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College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior
FutureDomain writes "The Boston College Campus Police have seized the electronics of a computer science student for allegedly sending an email outing another student. The probable cause? The search warrant application states that he is 'a computer science major' and he uses 'two different operating systems for hiding his illegal activity. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' The EFF is currently representing him."
This would be funny except it's scary instead . . .
Do rent-a-cops have any power to seize property, or is this just a case of theft?
Self-hating fag.
shit, if using 2 os's can hide my porn addiction, i'll be a tripple-booting, VM-running, 8 computer-having motherfucker!
First time I ever heard that. Does Boston College suddenly come out with their own Linux Distro?
Only outlaws will have Linux ;)
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
Judge: Would the prosecution give its opening statements in this case? ... and uh--who's that over there?--it's Clippy! ... this evil operating system is what hackers use. Maybe those hackers are the same ones that stole your credit card information? Maybe this operating system can only be understood by the criminally insane? I know I can't use it. It would be like me trying to read a book in German. You know who else spoke German? Hitler.
Prosecutor: Ladies & gentlemen of the jury, I have every intent to prove to you today that the defendant is not only guilty but that the warrant application that granted us the right to acquire evidence practically wrote itself! Now, I am going to outline the warning signs that were evident in the days leading up to this case. I want you to close your eyes for a second and imagine your warm and fuzzy graphical (that's geek speak for 'good') user interface of Windows XP--that all you good Christian patriots use. Ah, the field of green with a blue screen and your well known icons and start menu where everybody knows your name and system tray with your favorite purple gorilla and application bar
*pauses until he sees smiles cross the juries faces*
Prosecutor: Now, imagine that all that is taken away and you're left with the cold dark nothingness of space--like before God created the earth. The heavens and stars aren't even there. It's nothing! And there, blinking unendingly, with no remorse or care for anything good is an intimidating cursor after some letters and symbols that no American could decipher. And as you type things like "I want to order shoes on Amazon" it responds only with the cold harsh words of the devil telling you that ordering shoes on Amazon is not a valid command. And Clippy? Clippy is dead.
*takes a drink of water and smiles smugly as the jury begins to scowl*
Prosecutor: And this is what the defendant used to send that e-mail. This
Prosecutor: So you see, this warrant was basically granted from keystroke one after we found out that the defendant was using Linux--an operating system that encourages you to use a file sharing software to install it. The warrant is valid, I'm just asking you what else might have been done with Linux and its evil knowledge installed on that college student's head and computer. Your honor, I rest my case.
My work here is dung.
If linux terminals are outlawed, only outlaws will have linux terminals.
I mean those people who use keyboards instead of mice are apparently not the norm,
and therefore should be feared. Sheesh, the retard world we live in.
Apparently this "computer hacker" is also encoding his computer work in an obscure "binary code" of only 1's and 0's. It's obvious he has a lot to hide: his hard drive is filled with them!
Really? Come on now, I own a rifle, does that mean I shoot people? I have strong encryption on my hard drive, does that make me a terrorist?
In all honesty, my rifle, my 4096-bit encrypted hard drive, and the idea that I choose the best operating system or combination thereof that suits me as a consumer do nothing but support the idea that I am a law-abiding, dutiful citizen.
People fear what they don't understand.
Quiz: True or False -- On a scale of 1 to 10, what is your middle name?
You can get in trouble for writing an email saying that someone is gay?
Don't forget that there's a judge that approved that warrant. He's just as much part of the problem.
Well, soon, we'll all be using an operating system on which somebody can watch every move of ours, so then everything will be OK. You shouldn't use Linux, it promotes antisocial and deviant behavior, like watching pornography, programming, and understanding what "zsh" is.
Boston College's Computer Science program announces that applications to the University are at an all time low.
Authorities plan to replace all campus computers with Etch-A-Sketches in order to attract a larger pool of applicants.
Linux users are too busy trying to get their computer working properly to have time for anything illegal.
*ducks*
What the hell!? So this guy likes to work on PCs and has 2 of his own and then they [cops] see him with "unknown machines" and he's committing a crime...!? How lame and yet it's our tax money at work. Unforetunately, (if I'm not mistaken) most campus cops are 'state deputies'. I know this as I challenged one of them before for running a stop sign and getting a ticket for it. $15 for the fine but $18 for the processing. What a bunch of crap! It must have pissed him off enough for him to give me the ticket.
if he used the superior green-on-black coloring scheme. Using it shows a man with good taste and and high moral values.
2. This was from a search warrant application. Not every cop is computer literate. This is worthy of a few snickers, not a front pager.
since when is it illegal to call someone gay?
--
Stay tuned for some shock and awe coming right up after this messages!
True enough.
I was walking through the basement of our student union building many years ago. The building was mostly closed - we were at a gaming con and minimal stuff was open. I noticed the door to the game room was ajar. I went in and started playing video games with a few of my friends.
Turns out I tripped a silent alarm. About 15 minutes in, campus police busted in and threw us up against the wall at gunpoint. No kidding, I had a gun pressed against the base of my skull.
All that for 3 geeks who were playing video games.
We talked a bit with the cops afterwards. They bragged about how they had us "under surveillance" for over five minutes without any of us noticing. I pointed out that if that were true, did any of them notice the fact that we were *leaving* money there rather than taking it? Blank stares.
So IMHO, they're worse than regular cops. They're bored out of their minds - and have real guns. They so desperately want some crime to deal with, but there just isn't much other than the odd frat house kegger that gets out of control or the occasional parking ticket. I'd be bored to near-insanity too.
Weaselmancer
rediculous.
Those who cant (be cops), become college cops.
A- Calling someone gay? Is that a serious offense? Have the morons who issued this warrant ever talked to college aged guys?
B- Really? So- using anything that people who don't use computers aren't familiar with is considered suspicious? What the fuck? Are these the salem witch trials? Is he going to be burned for linuxcraft?
One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.
That could simply mean they saw him switching between X and a text console.
I hate how stupid the police can be.
Nick
Distributing linux distros via bit torrent is a crime!!!!
... the cops that caused a city wide panic because they misunderstood a few funny lighted signs?
now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
"The dorm room search stemmed from an investigation into who sent an email to a Boston College mailing list alleging that another student was gay."
Assuming that the student is 100% guilty... how exactly is sending an e-mail calling someone "gay" a crime?
So.. campus cops can do whatever the hell they want then. Why is there even a story posted here?
would think. The warrant is junk, yes. But the kid, judging from what the warrant cites, was asking for it. Also, the cop seems to be a real cop.
...too bad this kid didn't go to Oregon State. You'd be hard-pressed to find a windows computer in any of the engineering/c.s. labs. he would have blended right in.
Installing linux on all of the campus' computers.
Epic. Just epic.
The dorm room search stemmed from an investigation into who sent an email to a Boston College mailing list alleging that another student was gay. Police say they know who sent the email and that the sender committed the crimes of "obtaining computer services by fraud or misrepresentation" and obtaining "unauthorized access to a computer system." However, nothing presented by the investigating officer to obtain the warrant, including the allegation that the student sent the email to the mailing list, could constitute the cited criminal offenses.
First of all, I think outing someone is an abhorrent thing to do. It can psychologically destroy someone, and I'm all for punishing the outer. However, this is one of two things (provided Boston College doesn't handle this internally): a) libel or b) a civil suit for emotional damage. So what I'm missing is, how does one jump from a posting to a public mailing list to unauthorized access and computer fraud? And why would Boston College pursue legal recourse first instead of sanctioning him as a student?
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
Start with page 6 - if you want to get behind someone, this is not the person to do it. He's admitted to doing illegal activities in the past and his laundry list is quite long with multiple officers involved in the past and multiple witnesses being called to back up things up on different incidents.
Let's take a few sentences out of context and blow it up because its Linux. Gotta love an internet full of headline news...
I fully expect the cops to behave like everybody-is-guilty-of-something power mongering storm troopers. The asshat judge that signed off on the warrant OTOH, needs to go down.
Except that the "crime" here was sending an email. The additional complaints are really complainant's attempt to smear/punish the defendant.
... and I feel like -swapping-to-an-operating-system-which-won't-have-me-shipped-off-to-Guantanamo-omg-wtf-bbq-
Right here in River City!
With a capital T and that rhymes with P and that stands for Prompt!
The excerpts EFF have posted do not say "he has two operating systems, and that's evidence that he's up to no good." Instead, the warrant says
Paraphrased, that says that somebody directly told the police that they observed the suspect doing illegal activities, and that the dual OSes are an aspect of those activities. That's almost, although not exactly, the inverse of what the summary and most of the commenters assume. And if I was going to be up to something I shouldn't be doing on a computer, if I wasn't going to have a dedicated computer for it, then I might limit those activities to a separate OS with separate filesystems.
Finally, as another commenter noted, warrants have to state with some particularity the objects to be searched and seized. EFF isn't giving us enough context for this part of the warrant, but it could be that the warrant is talking about a computer with two OSes just so the officers know which computer to seize, the propriety of the seizure having been established elsewhere.
Not saying that this warrant was proper, that this guy did anything, etc., but I am saying that the problems most people are complaining about, and that EFF is implying, aren't necessarily there.
This whole story is stupid. What's going on is that the search warrant request says that a witness has said the suspect uses two operating systems in his computer as a means of hiding his illegal activities. That's not a claim that having two operating systems is in itself suspicious. It's just a claim that this particular suspect, in this particular case is using a second operating system to conceal something.
Context, folks, context.
Are you adequate?
...could send a Friend of the Court letter to the Judge advising him what idiots the security people are? It sounds like the student was an idiot too, but making his OS sound like some kind of devious evasion of authority is inane.
Google that, you'll find it is common practice in police departments to reject higher IQ candidates and dumb down the entrance exam requirements. It's a barely hidden scandal. You see a lot of dumb cops because there are a LOT of dumb cops, on purpose, by design. They want violence oriented, stupid, malleable, no questions asked goose stepping type "warfighter" order followers for their new world order agendas. Been obvious for around two decades and change now, since they went full speed ahead transforming local police departments into paramilitary goon squads. Not all of them, but sure as hell a shitload of them.
The irony of this is that they listed it as a B.C system, which fits, as Windows truely does feel as if it came from pre-AD...
Karma Whoring for Fun and Profit.
Whether Calixte's guilty or not (and whether or not he's committed any crime) the warrant wasn't requested because of a scary demon -- it was because there's a strong connection between Calixte and a (hate crime?) e-mail that was sent to the entire student body, and (possibly) because Calixte has apparently got a history of suspicious (criminal) activity previously:
On 1/27/09, "_____ advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte has changed grades for students by accessing the Boston College computer system." and on 1/28/09, "Mr. Calixte was also a suspect in a stolen Boston College laptop computer report I investigated previously."
After the outing e-mail, "Mr. Escalante told me ... this IP address ... indicat[ed] the sender was on BC campus and was using a wired connection in Gabelli residence hall." further, that Calixte registered the computer name and info of the computer that was using the connection at the time. Additionally, they got info from GMail and Yahoo regarding how the e-mail was sent, including a screenshot of another site that also happened to have misc. info connecting the site visitor with Calixte.
Basically, it's not Linux that got this kid in trouble, it's his own stupidity. And he's supposedly a smart CS student, to boot. Where were his 7 proxies? :p
present day... present time... hahahaha...
If you read the warrant, the accused allegedly created a profile on a gay hookup site for the alleged victim, pretending to be him. I'm not an expert, but it wouldn't surprise me if that is illegal. I know it's fun to beat up on cops for not knowing what linux is, but in this case I don't think it is at all obvious that this search warrant was without, err, warrant.
But does he use lin.... excuse me, there's a knock on the door. ^^^^^NO CARRIER
Nothing in the facts say the use of Linux, in and of itself, was suspicious. Rather, it appears someone told the police the student was committing crimes and was hiding the evidence by use of dual-booting into Linux.
This is bullshit FUD.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
The warrant lists many reasons (some bogus) why the warrant was to be issued.
Including changing grades for students, illegally copying movies, "fixing" computers
for other students so that the computer cannot be scanned for illegally obtained music, etc.
They seized everything that could be used to store digital information.
Without more details, I don't think everyone should be jumping to the conclusion that this guy is innocent, just because he was possibly using Linux and somebody didn't recognize it. There may in fact be some stupidity involved here with the complaint filed, but that doesn't mean the guy isn't still guilty of something.
That said, computer law in this country is so pathetic that the accusations don't really warrant the degree of search and seizure involved here from what I can figure of the situation.
While I agree that this is pretty asinine all around, I think the EFF is stretching a bit when they say that taking his cell phone and iPod wasn't warranted. An iPod is still a hard drive, and many cell phones are web-enabled now. While the search warrant never should have been issued in the first place, it would be foolish for the people executing it to not take devices that could have been used to send the email.
As an alumni of Boston College I can tell you that the BCPD are not what most people think of when they think of "Campus Police" - they are a bona fide division of the Newton Police Department (in which Boston College resides) and have all of the powers that a normal police officer does - on or off campus. Unfortunately, because of this private/public entanglement, I have seen the BCPD get away with *far more* than any police department would on other college campuses. I've seen people get burned on other campuses (Wesleyean, URI, UConn to name a few) , but nothing like what I have seen at BC. They are very aggressive and care little for your rights.
BC has a pretty Draconian administration - worse than any Jesuit school I have come across. They use the BCPD as a hanging threat - basically, you have to arbitrate any offense committed on campus according to BC's liking (aka, admitting your guilt) or else the case gets handed directly to the real, legal system with a fairly effortless transition, as their "Campus Police" really *are* police officers; their statements and actions transition to the Massachusetts court without a hiccup.
In other words, if you want to defend yourself, you have to go to court - any attempt to do so in the arbitration process is impossible. If you admit guilt, there are many cases where it is still considered a crime, and still gets put on your criminal record even after arbitration -although agreeing to resolve in arbitration absolves you of any sentencing because BC then decides what your punishment will be (which is of course the reason why the option is attractive). I have a friend of mine who tried to enter medical school and once was at a small party where people were smoking Marijuana. He was too afraid to defend himself in a court of law, so he admitted guilt, and in the end he had to explain his charge of possession of marijuana to every school he applied to (He got in eventually).
From what I understand, they also don't need a search warrant from BC for on-campus searches, because technically that space is privately owned by BC, not the college student, and the BCPD is always given tacit consent by the college. Computers and other containers are a different story however- I know a couple of people who got off the hook because the beer they had while they were underage was in their fridge (and hence a container, property of the student that would require a warrant in lieu of permission).
BC does more harm than good by playing Big Brother to all of the student body. BC even goes so far as to have "off-campus RA's", or RA's that "watch" specific buildings known to have lots of students - and they all have the BCPD on speed dial.
If it wasn't for the education, I would have transferred out after my freshman year. I hope this kid's lawyers are good.
Maybe these cops should confer with the guys who wrote that terrorist document in Virginia. The one that points out that Anonymous is organizing on slashdot.
Police reports are always funny because the cops love to toot their own horns. I remember when a buddy got arrested for carrying a bottle of whiskey when I was in high school (Beach week). This was what the police report stated. "The suspect was carrying a clear bottle with dark brown liquid. Through my expert police training I was able to deduce the liquid contained alcohol"
This sounds so absurd it boarders on moronic.
There must be something else going on.
Then again;
On one hand, if he had sent this as an open message with his name attached it could likely be considered free speech.
On the other hand, if he is a coward and interested only in hatred and vengeance then he got what he deserved.
As I've recently found out, the hackers have infiltrated not just my but almost every peace loving Microsoft Windows user's internets, you know, the thing that you plug your computers into and that has that antenna for sending web pages to your notebook. That internet thing has one of those black screens with nothing but a ">" and a blinking cursor! I've tried making it do what I want, but apparently you need to know secret commands. I've now banished all internets from my home and plug the cable directly into my computer. It works! The hackers had made me believe that an internet would help me, but it was just a ruse to get me to install that black screen between my computer and the web pages. Lord knows what these evil people have done to my informations while they had the chance!
'I met with xxxxxxxxx to discuss these allegations further. At this time he advised me of the following. Mr. Calixte is a computer science major with is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers. He is also employed by Bostton College I.T department. xxxxxxxxx stated he was aware of Mr. Calixte's reputation as a "hacker" prior to him being assigned into his room'
That's why I always use a white background with black letters. I can be rooting about the whole damn network and nobody cares because of how it looks.
And heaven help you if you use a green font on black background. That makes you a mainframe hacker.
That affidavit link was pretty good. The people who are claiming this is all because he called someone else gay or uses Linux should read it before pontificating. The student in question is accused of breaking into college systems to change grades and there is other evidence (DHCP logs) to suggest that he was behind these activities.
I want peace on earth and goodwill toward man.
We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
If anyone bothers to actually read the entire information they would notice that the warrant lays out grounds to believe that the accused has accessed school computer systems for the purpose of ALTERING GRADES.
If that isn't "unauthorized" I'm not sure what is.
As for the other charge of fraud, it isn't simply a matter of posting an article somewhere and saying 'so and so is gay'. its impersonating someone else and creating a gay profile for the purpose of defamation (which would be an unfair advantage). If someone pretends to be you, and misrepresents themself as you for the purpose of defaming you. This is the kind of misrepresentation that can amount to fraud.
The hacking does not relate to the profile, but rather altering student grades in a teachers computer system.
Nothing in the warrant says that the crime is "outing a gay person".
The officer does seem to make too much out of the fact that the accused apparently can use linux on his machine. but after you remove the sensational parts of the warrant, there is still definitely an allegation of a bona fide crime.
its unfortunate that cops think that judges are too stupid to follow a logical line of reasoning without dressing it up. But what do you expect when judges are elected and only people with strictly average IQ's can get hired as police.
its entirely possible the cop was awestruck by linux, but it doesn't matter because altering grades is clearly the kind of thing almost everyone thinks of as unauthorized access.
No one has a right to their *own* opinion. They have a right to the TRUTH.
"I know from my training and experience as both a cyber crime investigator and as a lay person acquainted with online chatting, emailing shopping, and other miscellaneous online activity, people who use computers and regularly go online to various websites, often must eftter information known as "user names", or log-in screen names, as well as passwords, in order to access certain things on their computers and on various online websites."
I, for one, welcome our new experienced cyber crime investigator overlords!
Some of the supposedly suspicious activities listed in support of the search warrant application include: the student being seen with "unknown laptop computers," which he "says" he was fixing for other students; the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer; and the student uses two different operating systems, including one that is not the "regular B.C. operating system" but instead has "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."
- back when I was studying CompSci at UofToronto we had computer labs full of Suns running Solaris, it was all different screen colors and people typed commands as well as clicking on stuff in windowing environments.
What the hell kind of colleges are they running now?
You can't handle the truth.
Did anyone actually read the search warrant? There's a LOT more in there than "using Linux".
Changing grades, hacking into unauthorized systems, non-trivial harassment...
This is one of the most misleading headlines I've seen in a long time.
Reminds me of some one I knew from college. He was running linux and had mixed up two IP addresses. Apparently most of the mail of the campus was running through his dorm computer. The dorm manager, the campus cops and the campus IT folks all got involved. It wasn't that violent though and I believe that he got his computer back shortly.
What was disturbing was that could have been cleared up by campus IT folks alone. They could have just locked down his port made a phone call and told him to his port wouldn't be unlocked until his machine was correctly configured.
Heck, knows what they'll be thinking of these dangerous netbooks running around.
"..the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' This kid is totally 1337, he's using DOS!
This is sad.
I ran Linux on my computer on campus over 12 years ago. this is nothing new, people thought it was cool back than, but it's nothing now. Just something different, a way of saving money rather than purchasing your software, or only limited to the student versions that the College/University offers. Frankly I hope the student wins and this is spread nationwide as another start of people using Linux and lowering the cost of software that Developers charge big bucks for.
"Don't Fear The Penguins." -Slashdot
"Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind." -Dr. Seuss
'(a) On two occasions web-based email accounts (gmail and yahoo mail) were used to send email to a mailing list at BC. The yahoo message included the IP address of the client used to send the message. This IP was 136.167.207.174 - indicating the sender was on the BC campus, and was using a wired connection in Gabelli residence hall'
I thought Calixte was a master hacker. Would any of you slashdot geniuses like to show him how to use a proxy.
If Linux was displaying green/amber text against a black background, the cops would've think "IBM" and left the student alone.
Some of the info is superfluous, but the officer is only quoting what somebody else told him when he mentions "the regular BC operating system and the other [with a] black screen with white text".
The officer supports a lot of information with MAC addresses, University logs, comments from the University Director of IT, etc. One witness being technologically inept doesn't really matter. The officer, at least from my understanding of the affidavit, KNOWS what Ubuntu is. I suspect this witness' statement is there just to provide ancillary evidence that links the Ubuntu laptop as owned by the suspect being investigated.
I've seen a lot of stupid police actions, but this guy seems to be reasonably well-informed.
If I were in the position of a judge today, and I saw that warrant, I'd sign off on it. Please find & read the whole warrant.
*Once investigated by the campus police because I used the terminal on OS X, and the other student thought I hacked her laptop. Grrrrrrr.
SIG: HUP
Read the document.
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
There's probable-cause in there unrelated to linux and gay mailings.
. . . when ACs wrote someone's name on the bathroom wall. Come to think if it, where the <bleep> where the campus police then?
And besides, it's Massachusetts. Why would anyone there care if a person's gay or not?
"Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." -- George Orwell
"Did anyone actually read the search warrant? There's a LOT more in there than "using Linux". Changing grades, hacking into unauthorized systems, non-trivial harassment... This is one of the most misleading headlines I've seen in a long time
Of course, it must be true as it's in a warrant, just ask Julie Amero
are communists!
Eees a witch! Git 'em!
"The detective who filed the application had interviewed the suspect's roommate, who said that, among other things, he had "observed [the suspect hacking] into the B.C. grading system that is used by professors to change grades for student," that he suspected the suspect of damaging his brand new computer, and that the suspect had posted a fake web site profile of the roommate"
To let himself be observed 'hacking the grade system, and postign a fake blog entry o nthe same roommate. What evidence is there of illegal access to this 'grading system', apart from the word of a disgruntled roommate, who thinks Calixte called him gay, online?
Knock knock
Whos there?
BULLSHIT POLICE! YOU HAVE A BLACK SCREEN WITH LETTERS! YOU ARE A *reads a paper with info* LÃÃT HÃXOR!! WE WILL CONFISCATE ALL YOUR STUFF!
Seriously, i know many people know much about computers, but do you yell "CAR STEALER!!!" at someone who is just entering his car with a key he owns to drive to the supermarket?
Paranoia is a bitch.
By reading this you agree to give me (Noxn) 1 dollar.
the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer;
- clearly a terrorist.
and the student uses two different operating systems, including one that is not the "regular B.C. operating system" but instead has "a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on."
- DOS?
You can't handle the truth.
... including private railroad companies. They usually have the effective power of State Police in any state the railroad operates.
SIG: HUP
minus the cracked software, the other stuff is ludicrous.
The search warrant also specified that firewalls and printers could be seized...firewalls?
Absolute power corrupts absolutely. indymedia
Thank god he didn't have a lite bright of a mooninite in addition to running a command prompt interface ... He could have destroyed us all.
That's right, seize all slashdot servers and try to find out who posted this.
black screen with GREEN characters flowing from top to bottom.
I hear they call it the Matrix OS.
Black screen with white fonts is NOT authorized.
That would have solved A problem...
But the fact that the mail is sent plain-text over a network open enough that someone can just set their IP to the same number and actually get / route much of the campus mail is a much bigger security risk.
What about people with nice, passive, packet sniffers?
It’s you’re as in you are. ‘Your’ is possessive.
Although bad grammar would seem to be the least of your worries.
I take it you are not familiar with the incidents you describe.
Here in reality, no, the campus cop murdered an unarmed homeless guy in cold blood for "acting crazy" (he actually WAS crazy, although completely non-violent, as it turns out) and gets to not only keep his badge, but continue violently harming innocents.
The most bleakly humorous part was how the cop came to his murder trial (acquitted of course) proudly displaying a copy of Machiavelli's "The Prince" and mugging with it for passersby.
"The Prince is above the Law, because the Prince is the Law" -- Nicolo Machiavelli
I almost got expelled for using NET SEND *
The only reason I didn't is because I showed the Tech Personnel how to block it.
I had apparently "Hacked the university mainframe"
I love people who don't know what the fuck they're talking about
continue to happen. personally, i was suspended 3 days in highschool for having the audacity to remotely log into my home pc and download my homework under the guise of "hacking with unix."
ive been stopped in the laguardia intl. airport for booting a laptop that only posted a command prompt, ordered to produce "the start button" and when i couldnt i was detained for 20 minutes
for a nice chat with the TSA.
blame Hollywood. ever since hackers a command prompt is a sign of devious intent. all three matrixes implied it, johnny mnemonic, terminator 2, and the latest die hard to some extent all confirm
console=evil superhacker.
i guess on the bright side, im finally pretty cool now :)
Good people go to bed earlier.
The EFF's main page for this matter is http://www.eff.org/cases/re-matter-search-warrant-boston-college. On that page is a link to the search warrant application itself: http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
From the search warrant the basis for probable cause includes:
1) reports (including eyewitness reports) that Riccardo has changed grades in the past
2) Riccardo has a reputation for "hacking"
3) reports that Riccardo is known to install circumvention software
4) reports that Riccardo is known to jailbreak phones
5) reports that Riccardo is known to violate software licensing & illegally downloads movies
sounds like your typical Comp Sci major... but
1) domestic issues between Riccardo and the "gay" student
2) a profile on a gay website was created in the name of the "gay" student, but there was only one machine in Ricarrdo's hall (Gabelli) that had been used in the previous 5 days to visit that website. It was registered to Riccardo
3) the message that was sent to the campus mailing list was in Ricarrdo's residence hall, ran Linux, and used a name that Ricarrdo had previously used to register a computer on the BC network
4) apparently, another computer that Ricarrdo had registered on the network had made frequent visits to the gay website in the two days prior to the email outing the "gay" student
5) both the machine Ricarrdo registered and the machine used to send the message run Linux. In the five days prior to the email, only two users in Gibelli hall had computers running Linux.
6) Riccardo is a suspect in a stolen laptop case
Also, the comments about him using "two different operating systems for hiding his illegal activity. One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on" and "being seen with 'unknown laptop computers'" both came from the victim, *NOT* from the police investigator.
What a way to describe something they don't know anything at all. LOL! If could have a terminal, DOS, a text editor such as vi?! That's 'cause regular cops and judges shouldn't be handling this kind of cases. Law and people in it are way behind technology.
They had far more to go on than the dual booting system...
The email was sent from a popular web-based email system, and the IP address came from a certain residence. They then checked the logs for that residence for the 5 days before the incident, and the only system to have accessed the website where the fake profile was set up was that guy's system.
Furthermore, the reason for taking the equipment was in case he saved the username/password for the profile site.
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
http://www.nytimes.com/1999/09/09/nyregion/metro-news-briefs-connecticut-judge-rules-that-police-can-bar-high-iq-scores.html
METRO NEWS BRIEFS: CONNECTICUT; Judge Rules That Police Can Bar High I.Q. Scores
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&rlz=1C1GGLS_enUS311US311&q=police+high+iq+discrimination&btnG=Search
15,900 results
every day http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
Even if the case were to get thrown out... you can't go after the police, the school or the DA for something this stupid. You can only say "thank you". No recouping lost money, damages to hardware (since police routinely destroy things during "investigations"). He may however get a nice bill for "storage".
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
After reading that, it became clear to me, that the EFF are wrong in this case. There was much more evidence in there that any reasonable computer person would say, yes that's probable cause.
Don't Vote for Norm Dicks! http://www.nodicks2008.com Another nutless dirtbag that voted for the FISA bill!
AND he used ssh for remote logins. Burn him!
First entomology, then virology, and finally bioinformatics systems. Bugs follow me wherever I go.
Are we really that surprised by this? This is Boston, place where Lite-Brites are instruments or terrorism!
Anybody want my mod points?
The fact that police could take all of his computer equipment if he broke the law using said equipment isn't news at all.
The only news here is that they took all of his computer equipment, cell phone, etc., with no probably cause other than the fact that he is skilled with computers, hardware, and various operating systems.
This sounds like something Barney Fife would do to get Aunt Bea into bed...
Really? Come on now, I own a rifle, does that mean I shoot people? I have strong encryption on my hard drive, does that make me a terrorist?
No, but having those things mean you have the ability to do things the government doesn't want you to do. The easiest way to prevent crime is to take away everyone's freedom.
Ah, don't you mean the easiest way to promote crime? Take away my freedoms to legally defend myself and my privacy, and you've only got the criminals left, who tend to give a rats ass about legalities.
The "whooshing" sound you just heard was the Nebuchadnezzar flying right over your head.
They saw it in a movie. If they'd seen his screen saver he would have been arrested for Hacking the Gibson
I graduated in 2001, so this MAY have changed, but back then, the law was:
Campus Police have municipal powers in buildings owned by the college/university. So that covered the buildings, but not the public roads. To get around this, the CPs were deputized by the County they were in as Sheriff Deputies, which gave them legal authority throughout the county, with a tacit agreement with the normal police to only use it on the campus, or related buildings (basically the Fraternity houses were privately owned, this gave them responsibility). During the city harassment of MIT fraternities (a pledge at one died, the licensing board started threatening licenses of all the independent houses over minor infractions, pretty much continued until 9/11 when people forgot about it), the MIT CPs had a problem...
The had municipal authority in dorms... they had Sheriff powers in Cambridge Fraternities as Middlesex Sheriff Deputies. But they couldn't do anything in the Boston fraternities. After heavy lobbying, they also were deputized in Suffolk County, so they could patrol there. As fraternity risk manager, this was a GREAT thing, because while the city was harassing us, the school nominally supported us (they did a poor job, but tried), so we'd call the CPs at the first sign of trouble, and usually Boston PD wouldn't bother us because the CPs were on the scene.
The utter irony... neither Middlesex County nor Suffolk County really exist anymore... they counties exist as regional designation, there is no county-level government, everything is either unified with the city or administered by the state. So while they were deputized as Sheriff's deputies, I'm pretty sure we didn't have a Sheriff or a Sheriff's department... all of Suffolk County Sheriff Deputies appeared to be CPs of Boston schools.
Penetration Enhanced Network Interface Security.
cant stand it ++++ ... which he uses prompt commands on ...
oh crap, gotta pee, thats sooo damn funny...
Guess it didn't help when he said sudo apt-get outofmyface to the police.
I feel unsurprised and ashamed as a BC CS grad right now... Ironically, as a C.S. student at BC you HAVE to have a linux distro for all C code (faculty recommends Fedora).
An inventor is a man who asks 'Why?' of the universe and lets nothing stand between the answer and his mind.
Use of Linux is a red herring here. The suspect likely did some bad things. It's apparent from the warrant application that the applicant has limited personal experience investigating computer crime and limited technology knowledge, but he is being backed up by one or more people who do have the knowledge and don't have the ability or the duty to file the warrant application.
the real reason they have to dumb it down; yeah I have friends who are/were cops; is because of political correctness. Hell they had to reduce the physical requirements in some districts because the fatties sued.
The majority of cops (like 95% or more) are very good people. Just like any other industry you get a few bad apples who ruin it for everyone else. Just like any unionized shop they are practically forced to keep them. There are only so many desk jobs to go around to place truly bad ones in. You can get them if they do something truly illegal and get caught doing so. Still the reason why cop abuse stories hit the news so hard is because it isn't common place; well it might be more so in some areas but overall it isn't.
Don't go off thinking most of these are country bumpkins; don't confuse elected sheriffs with real cops either, some of those are real ego trippers.
The fact is most are just like the rest of your neighbors. The difference is they are in the public eye all the time. Many have college degrees, its required for advancement in some areas.
The standard people are applying here is the same thing the cops in the story are being doing... and who is being vilified for it?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
Honestly, the real point of the case is that someone called someone "gay" on a campus network. Turning him into an "evil hax0r d00d" is just part of that.
Remember kids, call someone "gay" and get your shit fucked up by the police.
This guy is being hounded for exposing someone as gay. Some people think that's bad, and some people think it's a public service. The US is about evenly divided on this.
No way is it a criminal act, at least if the guy is in fact gay. Truth is an absolute defense to libel under US law.
This sounds like the ultimate legal fishing expedition. Any competent judge should see through this immediately.
Hey, wait a minute! Isn't Boston College a very liberal college in the very liberal town of Boston in the exceptionally liberal state of Massachusetts? There should be demonstrations, sit-ins, riots over the invasion of this student's privacy. The professors should be leading the kids in this. So where is the ACLU?
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
After reading the warrant, I'm not surprised that Calixte dude called his roommate a f*g... He definitely deserves the name.
Apple has "Mac vs PC", Microsoft has "Laptop Hunters", Linux has recession
Being a CS student myself, this case interested me enough to also have read the search warrant. I very much agree with the parent here in that that there was definitely enough evidence to seize the computer equipment. Among other things:
* Combinations of IP addresses, hostnames, and mac addresses (used in sending out the e-mails) all trace back to him
* This is not the first time he has been a suspect for certain crimes
* Is likely guilty on several counts of bootlegged software and other media, such as video
* He's been known to be (or accused of by at least one reliable witness), bragging about his "hacking" skills, of helping other students with illegal filesharing, etc.
From the original article:
Some of the supposedly suspicious activities listed in support of the search warrant application include: the student being seen with "unknown laptop computers," which he "says" he was fixing for other students; the student uses multiple names to log on to his computer...."
I particularly like the fact that having multiple log in accounts and multiple laptops is suspicious behavior. Damn those greedy capitalist pig-dog students who aren't content with one computer and one user Id.....
Motorcycles, Robots, Space Gossip and More!
I have three problems: the warrant isn't clear on what "crimes" were committed, it provides only one dubious source for information regarding the only things that could have possibly been crimes, and the one "crime" that may have occurred and is evidenced by something other than wild and unsubstantiated accusations is signing up for an email account without using your real name.
From what I can see, there are three potential "crimes" that Riccardo ie enigma may have committed.
1- illegal downloading of movies/music (based solely upon the word of one tip)
2- breaking into the campus's computer system. This is "evidenced" by the fact that Riccardo uses the same operating system as the professors. Does this mean that, if I go to a college that uses Windows, my use of XP will justify a warrant? Again, this is based upon the word of one person.
3- breaking into student computers, evidenced by one allegation from someone whose bad relationship with Riccardo -- the same bad relationship is the basis for the next alledged crime!
4- This person was allegedly "cyber-bullied" by Riccardo via the use of an email list and a fake online profile. There is actually evidence for this (a computer hostname and some network log analysis.) Who knows how solid that is. The warrant doesn't go into details. Since Riccardo probably provided fake data to yahoo! and the social networking site, he probably did break some obscure eula or possibly law -- but then, who HASN'T broken whatever that law happens to be? However, the investigator cites no evidence that this is the case, and does not provide any reasons as to why he would have jurisdiction if it were. And I'm pretty sure these would be federal concerns, since Yahoo and the social networking site aren't located in the same state as boston college.
Now let's look at the "anonymous" tipster:
1- He has a personal vandetta against Riccardo, and therefore every reason to lie
2- He has a history of snitching to the police -- which could indicate that he's the type of sick person who gets a thrill out of this type of attention from detectives.
3-every crime (except the one that this detective has no jurisdiction to investigate or prosecute afaik) is premised solely upon the word of this one person -- who the warrant admits has a personal vandetta against Riccardo Is this all it takes to get a warrant to seize computer hardware? Mindless accusations and proof that someone isn't a complete moron? Christ.
Nothing in this affidavit says using Linux is a crime or evidence of criminal behavior. To support probable cause, you generally have to show an informant is reliable. One of the best ways to do that is to give details about how the informant is in a position to know whatever he or she is saying. That is the reason these details are included in the affidavit.
Only 'evil hackers' don't use windows. ( or OSX i suppose.. )
---- Booth was a patriot ----
Linux is crime and danger, wrapped in CLI silence and darkness.
Dude, where's my packet?
The application for warrant is hilarious. Detective Christopher wants permission to seize any data storage devices, including CPUs and printers. I wonder what data he thinks is stored on the printer. Also, he "jail breaks" cell phones! OMFG he's a cell phone terrorist.
What this boils down to is a stupid cop who suspected this Calixte guy in a laptop burglary a while back, but couldn't find any evidence to back it up. Then the cop finds out that the guys roommate is pissed at the suspect because he put up a fake profile on a gay site, so he convinces the roommate to become a witness. My guess is the cop is really looking for the laptop from the earlier case, and he's just using this idiot/whiny-bitch roommate to get a warrant.
You might blame Mr. Calixte, but I would probably blame Microsoft.
Also mentioned:
***Suddenly I am feeling like a criminal***
The warrant application also wanted to seize:
White text on a black screen? That IS a crime...
Although, it is a linux story, this could have just as easily been Windows and cmd.exe. This is ridiculously stupid.
What about Windows 2008?
Wait, how do they know he wasn't running MSDOS?
Surely if he was running a Microsoft OS then it couldn't be terrorism.
J
is like showing you're not conforming to the standard and that is scary.
they should take his fingerprints and everything. just to be sure.
end of sarcasm with a bit of truth in it
Privacy is terrorism.
In the warrant, it lists that he has the password for this persons computer because it was setup by the suspect when they were still friends. I should think most people that use a computer should be able to change the password, and I certainly would change the password on a computer that was setup by someone who is no longer my friend.
A ton of impossible to prove things were in the warrant, that had nothing to do with the original complaint. Sounds like a character bashing that should come back to the person who filed this as slander.
For many of them, including municipal police, no, I don't wonder at all.
Boston College isn't a municipal police force.
That aside, Boston Police offers a VERY healthy salary increase for each step up the ladder. It is extremely common for Boston Police officers to have at least a bachelors degree or higher because of it.
Please help metamoderate.
His assets weren't seized for the use of "scary voodoo operating systems". Oh, and for future reference, his name is Riccardo Calixte.
Application for the search warrant:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
Here's a summary.
I) Why do we want his stuff?
a) we think it's been used to commit a crime
b) we think it contains evidence of said crime
II) What do we want to take?
a) anything that can hold data (PCs, peripherals, phone, etc)
b) documentation that may contain his passwords (computer manuals, post-its)
c) evidence of ownership over systems used in offenses at the time of offenses
III) Where are we gonna find his stuff?
a) his room.
IV) Why do we think we need to take his stuff?
a) his roommate said that Riccardo hacked into the university computers to change peoples grades
b) Riccardo was suspected of stealing a computer from the university previously
c) the roommate's computer started acting funny after getting into arguments with Riccardo
d) e-mails were sent out to the whole university saying that the roommate was gay
e) network administrative staff said that according to their records, Riccardo did it
f) Network Admin says: those e-mails came from their dorm, from a computer with the same name as one registered by Riccardo. additionally, a profile was posted on a gay dating site, screenshotted, and included in the e-mail. the only computer to visit said site within 5 days of the incident was Riccardo's. he accessed the site frequently 2 days prior to the e-mail.
It continues with more info as to why the originating officer is a good candidate to evaluate this stuff.
I think that's enough probably cause to warrant further investigation; but that's just me. I would encourage you all to actually read the thing, not just take my word for it, but hopefully this will quell some of the "omgz he wuz arestid fur uzing l1nuxz!!1" comments.
Not too far from there lies Salem with their witch hunts way back when.
It makes me shiver in me timbers thinking of all those poor girls that came under the adjudicator's thumb.
Boston and the state itself should be ashamed for what their law enforcement is doing.
First rule of holes; When in one, stop digging.
... and using the police to do it! That is entirely what this story is about. Did anyone bother to go to EFF's Web site and examine the "Exhibit-A" PDF document from the case? It happens to be an actual copy of the Application for Search Warrant. You really should read it.
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/inresearchBC/EXHIBIT-A.pdf
The most enlightening part is the "Basis of Probable Cause" section, which states that the origin of the entire thing was "domestic issues" between Calixte and his (redacted) roommate. It then goes on to detail multiple allegations made by said roommate about Calixte and his criminal expertise with computers. The twit even blamed his own computer crashes on Calixte!
There's nothing to see here, folks. It's just one person getting back at another for real or perceived injustices, and the all-too-eager police being used as pawns (which of course they always are in every situation).
I'm not sure if you chicken little imbeciles bothered reading past the out of context snippet, but the "black screen OS" thing is 1-2 sentences in several pages of reasons for the warrant.
Including:
1. Being snitched on by other students whose grades he's changed.
2. Stealing laptops
3. Bragging like a dumbshit about hacking/stealing stuff
4. Doing a really bad job at covering his tracks and getting his 'illegal activities' traced to his IP/MAC address by a 3rd party consultant
He did something stupid, biggotted, and illegal, and got caught. The cop isn't some sort of ignorant luddite prosecuting Linux users, he did his homework. Read pgs 8-10 of the warrant and you'll see who the real idiot is.
The accuser was involved in a domestic dispute with the Mr. Calixte shortly before he made the accusations.
The accuser was deemed credible because he had worked with the police on other investigations.
The accuser claimed these crimes had been committed previously and over a period of time.
He only mentioned them after a domestic dispute, doing so might be reasonably labeled as retaliation or revenge. Which puts a big dent in credible.
In addition he can be considered a co-conspirator as he was aware of these ongoing crimes, committed in his presence, and chose not to report them. Another big dent in credible.
I would be interested in learning if there was any compensation for providing information to the police in this or any investigation. This would be to determine if the accuser had any incentives or assumption of incentives other than revenge or retaliation.
As to the Mr. Calixte expertize the warrant stated that he "is a computer science major who is considered a master of the trade amongst his peers."
Yet such an expert failed to understand that logs are kept, worked for the IT dept (logs can be scrubbed). Failed to take simple precautions using proxy servers available all over the world that can be used to remain anonymous for web browsing/work, for email, for any number of services etc.
Most amusing:
If Mr. Calixte created the gay website and the claim is not true then he's (being the roommate) reasonably and predictably going to be assumed to be gay as well. Note: I personally don't care if one or both roommates or even the detective is gay other than as it applies to this matter.
Last but not least. This was done by someone who is competent but in no way a "master of the trade". Since domestic disputes tend to build up over time, it's just as reasonable to assume the accuser, with the help and skills of another close friend, created this as a setup. Not difficult if Mr. Calixte left his laptop loose in the room when out for the evening or some such.
Ward
. Silence! Be thankful thy species is unpalatable! .
Actually, he might not even be using Linux. He could be using Windows and have a console screen up on his laptop where he's entering "command prompts". The complaint states merely he's got two screens. One is the typical desktop and another is black with white characters (which sounds like the default Windows console and not a typical Linux terminal).
I'm not sure exactly what is going on. All the materials so far are from his lawyers. Apparently a previously reliable informant made some claims about this particular student and that's what the warrant was based upon.
We'll have to see what the judge decides. Meanwhile, I'm going to lay off shell scripting for a while.
Have you forgotten?
NEVER FORGET!
that's why i just love paid software... not only it gives a wonderful working environment, it also provides me immunity from law. die all you linux enthusiasts...
I know there are idiots in the world. But none are finer than the Mass Holes.
Perhaps Mass Holes will grow up one day and become real people with brains. Yeah, right.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
Thanks EFF for being a liar. The police have probably cause to seize the computers, not because they are black with white font (zOMG!) but because a reliable named witness told them the student was engaged in changing grades for other students.
From the warrant application: "[The witness] advised Officer Eng that Mr. Calixte has changed grades for other students by accessing the Boston College computer system.... It should be noted that [the witness] is not only a named witness to these allegations but also a reliable witness in another investigation which he brought to our attention.... [The witness] reported to me that he has observed Mr. Calixte hack into the B.C. grading system that is used by professors to change grades for students...."
Also, emails were sent out from an anonymous Yahoo! account claiming that the witness (who is roommates with the suspect) was gay. The IP address of the client sending the Yahoo! message corresponded to a computer whose MAC address was registered to a computer whose computer name had only been used on the computer of one student at B.C. -- the suspect.
Clearly, there's probable cause enough here for a search warrant.
Nothing to see here folks, move along.
But the misconception that free/open source operating systems are "Hacker Operating Systems" seems to be a common misconception among collegiate IT departments. Woodbury University's IT department would absolutely NOT let me bring my Linux ThinkPad to campus and connect to the WiFi, even though I was more than happy to give them the MAC address of my Orinoco card. "Come back with Windows and we'll talk" was their attitude. Luckily my aunt had an original clamshell iBook that was just sitting on a shelf, so I brought that there. Macs were also acceptable to WU IT so that solved my problem. Eventually I wound up with a Core 2 Duo (Merom) MacBook. Of course, I have the evil, daemonic TERMINAL WINDOW available to me on Mac OS X too...bwahahahahahaha! And my MacBook is Daemon Possessed! Ahahahahahahahah!!!!
OK, let's go do some crimes. Like, go get sushi and not pay...^_^
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power multiplied.
But the "black screen with white letters" almost had me in stitches!
Of course, what's NOT funny is that they make a mockery of the law doing nutso stuff like this. Kinda reminds me of "Operation Sun Devil" -- you know, the whole thing about Grups Cyberpunk being "a manual for Computer Crime!", and the 911 Administrative Manual being used as the excuse to seize many computers, kicking doors in and all, when the same was available via mail order for less than $20 from the same phone company that was pressing charges...
And you can sum it all up with one word:
STOOPID!
Now, the more pressing question is, of course, is what do we DO with all these idiots?
I can think of a few things...
--- Don't know what it is? Gotta be a bomb! That's Idiot Thinking for you!
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
To get a job in the "campus police".
You could make a movie.
I killed da wabbit -Elmer Fudd
and if the guy he named is a fag.. no harm (ie. libel) done either..
I am the maverick of Slashdot
Having been peripherally involved with a state investigative team I can tell you that beyond duplicating the hard drive and other devices with EnCase they really have no clue about computers.
The power to seize property in this manner should not be in the hands of people that describe a terminal emulator as "a black screen with a white font" If these people were powerless then it'd be funny. They aren't and it's not, it's scary in fact.
news flash! cops are stupid and university cops are cops too stupid to be regular cops.
Law and Order - Misguided Investigations Unit
My TOPS-10 and TOPS-20 Emulators then. That'll make me as bad as Saddam.
Harrison's Postulate - "For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism"
This should be expected from the same fools that think LEDs are terrorist bombs. What are the education minimum requirement for the Boston PD, fourth grade or fifth grade? What does this say about the Boston PD administration's sophistication, they must have been promoted from within, the same gene pool.
"College Police Think Using Linux Is Suspicious Behavior
If you read the warrant request...
A student was falsely outed by a fake profile on adam2adam, a gay site.
Server logs show it was accessed by two web based email accounts.
Those accounts were traced by the network registration system to 137.167.207.174, a machine on 00:23:28:BE:24... a machine runing Linux.
On page 7, it states that only two machines in the entire hall of residence accessed the network using Linux.
So, yes, when you narrow down all possible suspects to just two people who both use Linux... and the machine is on an account registered to one of them... Using Linux, in that specific case, really is exceptionally suspicious behavior.
It's a cheap headline grabber to imply, "Dumb cops think Linux is weird and so criminal!" In reality, it's a computer forensics specialist writing an incredibly clearly, methodical listing, tracking down a harassment issue to a Linux machine, registered under the suspect's name.
Sorry dude, you were a raging douchebag who falsely outed someone because you two had an argument and you're a lousy enough hacker that your anonymous web based mail accounts led them straight to the specific machine you did it on. Screaming OMG, COPS HATE LINUX doesn't make it any less true.
Hey, before you guys hijack the ship, mind getting me an exit fir- (flatline)
Don't F* with someone who lives with you if they know you're engaging in illegal activities.
"I suggest a new strategy, Artoo. Let the Wookiee win." - C3PO
whats surprising to me is that the detective that filed the application for the warrant was required to list...
- how many exits to the dormitory there was.
- how many students and staff reside in the dormitory.
- which directions the exits face.
- the color and material the building is constructed of.
- what the foyer and surrounding consists of.
etc etc. not what evil operating system might be on those evil computers being used for evil intent by an evil person for evil purposes. give me a break.
gotta love it when computer laws are starting to taste like gun laws.
Awww! Beware he uses "prompt commands! CRIMINAL!
From Wikipedia: /.'ers always try to use in their defence. So no, it doesn't work.)
"E.g. in the case the offence of defamatory libel under the common law of England and Wales, where prior to the enactment of section 6 of the Libel Act 1843 (defence of justification for the public benefit), the truth of the defamatory statement was irrelevant, and it continues to be sufficient that it is published to the defamed person alone."
And also the related issue of privacy:
"Related to defamation is public disclosure of private facts, which arises where one person reveals information that is not of public concern, and the release of which would offend a reasonable person. 'Unlike [with] libel, truth is not a defence for invasion of privacy.'"
And related are laws about misleading:
"If that communication is not technically false but is still misleading, then a tort of false light might have occurred."
(Note that this is exactly the kind of thing that
More about truth:
"In some systems, however, notably the Philippines, truth alone is not a defense. Some U.S. statutes preserve historical common law exceptions to the defense of truth to libel actions. These exceptions were for statements 'tending to blacken the memory of one who is dead' or 'expose the natural defects of one who is alive'."
And even if truth offers some protection, that doesn't carry you all the way:
"It is also necessary in these cases to show that there is a well-founded public interest in the specific information being widely known, and this may be the case even for public figures."
Oh, and related to comments above, in most jurisdictions there is no difference between slander and libel, both are to the law simply defamation. The distinction between slander and libel is mostly a common law thing.
A vastly more logical conclusion would be that you are given to "hasty generalization".
There's a formal list of logical errors people are prone to, and that's one of them. Wikipedia
can enlighten you further if you care to learn.
Upon second glance, I see you're also guilty of "argmentum ad hominem", or name-calling.
Making up lies about other people can get complicated, so to lessen the mental burden some
liars simply tell complete truths about themselves, in the guise of an accusation of others.
I know this sounds like a trite oversimplification, but it is quite common. Recognizing it
allows you to learn more about the false accuser than he has any idea he is revealing.
This may or may not apply to you; if the shoe fits, wear it.
Hide all sigs: Click HELP+Prefs (top), VIEWING (last on right), DISABLE SIGS (3rd on left) and SAVE (hidden at bottom).
I used to think nothing of Boston College other than "hot chicks" (and occasionally "Jesuit?" are they jesus-freaks?). Now, I also think "whoa, hot-chicks, possible jesus-freaks AND their PD has less than zero understanding of technology". If it were central Alabama, I'd be less alarmed, but in Boston this is nuts...
Good thing they caught him before he could execute something called the "kill" command.
Shutup stupidhead! You suck! And also are gay!
However none of those are criminal offences, so the warrant should not have been issued
null
you people need to start waking up to the fact that there are globalist bankers, in control of the USA and UK governments and media that are setting up a global government that will have all the nations pay taxes to them. A Global facist state. Sounds crazy? yes it does. Is it real? yes it is.
remember this phrase - ordo ab chao. It means order out of chaos. These globalists cause terrible 'events' to happen, then they offer you the solution....which is always something that you NEVER would have agreed to if the terrible 'event' didn't happen.
Exhibit C, last page. Is that the OS product key that is not blacked out
Cops are so cute when they fuck up tech terms.
Table-ized A.I.
I did read it, and you are way off-base. The application for the warrant was based on an accusation that Calixte violated 2 computer statutes, including 'fraudulent use of' and 'unauthorized access to' a computer system (top of page 10, section 4 h). It is not made at all clear in the application how sending a prank (possibly harassing) email from a gmail account to an open listserv amounts to a violation of those statutes.
The accusation of grade-changing is the nearest thing to the charges listed, but it is based entirely on the say-so of the victim of the email. There is no evidence presented that that crime actually ever occurred, or that Calixte did it.
This is shameful abuse of police powers, and if the cops can't help themselves, then at least the judge should have caught it.
I think you're gay.
I'm doomed.
TFA was about a person calling another person homosexual, hence the remark "You're gay, I'm doomed" was fully on-topic. Redundant probably, but fully on-topic. Political correctness has struck again, zOMG he mentioned the g-word, let's mod him down!!1!
Fully on-topic, I tell you.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.
No Law Enforcement Officer has EVER gone to Stockholm to collect a prize for Law Enforcement.
Green-on-black means you are an anonymous coward.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
I wonder how much is that the sort of person who wants to be a cop is basically a bully, and how much is an effect on the human psyche caused by the nature of being a cop.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stanford_prison_experiment
Zimbardo managed to turn a bunch of hippies into thugs if anything worse than run-of-the mill cops.
The plural form of "anecdote" is "anecdotes", not "evidence".
I gotta put my oar in. My uncle (dead for some years by now) was a cop. He was a smart one - his bosses didn't like him much, because he was, like my dad and me, prone to insubordination, but they couldn't argue with his solve rate. He made captain-equivalent in our provincial detective department before he opted for a lower-stress job and transferred to his home town's fraud investigations dept.
Anyhow, I remember him talking about stuff - in his cups, of course, otherwise he was just making stupid jokes with me and my friends - and the obvious thing coming out was: You have to pretend to be stupid. Never let on what you think is going on, never tell anybody everything you know. That is inviting trouble. If the bad guy thinks you're stupid, he's more likely to talk out of turn. And if you tell your partner everything you know (or more likely think you know), you're going to bias him, so you usually just share the relevant facts.
Furthermore, there is this fictional stereotype of a highly intelligent arch criminal, whom the ultra-smart cop foils by deductive logic and clever banter (plus these days, the ultra-high-tech lab that sees things that aren't there). The reality is, that most criminals are stupid and commit stupid crimes. Most of the time it doesn't take a very smart cop to bust those slimebuckets.
Oh, but then there is a problem with the cop version of researcher bias. I was suckered into a scam by two "friends", who were, it turned out, planning to make me take the fall for that (a corporate law thing; I had a position where responsibility for everything was implicit). When the sh!t hit the fan, the cops had been interviewing those two guys first (they were the primary actors) when they invited me for an interview. I'm honest to the point of stupidity, so I told them exactly what happened. Their response was to lock me up for the night to see if that would soften me up. They had formed a picture in their mind about what had happened, and they held to it. Even when it turned out, that the other guys had been pulling off scams like that left and right, and I had no history apart from one frivolous complaint.
Every problem has a solution that is simple, easy and wrong. Selling our Liberty for a little Security is a much too de
...Who are busting heads of peaceful protesting students at the new school, New york.
http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/10/students-occupy-new-school-building-again/?hp
I mean, I have several experiences with persons with clits, and they work just fine.
...Boston cops, reacting in a pants-wetting manner to the witchcraft of technology...hmmm.
"A great democracy must be progressive or it will soon cease to be a great democracy." --Theodore Roosevelt
Don't they know not to end a sentence with a preposition?
Maybe it was MSDOS.
Would that make Microsoft officially Evil ?
If it has tires or tits, it will give you problems.
The first rule of disk encryption: there is no disk encryption
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
Hurricane, if you really believe such antics can get you anywhere why don't you try it in places like Kishinev nowadays? You'll be very surprised how little effect such games can have with a determined police.
Yes, I got it that you were referring to an American police officer. Well, let's think of another scenario: they think you're a terrorist. Or a terrorist nerd, helping with Flight Sim. Or something along this line. It could be plausible for them to insist against your little game, isn't it?
Catalin Braescu
Ofaly.com
About your sig, "science controls nature / religion controls humans"... may I ask what school of thought you are from?
Science interprets nature. Religion interprets interactions between God and humans.
God controls nature. Wickedness controls human hearts, which in turn control humans.
(For the purposes here, I define wickedness as the desire of every human to be functionally a little god, to have all the benefits of godhood, and all the powers thereof; a terribly disordered attempt to fulfill their creation in the image of god).
Correct Horse Battery Staple: 72 bits of entropy. Enter "Correct H" into google. When it generates the phrase, that's
What part of illegal do you not understand?
if i was a prosecutor I would run away from this one as fast as i can. Hell if I was the cops I would have never even responded. WHY?
we have only the statement of one individual that any illegal activity has occurred. Said individual is known to have an issue with defendant. ANY AND ALL EVIDENCE COLLECTED HAS BEEN EASILY ACCESSED BY THAT INDIVIDUAL.
So... police are seizing computers running Linux as a potential criminal offense. This is Microsoft's erotic dream come true!
IANAL:
However:
I think this guy is fuxed if they find ANYTHING significant on the sezied media that confirms the witness statements, re his involvement in unauthorized access.
The only hope the EFF has is somehow showing that all of the witnesses have it out for this guy because of some social tiff and getting the warrant tossed due to conspiracy to defame.... then again that DHCP record is pretty damning assuming he has a bootable system on his equipment with that specific host-name....
If he gets off of this hook.... he's either gonna be one of those scared straight dudes, or he's gonna get much worse...
HMMV
This just goes to show how little people know about Linux....and its movement.
For someone to think that "suspicious activity" constitutes using Linux,
that is just too precious to let slip....I hope they throw the book at these morons!
He said he was a Computer Science Major, obviously a military rank, and that he was typing in "code" for a "project". Obviously thinly veiled references to terrorist activities. All they are looking for now is a Ron Paul bumper sticker and they can put him away for life...
Because we all know how reliable MAC address/DHCP logs are....
*eye roll*
With the first link, the chain is forged.
They could upgrade the suspect to level 3 if they have enough metal...
Now we know the reason why Linux wasnt created in the great US of A.
If Linus had been american he would be on the 10 most wanted list.
Eh, Im sure he is tho, a different one tho, not the kind police look at.
I really hope he sues the bejeezus out of the university police. Just as the police would tell us, ignorance is no excuse. Lrn2compute.
You're right. He suspected his roommate because his Windows machine started crashing! :-)
In Georgia, there is a third category of defamation law:
Defamacasts. These are broadcasts of a defamatory nature which don't fit squarely into slander or libel law.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
ignorance...
Saludos, Anibal Ojeda http://anibalnet.nl
Socratic way: Decide who you think is guilty and selectively look for the evidence which supports that position. Is that the Socratic Method you mean? because this is all I have ever seen police do by way of investigation.
Apparently he was sucking his dick, and it tasted like shit...
But seriously, if your roommate rats you out that you are using a computer for unlawful activities, that pretty much DOES give the campus police probable cause to search your room and your computer. Use of Linux per se isn't grounds for suspicion; use of Linux for unauthorized access to campus computer systems is. (And shame on the BC system administrators for having lax security too.)
Let's just hope he didn't use a proxy to make the post. Or he'll get 25% more jail time. ;|
*sigh*
this guy gets what he gets.
Anyone who creates a fake gay profile and then posts it on line somewhere else is in need of some help. I am sure that the victim of his hoax will be well served to get this nutjob off campus.
What is the big deal? The guy commited a crime and they want to find evidence.
Maybe this will make people think before they try to ruin other people's lives by 'outing' them when they don't want to be out or maybe are not gay.
Oh, beeg surprize. Why did I just know this was coming oh so soon?
Parent do { |drivel| One is the regular B.C. operating system and the other is a black screen with white font which he uses prompt commands on.' } done
Thanx for representing windoze in its true light but please don't throw the penguin out with the bashwater at the pursuit of AP syndication, dear urinalist.
Along with blindness for anything not vaguely resembling donuts or thirteen year old girls -- lets count just plain apples=oranges=acorns stupidity amongst these wonderful creatures we entrust to protect our budding young penguinheads whilst they get corrected from their errant ways and get their degree on WinXP. (Oh yeah it's Smishta nowadays, my bad, I really don't keep up with that stuff anymore.) Hey, rentacops, if you take your eyes off of http://www.silkangels.com/ long enough and dare confront the truth, maybe you will, like, realize, have beeg floating shweedle cognition, that Linux long, long ago graduated to GUI. (Thunderous volcano in the background with flat pictures of cops, teddybears, trains, etc. floating by. And queue up the 40 trumpet orchestra.) As anyone who joins me in using PC Linux 2009 (07, 05...) realizes. And other assorted mockups like Ubuntu, SuSe... My .000002E-13 euros worth...
Sorry to make you ./ers read Wintologese but I wanted to come down to the reality level of these dicks* and make sure they direct their attention units over to this article. (*Dicks has long been slang for "Detectives," of course.)
thorazine, you know...
you won't be capable of wanting freedom,
or anything else,
once your entire Want-circuit has been stomped out.
( survivor of such treatment )
I consider shutting up & waiting until I die to be saner than doing the "crazy" schtick, now...
a funny day..just as "no software is free,you should conect with M$ as soon as possible"....
haha
The EFF article seems FUDdy, I'll warrant (pun intended).
EXHIBIT-A.pdf is well worth the read. Check the Basis of Probable Cause especially. Item b) establishes some usernames/aliases that Calixte is supposed to use, which comes back into play in item e) and f) where the relevant DHCP and DNS log entries are posted. The hostnames, IP address, Operating System (unfortunately ubuntu 8.04 it seems) and DNS activity logs all point to Calixte. It's not like this was warrant was cooked up ad hoc.
Item b) does say that he jailbreaks cellphones... dunno what's supposed to be wrong with that. It may be a breach of contract if you bought your iphone through AT&T somehow, but how is it illegal?
It seems from the warrant, though that the person accusing Riccardo Calixte is the same person who he "outed." Even if that person had been a useful source of information before, wouldn't that cast some doubt on his veracity? That he crashed Mr. Redacted's computer, and cracked the school's grading system? I only saw the accusations of these, not the evidence. "Implicating himself" in illegal activities might be just empty bragging.
In particular, the accusation that Calixte crashed Mr. Redacted's computer: is the fact that several experts couldn't fix his computer on his machine supposed to indicate Calixte's devious hackeriness? Is there supposed to be a second user account? A back door? If he simply knows the password, why couldn't "several experts" help Mr. Redacted change it?
The warrant was probably justified, in my own unqualified opinion, but I'm skeptical of some of the charges.
I am poking fun at Mass Holes. But I have good reason too.
Quite a few of them have been a thorn in my side in the past. Busybodies; unable to mind their own business. I had to sue a couple of Mass Holes just for that reason -- and won.
Not everyone in Mass is a Mass Hole, but then Mass seems to have a ready supply of them.
This is not meant to be a scientific assessment, but an opinion based on personal observation and experience.
And yes, I commit the "sin" of ad-hominem, but it's all in good fun.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
...we might all be using Haiku? Or did you mean Dragonfly BSD? Or maybe FreeRTOS? Um, um, um, help me out here, guys! Ok, ok, Plan9! Nope... ExoPC? Nope... MULTICS! Nope... VxWorks! Nope... OS/X? Oracle's Solaris? OSF/1? OpenVMS? Trusted IRIX? Genesis? Damn, I'm out of ideas. You'll have to tell me.
It's a small world and it smells funny; I'd buy another if it wasn't for the money; Take back what I paid (SoM)
I'll consider myself lightened then!
So where might you hail from, flajann?
Hide all sigs: Click HELP+Prefs (top), VIEWING (last on right), DISABLE SIGS (3rd on left) and SAVE (hidden at bottom).
I'll consider myself lightened then!
So where might you hail from, flajann?
Just across the border in Southern New Hampshire.
Ruby Neural Evolution of Augmenting Topologies
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
oh shit, 'ts happening
http://xkcd.com/225/
They all laughed at me for using a purple background with yellow text and comic sans font in my terminal. The only thing I can be accused of is being too cute