority BTW] and the like who teach about capital-D Drugs in school) will often say that marijuana leads to "harder drugs". Although there may be some correlation (amongst people who are inclined to use illegal recreational drugs), there certainly is no cause and effect or trend towards marijuana users becoming heroine or crack users for example. Thus in this situation we have a logical fallacy.

    On the other hand, people who are inclined to hurt (non-human) animals are also inclined to violence in general (towards the human animal). So there is very definitely a logical slippery slope here.

    One can also see this trend in cigarette laws. Where I live they first raised the smoking age, and over the years it has gotten more and more repressive (and seemingly easier) to get even more repressive anti-smoking legislation passed. It appears (to me at least) that the same (types) of people who want smoking completely outlawed are and the one's introducing more and more legislation are the same people. And yes they use the think-of-the-children fallacy in their arguments as well.

    From Wikipedia:

    In debate or rhetoric, the slippery slope is an argument for the likelihood of one event or trend given another. And,

    The slippery slope argument may or may not involve a fallacy...
  184. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

    One day we give warnings to traffic offenders, so we would then give fines, leading to jail time, and in the end we will be put to death for jaywalking. Why? Because we gave warnings. Slippery slope. Your anology of a graduated punishment system is not parallel to the hypothetical situation at hand, and is therefore flawed.

    Liken it to the death penalty for murderers-
    -At first, it required a fair amount of evidence to prove guilty.
    -People hated murderers so much that they started loosening laws regarding how we caught murderers.
    -Police decided they wanted even easier access to information that would help them get murderers, so much so that they sometimes got personal data from innocent people too. People were ok with that, because they hate murderers.
    Police did one more power grab, and now obtain personal data about everybody - innocent or guilty- to catch murderers. People are ok because they hate murderers.
    Police now have the ability to single you and your family out for belief xyz. You're no longer ok with the power police have, but it's too late, because they eroded your rights little by little.

    Slippery Slope is not a logical argument because x+1 does not imply x+10. Slippery slope is a strategy to watch out for because (x + 1 * 10) is easier to get past the general public than (x+10).

    And if you read my argument, you'd see that I agree with you that it's not a logical argument, and is instead a fallacy. But that doesn't make it less relevant in this discussion.
    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  185. U.S. definition of child pornography by SETIGuy · · Score: 2, Interesting
    I don't know Canadian law or Brazilian law. In the U.S. (U.S.C. 18 Sec. 2256), child pornography does not require visual depictions of actual children in actual or simulated sexual activity to be present. Child pornography also includes visual depictions of simulated children in sexual activity. You know, that web site you visit with the 18 year old dressed like a school girl? If the government want to press a case against you, that counts as possession of child pornography.

    U.S. law also considers anything that advertises itself as containing visual depictions of children in sexual activity to also be child pornography. So if I were to create a link to whitehouse.gov on a web page, and if the web page were to claim the link pointed to pictures of children having sex, that web page would also count as child pornography according to the definitions in the U.S. Code. If you were to have that web page in your cache, you could be prosecuted and convicted of possession of child pornography even though no actual images were involved. The only question is how much the government wants you behind bars. Of course, I could also be prosecuted for creating the page in the first place.

    That's how the police state starts.... Make sure everyone has violated enough laws that they can be imprisoned at a moments notice. If everyone is guilty of an imprisonable offense, only people who speak in favor of the government have freedom of speech.

    1. Re:U.S. definition of child pornography by IndustrialComplex · · Score: 1

      So when I dressed up as baby new year in Times Square...

      --
      Out of modpoints but really liked a post? 1BDkF6TtmmeZ3yqXbz9yhdYVqRYnwFoXDj
    2. Re:U.S. definition of child pornography by russotto · · Score: 2, Informative

      . In the U.S. (U.S.C. 18 Sec. 2256), child pornography does not require visual depictions of actual children in actual or simulated sexual activity to be present. Child pornography also includes visual depictions of simulated children in sexual activity. You know, that web site you visit with the 18 year old dressed like a school girl? If the government want to press a case against you, that counts as possession of child pornography.
      That provision was struck down by the US Supreme Court. News Article
  186. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by FredFredrickson · · Score: 0, Offtopic

    I would also like to add that just because:
    (X+10) = Bad;
    (x+1) != (x+10)
    does not mean that:
    (x+1) = good. This would be the straw man, as you cannot infer this information from the argument at hand.

    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  187. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's Weissman, and they weren't speaking out, dipshit, they were spying. And, if you cannot tell the difference, stfu.

  188. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by unlametheweak · · Score: 1

    On Sunday they noticed a sharp fall in the crime rates... In Russia when they imposed martial law during the Yeltsin-era coup attempt, the crime rate also dropped dramatically. I suppose it all depends on what type of world we want to live in.
  189. I call BS. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You're talking to a generation and a forum that grew up on Doom and Quake. The push to control content at the government level:

    1. won't work, the fictional material and violent games will just be forced underground.

    2. is in violation of the 1st amendment and the rights to free speech.

    3. punishes the many for the psychosis of the few.

  190. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by mpe · · Score: 1

    If you had RTFA, you would see that the government didn't get warrants for any of these "suspects" and freely admitted that there wasn't enough evidence to do so. This isn't a case of some cop going before a judge and saying "Your honor, I need to subpoena this guy's records because I suspect he's a pedophile and here's my preliminary evidence." This was a case of the government saying "Here's a list of names. Give us all their information and don't ask any questions."

    Which has the likely result that instead of the police actually investigating anything they will instead pick names at random to ask Google for information about. Requirements for warrants arn't just about protecting the innocent from police harassment. They also help keep police officers focussed on the job they are intended to be doing.

  191. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by arth1 · · Score: 1

    True BUT Do you have pictures of child porn in your online photo album?

    I do. Several of the pictures taken when I was a kid was of me and my brother nude. My mother even showed these pictures to my girlfriends to embarrass me -- a fairly typical thing, I believe.
    By the new standards, these pictures are now called child porn, and I break the law by not handing them over to the police and turning myself in. Yet, they're a valuable part of my childhood, and not something I want to part with. Yes, I really was nude. More than once. Where I grew up, it was unheard of for kids below school age to wear clothes for bathing.

    I also have some manga pictures, some of which may be of girls that are hypothetically under 18, if they had been human. I don't care -- they tend to have big bazookas, so I don't think of them as children.

    If you do see either as wrong, I think it's you who have a sexual deviation problem, not me.
  192. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by jorlando · · Score: 1

    Google's problem started when they opened a office in Brasil.

    Orkut use in Brazil is widespread. Since the beggining people used Orkut's forums to open communities for spreading racism, nazism, pedophilia and other types of behaviour that are considered criminal by brazilian law.

    I don't know if by lack of knowledge or haste the brazilian DA started to sending subpoenas to Google's office and the typical scenario happens again: the offending data is in another country and the local office has no power to hand them to the local judiciary system.

    Maybe Orkut data will be moved to Brazil, maybe they convinced the brazilian MP to present it's requests properly in USA. I think that arrangement will be more clear in the next days.

  193. Let's see... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Alien and Sedition: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_and_Sedition_Acts

    McCarthyism:
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/McCarthyism

    It's illegal to say, "I want to kill the President of the United states":
    http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&ct=res&cd=1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DQEQOvyGbBtY&ei=itcQSJPGIYjiiAHk34W2Cg&usg=AFQjCNEVzrtecdGft4od0D9XPCzApeba6A&sig2=EW7R1eozHcnc6LIGz5Lz3g

    Political Protests outside the "protest area" I thought this was America and any public land was "protest area":
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zones
    http://www.911blogger.com/node/14179

  194. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Bombula · · Score: 1
    The problem with Rights is that they are inherently absolute. Absolutes are tough to deal with because they don't allow for logic or reasoning relative to context. You have a right to privacy. I have a right to free expression. I have a camera with a telephoto lens, and, voila, pictures of you are on the internet. Whose rights win? Registered sex-offenders have a right to privacy. Do I have a right to know if my new neighbor who moved in is a convicted child molester? I think so, although it's not in the constitution. Whose rights win?

    Moral principles are another example. Take pacifism and non-violence. As Sam Harris points out, a single maniac with a knife could lay waste to a city of millions if it contained nothing but pacifists.

    What we need - and what we have, to some degree - is a system that looks at the conflicting interests between parties and evaluates whose claims deserve priority. Rights do get violated in this way, but it is - quite obviously - the only sensible course. Our evaluations change over time, too. Smokers used to have the 'right' to smoke anywhere they pleased in their pursuit of happiness. No longer - thank goodness. Our evaluations of the rights of pedaphiles to privacy may one day change too. For now, we place importance of children's right to safety and security above the importance of pedaphiles' right to privacy.

    The point is that pedaphiles being denied privacy today does NOT mean that every citizen will be denied privacy tomorrow. It may be a slippery slope, but the solution is build good steps into the slope, not to mindlessly level the whole playing field with absolute rights and eliminate any possibility of contextual logic and reasoning.

    --
    A-Bomb
  195. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by mpe · · Score: 1

    The sad part is, Mr. Doe has never done anything more wrong in his meager life than cross against the light.

    Thus is exactly the kind of person poorly supervised police officers are likely want to target. They'd want to avoid "career criminals" who know how to play the system (or have lawyers who do). Similarly it's dangerous to go trying to arrest a well armed terrorist suspect, especially one who might view dead police officers as having more "points" than dead civilians.

    Ignorance causes people to hide behind the falsity "If you have nothing to hide then why do you need privacy?". The sad fact is, everyone, and I really DO mean EVERYONE, has SOMETHING that they don't want to be made public knowledge, period.

    It isn't even a matter of "public knowledge". Plenty of people have little reason to trust even their own government, let alone random foreign governments. Even if you trust "your government" do you trust everyone they trust? (As well as all the entities which have infiltrated either "your government" or some entity they happen to trust. Your information can easily end up in all sorts of places due to combinations of "trust" and spying.)

  196. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

    If a US citizen spoke out against the US government during the McCarthy era, they were put on trial.

    If a US citizen speaks out against the US government today, nothing happens. CHARLESTON, WV - The American Civil Liberties Union today filed a lawsuit against the United States Secret Service and Greg Jenkins, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of White House Advance, on behalf of a West Virginia couple who were arrested at a Fourth of July presidential appearance at the state Capitol because they were wearing t-shirts critical of the president .

    Are you ignorant or dishonest?
    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  197. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by prxp · · Score: 1

    I'm not seeing anything in the article that says they either did or did not get warrants. Then again, I don't know if warrants are even required in Brazil. A Senate committee in Brazil has some powers that overlap those of a court. So they can issue such warranties. Let me remind you that the situation got as far as reaching the senate committee only because Google repeatedly refused to comply with previous court orders. This issue is not about about state sponsored censorship in any sense, this whole thing is about how multi-national corporations should handle local laws. In this case, there isn't even a conflict between Brazilian and US laws, the problem was just procedural, Google kept excusing itself from giving the data by saying they only could obey a court order issue in the US. As we can see, this isn't completely true. Google can move data among its subsidiaries freely without violating any laws or agreements. By storing such data physically in Brazil, all and any obstacles to comply with Brazilian laws (and court orders) cease to exist. That's demonstratively so based on the fact Google did comply with the Brazilian senate request and gave away the data. No US prosecutors have complained about it, though. That's because no laws were broken.
  198. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by mpe · · Score: 1

    There is a reasonable middle ground. It's called a warrant. The government shows to a judge that they have sufficient evidence to show probable cause a) that the person did the crime, and b) that the person they're asking for information from has specific and relevant information to this case.

    Before a & b they need to convince the judge that a crime actually happened. Where as with the kind of "fishing trip" you don't have to actually prove anything at all. Just that if you look in enough "water" you are likely to find some "fish".

  199. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

    Please name one example of facism we have in the US where someone was prosecuted for speaking out against the government. Tasered and arrested for mentioning Skull & Bones.
    --

    You can't take the sky from me...

  200. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by alcmaeon · · Score: 1

    "the chances are that you are the lowest of the low in someone's book."

    You are so right, "kestasjk" has a vaguely slavic sounding name and we all know that slavs are untermenschen, so, yes, he is the lowest of the low in quite a lot of people's books, particularly Mein Kampf.

  201. Illiterate IDIOT - first learn to READ by unity100 · · Score: 1

    it says SUSPECTED pedophiles, moron. anyone can be a suspect. if i pick up the phone and snitch you for no reason, you are a suspect too.

    1. Re:Illiterate IDIOT - first learn to READ by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      A man walks into a bank with a gun. He points the gun at the teller and says, "Give me all your money." She does so. He takes the money, exits the building and is instantly arrested. This alleged "bank robber" is a suspect. Neat, huh?

    2. Re:Illiterate IDIOT - first learn to READ by unity100 · · Score: 1

      he is not a suspect. he is a criminal. you have camera records, many people's actual witnessing of the crime scene.

  202. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    You just got signed up for NAMBLA.

  203. you jumped on an internet meme by unity100 · · Score: 1

    and you lose. nazi experience is one of the most important lessons this civilization has learned. stupid bambinos jumping on memes like godwin's 'law' do not reduce the importance of the lesson. fuck godwin, fuck illiterate bambinos.

  204. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Even if you were right:
    (a) Pedophile != child molestor
    (b) *Alleged* pedophile != pedophile
    (c) about 3000 people who have nothing to do with any of this have had their information turned over. Again, they are just collateral damage, they are not suspected of anything.
     
    And so on. What about this is so hard to understand? Yeah it's a terrible crime, but 3000 people are suffering for no reason, and the other 200 *may or may not* be capable of having some sort of aptitude for it.
     
    We're not talking actual crimes, actual offenses, actual courts...it's all behind the scenes, and innocent people are getting caught in the dragnet. You'll understand when it's someone you care about on the stand, who was just unlucky enough to be on the internet on the wrong day.

  205. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    I would defend pedophiles. It's those child molesting pedophiles who are the bad people.

  206. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by kellyb9 · · Score: 1

    Truth be told - People aren't really making it all that difficult to have their data mined. If you put information out there, who's to say the government or any other company shouldn't mine it. In the end, you were the one who made the decision to make it available.

  207. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by mpe · · Score: 1

    We're on the verge of making knowledge illegal. Scratch the verge, we're already there with making it illegal to inform people of bomb building. Yes, I know how to make a bomb out of rather easily gathered over the counter chemicals. That doesn't make me a terrorist. I know how to make LSD. That doesn't make me the next drug cook. I read "The Capital" online. That doesn't make me a communist.

    Knowlage can also let you know when "authorities" or "the media" are talking nonsense about something. Knowing how to build a bomb or produce LSD also tends to enable you to know how not to do these things (or what has so little chance of sucess that it is pointless.) e.g. the whole binary liquid explosive aircraft bombing thing. Being able to identify bovine excrement can be a very powerful skill.

  208. I Swear... by sexconker · · Score: 1

    To defend with my life this data from any unauthorized access by any individual, organization, or government.

    (Instead of swearing on a bible/flag/etc, you'd swear on a hard drive, for epic lulz.)

    Why don't we have offshore databanks, immune to access by anyone?

    Armed gaurds, dead man switches, anti-aircraft guns, and a fat internet pipe on some rocky crag out in the ocean.

  209. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

    Yet it still fails because it makes the jump from subpoenaed information concerning possible criminal acts to "everyone".

    It goes from crime, crime, crime, everyone. That logic fails.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  210. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by mpe · · Score: 1

    56,000 allegations of child molestation in Brazil linked to Orkut should be enough reason for Google to look at that data. That is more than a hunch. That is probable cause.

    Put against Brazil's population of 186 million the number looks less impressive. It might also be interesting to know how many people are actually making these allegations and if they have anything in common. If most (or even all) of the allegations were to be from members of the same political group then it's probably them who need investigation.

  211. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by mpe · · Score: 1

    If the data is hosted on servers outside of the country, then they can't get a warrant for that data. Brazil's court system lacks the jurisdiction.

    There are most likely "channels" which could be used. Especially if the whatever is also against the law where the data is actually being held.

  212. Care to enlighten me? by hummassa · · Score: 1

    Here is the underlying difficulty with comparing different legal systems. This practice might be common and acceptable in Brazil. Which practice?
    --
    It's better to be the foot on the boot than the face on the pavement. ~~ tkx Kadin2048
  213. yea, probable cause is very clearly defined by unity100 · · Score: 1

    like some neighbor suspecting that you are a pedophile and taking up the phone to snitch you, or some woman coming up and claiming that you raped her, out of the blue.

    in either case, you get harassed. in the latter case, you get arrested before being harassed, even without any evidence.

    thats your probable cause.

  214. No reasonable ground. by pacalis · · Score: 1

    Having read your arguments I now suspect you all of being pedophiles.

  215. The misstatement of Godwin's Law ... by Ungrounded+Lightning · · Score: 1

    You invoked Godwin's Law, and lose.

    Misstatements of Godwin's Law are very convenient for neo-NAZIs.

    Never Again!

    --
    Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
  216. SUSPECTED pedophiles by unity100 · · Score: 1

    if i pick the phone and snitch you, you become a suspect too.

    1. Re:SUSPECTED pedophiles by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

      Was anyone arrested?

      Was action taken because of one complaint?

      No. 56,000 allegations have been filed about 200 people in a select group of communities. Are you suggesting no one should investigate 56,000 allegations?

      That's inane.

      --
      http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
    2. Re:SUSPECTED pedophiles by unity100 · · Score: 1

      you think they want the data on suspects to make a scrapbook for a high school course ?

  217. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    everyone I've seen invoking "godwin's law" have without fail turned out to be nazi sympathisers.

  218. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Bush has protesters all the time, and they aren't arrested. This seems to be an isolated case of an idiot making a ridiculous arrest, and there are (as the link points out) repercussions for such an act.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  219. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    This was a case of the government saying "Here's a list of names. Give us all their information and don't ask any questions."

    I haven't been following the news recently. When did Dubya resign as POTUS and get the chief justice of the Brazilian Supreme court to appoint him as president of Brazil?

  220. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    Except McCarthy acted on thin evidence while those in Guantanamo are mostly (if not all) POWs caught in combat. Theres not much chance of them being innocent.

  221. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    Funny how violent peace protesters get aint it?

  222. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    Not really. Those are responses to known threats as well as the overthrowing of an oppressive regime. Dont other people deserve the same freedom you claim not to have even if they aren't born in the USA?

    The casualties of Iraq have been mostly soldiers. Either our VOLUNTEERS or their bully-soldiers. There hasnt been that much "collateral damage". It is hardly the bloodbath that liberal media sources portray.

  223. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    Mormons do not practice any sort of incestuous, abusive, nor polygamous practices. Those are break off rebel groups.

    To put it in perspective, the groups that do that have as much to do with the "Mormon" church as Muslim fundamentalists have to do with real Muslims.

  224. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    The boogyman dosnt exist. pedophiles do.

  225. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Kral_Blbec · · Score: 1

    Soooo we shouldnt arrest anyone because it just will progress and we will eventually arrest everyone?

  226. Not like we aren't already doing it. by Gldm · · Score: 1

    When did taking drugs become a crime? Yes crimes are sometimes committed by people under the influence of drugs, or to support addictions.

    But why should someone be treated as a criminal simply for ingesting a plant or chemical? Because they might commit a crime under the influence? Because they might become addicted and need medical or psychiatric help to quit but are instead thrown away by society?

    Seems like we're punishing people for what crimes they might commit all the time. Somehow people decided that some plurality knows whats best or "moral", and that all should be punished to protect against the potential actions of the few.

    --

    Introducing the new Occam Fusion! Now with sqrt(-1) fewer blades!

  227. Re:There must be a reasonable middle ground somewh by rtechie · · Score: 1

    Thus is exactly the kind of person poorly supervised police officers are likely want to target. Please mod the parent up. One of the biggest problems with police is that they're LAZY (like everyone else) and would rather go after the "easy" criminals (vagrants, shoplifters, corner drug dealers, etc.) than the "tough" criminals (professional gangsters, con artists, banks, etc.) because the "tough" criminals are more difficult to catch and many are actually dangerous.

  228. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by douceur · · Score: 1

    Since they're volunteers, it's ok that they're killed?

  229. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    Someone mod this guy insightful.

    I think you just summed up essentially how knowledge is a weapon. A weapon of self defense against fed and media bullspit.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  230. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    It is child porn if you have pictures of yourself being nude as a kid?

    That's one fucked up law.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  231. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Opportunist · · Score: 1

    This isn't about arresting anyone. It's about due process, and the lack therof. If it's ok to ignore very fundamental rights in one case, it won't be as bad in the next, and so on, until it is the norm to ignore your rights because hey, it's already been done so many times.

    --
    We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  232. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    They always start with the "lowest of the low" precisely because they know no one will object to it.

    And if that doesn't do it, they will grab what they without a warrant, declare the whole thing to be "a matter of national security", "containing details of operations, sources and methods' or, as a last resort, "obtained by stupid motherfucking cops who 'were acting in good faith', so you, Inquiring Citizen, can go fuck yourself with an anvil." And that's that.

    Never forget that the policy on FOIA requests of the much-maligned Janet Reno DoJ was, "Absent a national security issue, disclose."

    The first act of the colon-sucking John Ashcroft was to invert that policy to, "Absent a court order, withhold".

    Yes, this is the same worthy who lost his Senate seat to a dead man. http://archives.cnn.com/2000/ALLPOLITICS/stories/11/07/senate.missouri/ and, as AG, pissed away $8000 on curtains to obscure the right (and righteous) tit of the "Spirit of Justice" statue, so the TV cameras were left with nothing but his nauseating gob when he gave speeches http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/1788845.stm. On previous occasions, the drapes had been rented at $2000 a pop when formal events were held in the space. Ecconomy is where you find it.

    Then he went on to protect us by helping draft the Useless Parrot Act.

  233. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Enderandrew · · Score: 1

    Pro-lifers will bomb abortion clinics. And I read a story on the AP feed (I work for a newspaper) about how two guys arguing over the Bible got in a fist-fight, and the one beat the other to death.

    Peace protesters can in fact get violent.

    --
    http://blindscribblings.com - Tasty pop-culture in conceptual fashion.
  234. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Beware the tyranny of the masses.

    http://tinyurl.com/et5tf

  235. It is also the only sane option too by aepervius · · Score: 1

    it is hard to downright impossible to prove someone's innocence. just like it is hard to prove the non-existence of an entity like the FSM.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  236. This is the type of comment by aepervius · · Score: 1

    which should be linked in the summary, or made a bit more promeminent than a simple +5 informative. Compare to the other 10 or 20 +4/+5 jumping the gun and purporting the prosecutor made undue pressure, slippery slope, nazi comparison, bastard brazilian judge pressuring poor google without warrant and so on.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  237. How to get away with all crime you want : by aepervius · · Score: 1

    1) make up a server in a country with very very lax laws (if you don't find one, just pay a poor third world country)

    2) advertise that you can do all illegal stuff you want there, because by your OWn reasonment, an US citizen saving its illegal data in the other country server, the US justice departement would have to subponea the other country server. Subponea which can be ignored because the other country law say those data are legal

    3) child porn, top secret docs, credit card lists, and whatever can be illegal in your country as data get stored there.
    4) profit. Lot's of.

    --
    C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
    http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
    visit randi.org
  238. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Shirizaan · · Score: 1

    Do we really have to go through another Kristallnacht, another Auschwitz or Sachsenhausen for people to fight tyranny, totalitarianism -- and yes, Crimethink? Argument forfeit. Nazi reference.
  239. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    I think your confusing his point with your own. In order for your murderers example to work, you need a population that both knows they hate murderers and doesn't know where something is an abuse or not connected with capturing murderers.

    That is an assumption you have made because it proves your point about a slippery slope. However, nothing you said indicates that everyone would be fine going past a certain step in the pursuit of murderers. I read along and thought that is acceptable, this is ok. Wait a minute, I won't accept that. It stopped being acceptable for me when you got to this stepPolice did one more power grab, and now obtain personal data about everybody - innocent or guilty- to catch murderers. People are ok because they hate murderers. Yet you somehow assume that this would be fine and take it another step further. There is nothing pointing to anyone looking logically at the situation and not being able to see the disconnect between catching murderers and gathering information on everyone simply because they hate murderers.

    So there is his point. In order for the slippery slope to play out, you are not only assuming that whoever in charge is attempting to take the ride all the way down hill, but that the people are gullible enough to be a passenger on the trip. You have to consider that some people will object, the further down the slope we go, the more will object, the more that objects, the less likely they are to go the rest of the way down. When X+1 equal Y instead of Y-1, the slope will likely disappear as that would be as far as it can go. Even if the map shows it going a long ways further. Now let Y equal the point that everyone objects to the way the driver is driving us down the slope.

  240. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by ya+really · · Score: 1

    Please name one example of facism we have in the US where someone was prosecuted for speaking out against the government.

    McCarthyism

    Don't forget the Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798

    Also the Sedition Act of 1918

    Finally, the subsequent Palmer Raids that followed the later's passage.
  241. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    The rights of suspects have always been trampled on in pursuit of justice. Try standing over a dead body with a bloody knife in your hand and tell the cops to respect your privacy.

    I don't know what all the hubub is about. They observed these people participating in talks of pedophilia and other actions that happen to of been illegal in that area. This is no different then you standing over a dead body with a knife in your hand. You are a suspect of a crime and they can investigate that crime.

  242. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by sumdumass · · Score: 1

    What due process is missing here? The Brazilian senate requested the information, the justice department and prosecution's office was working with them, and Google was facing Jail time for not complying with their official requests. As far as Brazil is concerned, Due process has been more then meet.

  243. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by drsquare · · Score: 1

    What are you saying, that they shouldn't hand over information about anyone at all? I'm pretty sure it's required by Brazilian law.

  244. I'd take that a step further by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    and treat child pornography like cannabis--decriminalised. Only distribution or production should be criminal offences as this is where profit is made and damage done.

    What is going on when someone could plant a couple of photos on your computer and you can go to jail? It's insanity.

    Yes, the photos are unpleasant, but they are just photos. Maybe you can argue that someone was hurt making the photo, but then why isn't it illegal to have a decapitation video on your computer? Go after the producers and sellers, not the poor sod at the end of the line who may not even know of the picture.
  245. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    It's an example of it being illegal to speak freely about any government visits without being prosecuted. It's only not an example of actual prosecution because people have been afraid to break that law. So it's pretty much the same thing.

  246. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by LocalH · · Score: 1

    Wrong.

    "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." - Mike Godwin

    I see nothing there about any forfeiture of the argument.

    YOU JUST LOST THE GAME

    --
    FC Closer
  247. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by LocalH · · Score: 1

    Valid comparison. Godwin's Law does not establish whether the argument is lost or not.

    YOU JUST LOST THE GAME

    --
    FC Closer
  248. Misplaced Hysteria by thatblackguy · · Score: 1

    "Google released a statement yesterday saying it was complying with the Brazilian court orders following a ruling Thursday by a Brazilian judge that threatened Google with a fine of $23,000 a day for noncompliance." from http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/09/01/AR2006090100608.html They had a court order, it was fine. No need to get all pissy about it.

  249. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Azure+Khan · · Score: 1

    While I can agree that there is a certain degree of fear mongering, you also know that you could just as easily replace that last sentence you wrote as:

    "If you're not exercising your Constitutional right to dissent against your government, you wouldn't need worry about being called a terrorist".

    --

    --- I'm going sane in a crazy world.
  250. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by FredFredrickson · · Score: 1

    I simplified it into 3 larger steps. It's happening right now and I don't see people rioting in the streets. It's just not that big of an erosion of rights. Not yet.

    Murderers is an analogy. Maybe people don't have murderers that much. But they sure hate pedophiles. Heck- read every other comment in this article: FBI Renews Push for ISP Data Retention Laws, it's always something along the lines of - "..as long as they catch those evil children molesters.."

    --
    Belief? Hope? Preference?The Existential Vortex
  251. there's more crime going unpunished by rootpassbird · · Score: 1

    in orders of magnitude greater than paedophilia / kiddie porn.
    Why dont they tackle that crime first?
    Also, what is the _factual_ correlation between hardened organised criminals and the suspected or suspected-and-arrested paedophiles?
    What portion of society's crime is paedophilia?
    Would any "law enforcement official" take the time to answer these questions?
    I don't think so.

    --
    Hackers have long memories. It works both ways.
  252. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by TufelKinder · · Score: 1

    Of course I understand that, and I understand that that's the point to the original parent was trying to make (not sure why my opinion deserves a Troll and Flamebait moderation but anyway), the point is this was about turning data over on suspected criminals. If you have a problem with that, it's the fault of the law and the lawmakers, not of the people who comply with it.

    And apparently expressing disbelief in the face of prevailing conspiracy theories based on ignorance also justifies a negative moderation. Woo-hoo.

    --
    If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear. -- George Orwell
  253. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Reziac · · Score: 1

    The law also covers cartoons. It doesn't matter if any real children are involved or not.

    Explain to me how this is not thought-crime??

    And as a poster above points out, once it's acceptable (or worse, desireable) to prosecute one type of thought-crime -- ANY concept someone disapproves of can become thought-crime, despite NO actual harm being done to any person or property.

    Remember that in some countries, merely *discussing* or *reading about* foreign forms of government is a capital offense.

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  254. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Reziac · · Score: 1

    And since when does a budding tyrant want you to have the knowledge to prevent his rise to power?

    Tyranny isn't just lining dissidents up against the wall and shooting them, ya know.

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  255. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Reziac · · Score: 1

    Certain it is. Wanting to see kiddie porn is a crime. Wanting to kill the President of the U.S. is a crime. Don't think so? trot down to your local cop shop and express a desire to see their confiscated kiddie porn. Walk past the White House and yell "I'm gonna kill Bush". See what happens. Doesn't matter if you'd ever ACTUALLY do it; you need only CLAIM that you want to do it.

    --
    ~REZ~ #43301. Who'd fake being me anyway?
  256. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by elrous0 · · Score: 1

    Ah...but what a singer.

    --
    SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
  257. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by Qzukk · · Score: 1

    Yet it still fails...
    It goes from crime, crime, crime, everyone.

    Looks like they didn't fail, if you didn't catch that "file-sharing" isn't a crime.

    --
    If I have been able to see further than others, it is because I bought a pair of binoculars.
  258. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by nospam007 · · Score: 1

    To put it in perspective, the groups that do that have as much to do with the "Mormon" church as Muslim fundamentalists have to do with real Muslims.

    Problem is who defines which one is real and which not?
    The majority?

  259. Re:Once the government's bitch, evermore their bit by DaveV1.0 · · Score: 1

    Depends on the file, dumbass. Or, do you consider violating someone's rights not a crime, even when there is a law against violating those rights?

    Now, please, STFU.

    --
    There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
  260. 22nd amendment by Scrameustache · · Score: 1

    Bush has protesters all the time, and they aren't arrested. Because it doesn't matter anymore, you're stuck with him until the end of the year, no matter what they say.
    --

    You can't take the sky from me...