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Legal Issues

by Mike Masnick

Tue, Sep 13th 2005 9:29pm





Cox Employee Gives Police Wrong Address, Leading To False Child Porn Accusation

from the what-does-your-ISP-say-about-you? dept

There are plenty of questions about what information your ISP should give up about you. Most of the cases in recent years have dealt with what info your ISPs should give up to the entertainment industry, as they try to track down unauthorized file sharers. However, it can get much more serious than that. Politech points to an article that seems to follow the early premise of Terry Gilliam's Brazil. A data entry typo on an IP address, resulted in broadband provider Cox giving incorrect information to the police, who immediately went out and accused a completely innocent couple of being involved with child porn. It took a week for the police to realize that Cox provided them with the wrong info. The couple are now suing Cox for disclosing (incorrectly) their information, saying it was a breach of privacy. Of course, with spoofing, trojans and open WiFi networks, these types of stories are only going to become more common. At what point do people realize that (typos or not), an IP address is not proof that someone is engaged in whatever they're being accused of?

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  1.  
    identicon
    dorpus, Sep 14th, 2005 @ 12:27am

    The fine line between news and kiddie porn...

    The Hong Kong Disneyland, which opened on Monday, started on a sour note, as poor tourists from mainland China exhibited uncivilized behavior. According to the Chinese newspaper 信息時報, although some were able to afford Mickey Mouse umbrellas to shelter from the sun, others sat on the floor of air conditioned shops or took their shirts off (considered a taboo in some parts of Asia). The tourists complained that there was inadequate shade in the park, and the air conditioned restaurants were packed full of people. The benches had no shade.

    In front of the Sleeping Beauty Castle, one boy pissed in plain sight, and ran around naked. His Cantonese mother said that he suddenly wanted to go to the bathroom, so he didn't have a choice. Additionally, tourists smoked freely, slept on the street, and took their clothes off as needed. However, the article noted that some Hong Kongers were among the roughians.

    What if you accidentally took a picture of a boy like that?

    http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20050914-00000006-scn-int

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  2.  
    identicon
    Pete Austin, Sep 14th, 2005 @ 1:33am

    Shit Happens

    At least these people weren't shot by mistake and apparantly "the police did everything correctly."
    A more serious point is that everyone arrested by police is completely innocent until a court decides otherwise.

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]

  3.  
    identicon
    Gizmo, Sep 14th, 2005 @ 1:52pm

    Re: Shit Happens

    Apparently you've not heard of the Patriot Act...

     

    [ reply to this | link to this | view in thread ]


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