"Hi," the message sent to the police says: "This is Antipedo2001. I have found a PC with known child pornography files on the hard drive. I have included a listing below and included a sample for your convenience."
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While law enforcement agencies cannot search an individual's computer without a warrant, they can act on a tip. The F.B.I., one of the agencies on the Noped list, would not say if it had received tips from this virus program. A Justice Department lawyer said that law enforcement officials could legally conduct a search based on the tip, but added, "That's a very different question from `would law enforcement ever open an investigation based on that information?' "
Perhaps most troubling, legal experts say, is the havoc that the virus could wreak on the reputation of people with no involvement in child pornography.
I realize I'm somewhat naive in that I expect things to make sense, but isn't this just utterly nuts? I mean, imagine an LEO gets an anonymous tip saying. "I broke into this guy's house and found child porn there". Check out the house and, sure enough, the window has been broken into, and right by the broken window is a pile of child porn. Wouldn't ANY sensible person conclude that more likely than not it was planted there? By the way, has this JD lawyer ever READ the constitution? The 4th clearly states and I quote "no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause SUPPORTED BY OATH OR AFFIRMATION". (emphasis mine). Clearly computer generated spam doesn't meet this criterion. George BTW,