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A law enforcement team would be stepping onto shaky ground if they were forced to transfer illegal images/etc to a suspected trafficer before getting evidence from him. Entrapment is an ugly concept.
We've been hearing about such things (using the mails) for some time. I don't know how the cops avoided entrapment when they posed as kiddie porn customers or pedophiles when they were doing the AOL sting.
As I recall, the courts have sent the message to the LE community that it's entrapment if they entice someone into doing something that they normally wouldn't do. If you're a kiddie porn dealer, and I as a LE officer entice you to sell me some pictures of that cute 8-year-old doing some geezer, then that's not entrapment. If I, on the other hand, try to pressure you (assuming you are a law-abiding citizen) into buying such by either misrepresenting the article in question or by threatening you with dire consequences if you don't buy, etc. - in other words, forcing or enticing you to do something you normally wouldn't do - *that's* entrapment. - -- Ed Carp, N7EKG Ed.Carp@linux.org, ecarp@netcom.com 214/993-3935 voicemail/pager Finger ecarp@netcom.com for PGP 2.5 public key an88744@anon.penet.fi Q. What's the trouble with writing an MS-DOS program to emulate Clinton? A. Figuring out what to do with the other 639K of memory. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.2 iQCVAwUBMLTsaSS9AwzY9LDxAQHZ9AP/ZmGmWQm/cd+osceg0rLj8ZgrPbsXw3hi 5u4RbAjWlazTKydk6JfgDrpfLn+tFr/KhqWE7Zo7wFcgTJcX39PdhuxyO0gnt+lr BdCjB+qYSei3/TgsoU5XPkMEj+fp22dT1NIxRdDPujDjE1BEz18knQsihngGsZ6X Iz8TyBe6SIM= =dJ0W -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----