Cops target student over ‘gay’ email
p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:-When campus police raided a Boston College computer science student dorm room to investigate an email complaint, they ended up seizing computers, an iPod, a cell phone, and other technology.
But the student says the search was executed on an invalid warrant and is now demanding the immediate return of his equipment, and fthat investigators be barred from further searches or analysis of his digital data.
“Massachusetts State Police participated in the search and are overseeing the forensic analysis of the seized property.,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) which is representing the student.
The dorm room search stemmed from an investigation into who sent an email to a Boston College mailing list alleging another student was gay, says the EFF, going on 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.”
But 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, says the foundation, adding »»»
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.”
“The police used inapplicable criminal laws as a basis for a fishing expedition to determine the author of an anonymous email,” says EFF laywer Matt Zimmerman.
“Now, this student has been suspended from his job, and he is without a laptop and other devices he needs to do his schoolwork. His private communications and papers are in the hands of police who are searching for evidence without just cause. Even his cell phone and iPod were taken, clearly an overreach if the goal is tracking the source of an email.”
EFF – Computer Science Student Targeted for Criminal Investigation for Allegedly Sending Email, April 13, 2009
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April 14th, 2009 at 12:36 pm
LOL are these cops, lawyers and skool officials taking crack or what?
OMG he uses two operating systems!
A black screen with white text!
OMG!
Fuck I hope he sues.
April 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Damn, I hope I don’t get sued for my altenate login, which uses no X.
April 14th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
âregular B.C. operating systemâ
How much the supplier paid B.C. in kickbacks so that the operating system in question becomes a “regular B.C. operating system”?
April 14th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
Whats the hell is a B.C. Operating system?
April 14th, 2009 at 6:53 pm
The report proves that the investigator wasn’t the sharpest tool in the shed, but if you read the actual report, they clearly matched the IP address with the guy’s Ubuntu machine, which was registered on the Boston College network (hence the dumb ‘regular B.C. operating system). The warrant may not have been legal, but from all I’ve read, the kid is still clearly sent those emails.
April 14th, 2009 at 9:39 pm
It’s also clear from the search warrant that this is a roommate squabble — our suspect sets up a fake profile on a gay social networking site and sends out those e-mails, and his roommate goes to the police and IDs him. So there’s no computer science student persecution going on here, the cops knew who did it from the beginning. The story is just EFF lawyer spin (aided by a cop-speak warrant).
April 17th, 2009 at 8:01 pm
Yea… so even if he sent the email…
there is no crime there. the cops pulled a law out of a hat and tried to make it fit so they could go after the guy. he didn’t defraud anyone, there was no money involved.
Is not using windows and making money by providing IT services “shady” now?
April 29th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
I’m guessing the author intended to write “regular PC operating system”, ie, Windows.
Stuff like this used to fly with no questions asked in the early 80s. That’s why we have the EFF.