Another sad day for us all.

[bobsmith]

news.yahoo.com/dozens-charged-child-porn-case-nyc-area-122955761.html (Tor-safe, but keep all scripts off, as there is a video and comments section here!)

Sorry for potentially using bad "linking" rules here. No idea if this site is tor safe or not. I just wanted to post the link. My heart goes out to all these people who were busted. I just wanted to pass this article along.

[Gaki]

For those not wanting to click on the link, the article follows:

Dozens charged in child porn case in NYC area

NEW YORK (AP) — Seemingly respectable members of the mainstream — a police officer, a paramedic, a rabbi, an airline pilot, an architect, a Boy Scout leader — were caught using the Internet to collect and trade child pornography, federal officials said Wednesday.

The six were among 70 New York City-area men and one woman charged as the result of a five-week investigation by the Homeland Security Investigations arm of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some of the defendants, using search terms like "real child rape" and "family sex," had downloaded thousands of disturbing images on their computers inside suburban homes they shared with their families. The lone woman was accused of allowing another suspect to videotape her son.

Federal and state officials who announced the arrests on Wednesday called it one of the largest local roundups ever of people who seek to anonymously share the porn online — and a stark reminder that they come from all walks of life.

"This operation puts the lie to the classic, stereotypical profile that child predators are nothing more than unemployed drifters," said James Hayes, head of ICE's New York office.

Authorities say an alarming number of the defendants held positions of trust that gave them access to young children. The Boy Scout leader also coached a youth baseball team. The rabbi home-schooled his children and others. Another person used hidden cameras to secretly film his children's friends.

The operation was meant to send a message to producers and consumers of child porn "that they are going to be identified, that they are going to be found," Hayes said. "Those people need to look themselves in the mirror and do whatever they need to do to stop this activity."

Authorities say advances in technology and computer capacity have allowed child-porn collectors to easily amass vast troves of images and to exchange files with each other directly. The New York effort resulted in the seizure of nearly 600 desktop and laptop computers, tablets, smartphones and other devices containing massive amounts of storage.

Agents were still examining the devices to locate and catalog evidence, an arduous task that could result in more arrests. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children also will have analysts review the images to see whether it can identify children using databases of known victims.

"We refer to each of these images as a crime scene photo because that's exactly what they are," said John Ryan, the organization's chief executive officer.

Authorities decided to launch the operation after the arrest in January of the Mount Pleasant, New York, police chief, who pleaded not guilty this week to federal charges of knowingly receiving and distributing child pornography. Court papers allege that Brian Fanelli told investigators he began looking at child porn as research before it grew into a "personal interest."

In May, agents on computers created a digital dragnet with the same tactics used in the Fanelli case: Agents posed as collectors of child porn who wanted to anonymously trade it through file-sharing programs others use to share pirated hit music and movies. Once given access to personal libraries of child porn photos and videos, the agents identified the numeric IP addresses of the sources of the material.

The next step as was to subpoena Internet service providers to obtain names associated with the IP addresses. The investigators narrowed the list down to 100 people who were the most active and recent traders, and obtained search and arrest warrants.

[revelle99]

" The investigators narrowed the list down to 100 people who were the most active and recent traders, and obtained search and arrest warrants."

TRANSLATION:  They arbitrarily targeted those against whom it would require the least actual work to seek warrants, charges (and likely) convictions...In short, admitting that this was all about grandstanding, witch-hunting and publicity mongering and has NOTHING to do with promoting the safety of children.  Note there isn't even a pretense that they expended any effort to determine if any actual children were being harmed....let alone seek out those doing the harm.  This was a simple trap set.... and once filled, the "brave hunters" congratulated themselves for conquering their prey.

...and I wonder how many readers will not even notice that obvious element of the story and simply feel better about themselves because more "bad people" have been removed from their safe and vapid little worlds...

I love how so many of these stories point out how many of these "evil" folks actually have regular contact with children in (GASP) roles of nurturing, support and caregiving... WHAT MONSTERS THEY MUST BE!  Obviously they are taking these roles "undercover" in order to prety on the young...right?  Or does it ever occur to people that many people are drawn to (and EXCEL at) such positions BECAUSE they are pedophiles who love children in such a way that they want them to have better & fuller lives?

One reason I stay away from politics & pop culture is that they are both defined by a level of superficiality so extreme that I wonder how people actually feed themselves without the television telling them when, what and where to eat... Stories like this, and the public's overwhelmingly shallow reaction to them do make me sad...

...but they also make me glad and thankful that there are places like THIS..  I may feel discouraged about the world but I will not hang my head and I will not hide.  I will wrap my arms around this community we have.  I can sleep at night knowing who, in this story, are the ones pleasuring themselves over the suffering of others...I can feel better because I (and all of you) can identify who the predators and who are the victims here...

I know, in my heart, that it is because I am a pedophile that I want those who would exploit and harm children to be found, punished and stopped..

....if only there were those in government and law enforcement who felt the same...
.

[gameover]

Very well said Revelle99

Yet again. Not one child saved. Not one and again through the same tired method using logp2p. Which in itself violates the GPL.

I find it interesting that they caught one of their own in their drag net. Assholes will be assholes even if it is one of their own.


The fact that they sat there and initiated the trade shows a level of entrapment. It shows that Leo's do share the same thing that they condemn us of sharing. Breaking their own laws in the process

[Shatterhand]

Very well said Revelle99

Yet again. Not one child saved. Not one and again through the same tired method using logp2p. Which in itself violates the GPL.

I find it interesting that they caught one of their own in their drag net. Assholes will be assholes even if it is one of their own.


The fact that they sat there and initiated the trade shows a level of entrapment. It shows that Leo's do share the same thing that they condemn us of sharing. Breaking their own laws in the process

pretty sad, hypocritical and pathetic.

[hcgirlfan]

And yet another object lesson of why using file sharing programs on clearnet is a bad bad idea. Sounds a bit like Gigatribe?

[on the rocks]

Wow, a P2P bust in 2014?  Jesus tap-dancing Christ.  More low hanging fruit.

Though the article mentions one of the arrested was using security cameras to spy on his kids' friends.  If true, I would not approve that type of thing.  So there's one asshole out of ~100.

[entelechy]

And yet another object lesson of why using file sharing programs on clearnet is a bad bad idea. Sounds a bit like Gigatribe?

Yup...it's a shame some people wind up learning the hard way.

Sad day indeed.

[Red]

P2P is like torrents?

[GLover]

P2P is like torrents?

p2p is a catch-all term for torrents, and what came before torrents. With the old-style p2p, circa early 00s, people used programs such as Kazaa, WinMX, eMule, etc, and would directly list shared files on the PCs in a share folder(s). You would search using the program, then choose to download whatever files you wanted, directly from other users. There were no torrent files. Slightly different to torrents, which have far more power in relation to downloading, but essentially the same.

[Red]

Thanks for the explanation.

And since files are on the user computer, it is like.. totally easy to find out who is trading CP right?

I remember them from the 00s. The man who got me into making CP used (eMule ?? the name is familiar) them. I remember him browsing someone folders to look for CP. And I think every time someone connected to him, or he to someone, it was possible to see files from users.

So ... it seems like running in the middle of a city with a banner written "I download CP!" I guess LEA got low hanging fruit.. because any "experient" CP trader would use tor and such ...

[Neighbor]

Thanks for the explanation.

And since files are on the user computer, it is like.. totally easy to find out who is trading CP right?

I remember them from the 00s. The man who got me into making CP used (eMule ?? the name is familiar) them. I remember him browsing someone folders to look for CP. And I think every time someone connected to him, or he to someone, it was possible to see files from users.

So ... it seems like running in the middle of a city with a banner written "I download CP!" I guess LEA got low hanging fruit.. because any "experient" CP trader would use tor and such ...

It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Many P2P programs allow you to browse what the other person is sharing. You can also easily determine their IP address.

This is BEYOND STUPID!  The biggest problem that the authorities have, is deciding who to bust. My understanding is that busts are usually made on 3 criteria:

1) Age of the kids portrayed -- one former investigator was quoted as saying that they didn't prosecute people for images of kids over 8. He said that with kids 8 years old and younger, there could be absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the kids were underage -- the could be absolutely no mistakes where a suspect thought that a kid was 18. (This can happen with some well-developed teenagers).

2) Number of images/videos being shared. Obviously, the larger the number of photos/videos being shared, the more attractive is the target for arrest.

3) Finally, if the potential suspect is identified, and is in a position of authority over kids, e.g. teacher, minister, police officer, etc.

Neighbor

[Luftëtari]

Might as well put a sign in the front of your house saying you download, possess, and distribute CP if you use such methods to download and share it.

Also, I would like to know what kind of CP this is. I hate how people, even the biggest cop hating anti government individuals, just believe the cops and government when it comes to this topic.

[gameover]

Thanks for the explanation.

And since files are on the user computer, it is like.. totally easy to find out who is trading CP right?

I remember them from the 00s. The man who got me into making CP used (eMule ?? the name is familiar) them. I remember him browsing someone folders to look for CP. And I think every time someone connected to him, or he to someone, it was possible to see files from users.

So ... it seems like running in the middle of a city with a banner written "I download CP!" I guess LEA got low hanging fruit.. because any "experient" CP trader would use tor and such ...

It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Many P2P programs allow you to browse what the other person is sharing. You can also easily determine their IP address.

This is BEYOND STUPID!  The biggest problem that the authorities have, is deciding who to bust. My understanding is that busts are usually made on 3 criteria:

1) Age of the kids portrayed -- one former investigator was quoted as saying that they didn't prosecute people for images of kids over 8. He said that with kids 8 years old and younger, there could be absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the kids were underage -- the could be absolutely no mistakes where a suspect thought that a kid was 18. (This can happen with some well-developed teenagers).

2) Number of images/videos being shared. Obviously, the larger the number of photos/videos being shared, the more attractive is the target for arrest.

3) Finally, if the potential suspect is identified, and is in a position of authority over kids, e.g. teacher, minister, police officer, etc.

Neighbor

The creator of torrent even said that his software was never meant to be secure and you would be foolish to torrent sensitive data

[Neighbor]

Thanks for the explanation.

And since files are on the user computer, it is like.. totally easy to find out who is trading CP right?

I remember them from the 00s. The man who got me into making CP used (eMule ?? the name is familiar) them. I remember him browsing someone folders to look for CP. And I think every time someone connected to him, or he to someone, it was possible to see files from users.

So ... it seems like running in the middle of a city with a banner written "I download CP!" I guess LEA got low hanging fruit.. because any "experient" CP trader would use tor and such ...

It's like shooting fish in a barrel. Many P2P programs allow you to browse what the other person is sharing. You can also easily determine their IP address.

This is BEYOND STUPID!  The biggest problem that the authorities have, is deciding who to bust. My understanding is that busts are usually made on 3 criteria:

1) Age of the kids portrayed -- one former investigator was quoted as saying that they didn't prosecute people for images of kids over 8. He said that with kids 8 years old and younger, there could be absolutely no doubt whatsoever that the kids were underage -- the could be absolutely no mistakes where a suspect thought that a kid was 18. (This can happen with some well-developed teenagers).

2) Number of images/videos being shared. Obviously, the larger the number of photos/videos being shared, the more attractive is the target for arrest.

3) Finally, if the potential suspect is identified, and is in a position of authority over kids, e.g. teacher, minister, police officer, etc.

Neighbor

The creator of torrent even said that his software was never meant to be secure and you would be foolish to torrent sensitive data

Agreed. However the lack of security extends to all P2P software, not just torrents.

Neighbor