A man in Stamford, Connecticut is now in police custody after taking his PowerMac G5 computer to an Apple store for repairs relating to problems with image files. Raymond Miller took his computer to the Genius Bar at his local Apple store saying that he was having trouble with image files; when the technician started to look over the computer he found child pornography and alerted the local police.Miller was immediately arrested after the police confirmed that the computer was his and he is now behind bars awaiting trial. "Miller was charged with one count of possession of child pornography, a class-B felony punishable by a minimum five-year prison sentence upon conviction."
It makes you wonder if Miller was trying to get caught. Why would someone take a computer with illegal content to an Apple store for repair and then point the technician directly to your explicit photos?
If you are also wondering if computer technicians are allowed to search your computer, they do have the right. The Supreme Court refused to hear a case where another individual was caught with child pornography after he gave his computer to Circuit City to install a DVD drive.
This is true.
I for one will not welcome our new cat overlords.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yr3oYkrD2hk
That's great
JK!
SNAP!
Should make for an interesting switch ad.
lol, you owe me a new keyboard :-)
Strange assumption. As in, most people find child porn valuable/desirable?
You are worrying.
You are worrying.
Sounds like a denizen of /b/
the guy said he was having problems with image files. any decent tech would first find an image file on the ocmputer and look at it to try and replicate the problem. a little more logic would make one assume the child porno was images not necessarily video.
Was more referring to this one.
Was more referring to this one.
Most tech places do a "once over" quick look for any potential issues when a machine comes in for upgrades. This is part of providing good service, since if problems were ignored, the customer might assume the problems were caused by the install. The best course is to simply inform the customer by phone, give an estimate on repairs, and let the customer decide whether or not to fix them, but at least the customer is aware of it.
This makes any "search" of the computer perfectly justified. It's a given that if you take your computer in for repairs or upgrades, your files will be accessed. If you have "sensitive" data, it's your job to make sure that it's secure before entrusting your computer to another person.
(...)
This makes any "search" of the computer perfectly justified.
Let's be honest, anyone else work in a tech shop here? Anyone else work in a tech shop who *doesn't* search every computer for nekkid or otherwise potentially lulz-worthy photography?
shouldn't a repair shop have your signed consent to search though your documents etc, esp in the case of just installing a dvd drive, video card, RAM... or something similar?
side note, if you have private documents not meant to be seen, keep it on an external drive, disable indexing and thumbnail creation etc lol, two cents from a personal security standpoint, can never be to careful regardless
If you have personal documents that you don't want anyone to see, encrypt them. Mac OS X makes this especially easy, as you can make an AES-encrypted disk image (make it a sparse one if you want it to expand over time with your files) and then put a long password on it. The files in there won't be indexed, but unlike just throwing them on an external drive, there's no threat of anyone accidentally opening them up.
All I can say is good I hope the sick f*** gets sent down and gets stomped on in prison!!!
All I can say is good I hope the sick f*** gets sent down and gets stomped on in prison!!!
that is not necessarily true... As I have actually been through the 22 chapters of the A+ guide to managing and maintaining your PC, and in the scenarios book; and networking at the moment, I believe I can safely say that it is actually up to the technician on which steps they want to take and which order they want to do them in. I myself would not use an external drive or USB drive, until I ruled out malware and viruses as the cause of the problem.
That is true about replicating the problem, and I do agree with the prison part... lol.
Wow - what a spectacularly sweeping statement.
So you know, immediately, the skillset of EVERY single Genius Bar tech in all the Apple Stores in all the world? Amazing. You can't just make sweeping statements like that - you have no idea just who is working at what stores and what they're capable of!
Regardless of any account and the permissions assigned, the files are accessible offline by taking the drive and plugging into another computer. Then it doesn't matter what level you assign to the temporary tech account.
Bottom line is that encryption and/or storing on external removable media is the only answer.
But if it was the other thing he was caught with, then I'm glad he was stupid and got caught.
But if it was the other thing he was caught with, then I'm glad he was stupid and got caught.
Well said Mrs Angel. Child Pornography should be ages 0-16, as they are the ages a person is considered a child phyically. Once they are done with puberty (normally around age 16) they arnt exactly children anymore, and more of a young adult.
The law however is pretty silly when it comes to this, and not only that, some people (say a 18yo guy having nudes of his 17yo girlfriend) is still considered child porn. I dont understand how that works, but well, if he fell into the catagory of 0-16yo pics, then im with you, he totally deserves it.
But if it was the other thing he was caught with, then I'm glad he was stupid and got caught.
In my experience the physical differences between a 17 and 18 year olds are negligible, so the technician probably wouldn't think twice about them. If he has had enough concerns to call the police it would be a safe bet that the images were of childen of a much younger age.
In...your...experience...?
OH SCHNAP
the original newspaper article says:
2 seconds of clicking would have found that it was multiple images, under 13, and in suggestive poses - thus saving an argument about all three.
It's called a time stamp on the pictures. If it says it was moved there on the date and time the G5 was handed in... yeah, the guy's getting off the hook.
Not really, shouldn't it still have a "Modified On:...." time stamp?
It would be extremely easy to do in fact. Especially if you had the files, app, and any batch settings ready to go. In the case of a repair you typically have hours upon hours to do something like this as most people simply drop their machine off and come back later.
It could even be done as the files were being copied over if you used a bit of premeditation.
Did you know, when a file is on your hard drive, it takes way more than 10 overwrites of garbage data to make it unrecoverable. There are people that do this for a living... stores that can access layers of data on the hard drive. They can tell how long a file's been there, how many times it was modified or accessed, and even recover the revisions. That's not even including other means of getting info on files.
If an Apple tech put the pictures there, it would be trivial to find out.
If you copy a file to fresh sectors that have never had anything written to them, and make sure it's stamped a month ago, there's no way to tell that it's only been there for a few hours.
i think that the timestamps themselves can also possibly be recovered , even from a file which has been modified a few times... as long as the computer clock was set to the right time when a few of the timestamps were written, its possible to reconstruct what was done with the data on the disk, and the before/after of when the time on the computer clock was changed...
I really wonder now, they are dumb i know that but are they so stupid they keep it visible on the desktop or what? right next to the folder "illegal downloads" maybe? seriously?
© Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.
C:> dir
Volume in drive C has no label.
Volume Serial Number is 98DA-B771
Directory of C:
26/08/2009 02:02 PM .
26/08/2009 02:02 PM ..
25/08/2009 03:53 PM Windows
18/07/2009 02:43 AM Program Files
17/08/2009 01:01 PM Documents and Settings
13/07/2009 05:01 PM Child Porn
0 File(s) 0 bytes
6 Dir(s) 39,298,424,832 bytes free
I hope you're kiding.
i'm pretty sure he's joking about the previous post.
I know sarcasm is difficult to convey in written form, but seriously, that was obviously meant as a joke
wow! child porn is the first thing on the hard disk!
Last edited by cdupree on 26 Aug 2009 - 14:41
Sheesh
yeah I think thats exactly what he was trying to do...
This reminds me of a visit to a Dixons shop one day. They had a laptop in the centre of the store hooked up to some Harmon Kardon speakers. You could hear the thing all the way outside. When I went to look at it they were playing some scene release of a Tiesto cd. Filenames were a dead giveaway.
And how much extra should the customer expect to pay for the tech playing 'big brother?' After all, someone has to pay for his time.
"even paedophiles know macs are better"
Good point!
i think they added the MAC thing there just to catch the eye of readers like us....
You don't take a mere PC to an Apple Store.
"even paedophiles know macs are better"
I was thinking that the title implied that Mac users are pedophiles. All this interest in white shinny things...
But yeah, I agree with the thread starter. The title detracts from the story line. Although it is consistent with the other dishonest titles put on news stories on Neowin lately.
Hey, it's not our fault Mac users insist that their Intel-based Personal Computers are no mere PCs. I can't count the times someone mentioned how they were working "on their Mac" when something happened whereas most people would just say "on my computer". Mac people bring up the brand/model of their computer every chance they get.
Its true. Can't help but LoL at the [l]users who insist that a Mac isn't a PC.
PC = personal computer. No other way around it!
"even paedophiles know macs are better"
Better video quality. And if need be, you can even edit your own videos with Final Cut Pro!!
I understand how PC has come to mean "Windows PC" in common marketing usage but I never talk or blog about how I was "working on my Lenovo one night when the strangest thing happened" or "got into my Honda and went to the store" but online and offline, I constantly hear/read about how "I was working on my Mac" or "getting a new program for my Mac". Most people would just say "on/for my computer".
I honestly have nothing against the quality of their machines but it's very telling that it has that much to do with brand loyalty and perception.
EDIT: And the guy was from Fairfield, not Stamford. The Apple Store is in Stamford though. It's the only one in the state and nearby me I've never been to.
Last edited by Tanshin on 26 Aug 2009 - 15:39
What did he say?
Said, "Where are my car keys?"
But what constitutes "exploitation"? I'm sure most people have pictures of themselves (or their parents do) naked as a little kid. Perfectly harmless such as fun in the bath, goofing around, etc...
Saving the memories of perfectly normal, common, healthy childhood play-time. That's 5 years in prison and oh, btw, you have to live under a bridge for the rest of your life, kthx.
for a dirty mind,almost every single photo is suggestive.
Or maybe he should fall-back on the Peter Townshend Defense?
ONE! One picture? For all we know it was a picture of a relative, a niece or a nephew.
What counts as child porn? Naked? Playing in the garden? Bath time?
Or does it have to be "posing" or sexually illicit?
One such event was a 50 - 55 year old man, told me he was having trouble opening the "My Pictures" folder, so naturally the first thing i'm going to try and get working is that...
There was a large quantity of Homosexual Pornography when I opened it. I then had to phone the customer to say it was working... Try doing that while not gagging!
:3
I'm in no way a homophobe, although no prior warning to what could be there and the fact that I just do not want to see that far in to a homosexual relationship caused shock.
And the guy that had the stuff was an older "Welsh Farmer". Not a pretty sight I can assure you.
Exactly my point, thank you.
Last edited by GreyWolfSC on 27 Aug 2009 - 12:56
lets hope so.
http://pbfcomics.com/?cid=PBF215-Kitty_Photographer.jpg
Yet, he had a massive collection of ONE picture (hence, one count charged against him), and no other child porn was found at his house at all. It all sounds rather fishy to me. Either the file was something innocent as Gabe3 mentioned, or it was accidentally downloaded along with something else.
without know more about the actual image(s) it's hard to say. It could be one image of him personally engaging in a sexual act with a child, in which case it wouldn't matter if it's 1 image or 1k, that ****** is going to prison.
Classic. Ever wanted to download child porn straight to your iPhone? There's an app for that. The iPedo app allows users to search, download and even create child porn. What's even better is that it allows it to sync straight to your Apple Mac either wireless or through iTunes. So if you want child porn, look no further and download iPedo. Remember, there's an app for that.
Of course it would. Didn't you look at the related articles?
I used to install the @Home internet on people's computers long ago and you'd be surprised
at some of the stuff I've seen on people's computers, but never kiddie porn.
I did see a bunch of nude photos of this woman that her husband had scanned of her tied up and in kinky positions, but the woman who was home, when I went to work on the pc, hubby had these pics up on Photoshop, the woman blushed and then she was got mad, cause she didn't know hubby was scanning the pics onto the computer. LOL, she was hotty and no unfortunately I didn't get any tip or sex from her.
Hey there's a question! Was it actual child pornography, or like, 16-17 year olds? And why does the law base itself on age when people pass through puberty at different rates? Why hasn't anyone tried to come up with a system to classify people based on actual development and not just chronological age? It seems like it would be incredibly useful for legislation.
Seems like we enjoy drawing lines in the middle of gray areas because it's the "best we can do", even though that roughly estimated line is the difference between nobody caring, and society calling you a monster who deserves a gruesome death.
Hey there's a question! Was it actual child pornography, or like, 16-17 year olds? And why does the law base itself on age when people pass through puberty at different rates? Why hasn't anyone tried to come up with a system to classify people based on actual development and not just chronological age? It seems like it would be incredibly useful for legislation.
Seems like we enjoy drawing lines in the middle of gray areas because it's the "best we can do", even though that roughly estimated line is the difference between nobody caring, and society calling you a monster who deserves a gruesome death.
There are gray areas sure, but its not about whether the child is in puberty or not. For all anybody cares, somebody can look at pornography of women of age that look like they're younger. The concern in the law is about the safety and well being of children. Which is why there are also statutory rape laws. In that case, it doesn't matter if the child in question is in puberty either.
18 has become the magic age because 18 is when you no longer need a legal guardian to represent you. There's no more to it than that.
Last edited by brianshapiro on 28 Aug 2009 - 05:42
If you are also wondering if computer technicians are allowed to search your computer, they do have the right. The Supreme Court refused to hear a case where another individual was caught with child pornography after he gave his computer to Circuit City to install a DVD drive.
it does make you wonder WHY he would do that... surely he aint THAT stupid, right? ... but then again i am glad the guy is stupid since it gets another sick person off the streets to pray on kids etc.
as far as that 'supreme court' thing... i don't think anyone would care to much what the law says in a case like that because if, as far as the law, it's a grey area... then surely the courts will automatically side against a person doing child pornography over there privacy because at the end of the day it's "KIDS ON THE LINE" and we must surely protect them from sick people like that.... because in a case like that the judges really cant side with a person claiming that someone should have never seen it in the first place so they get off, because if that ever happened it would look really bad against the supreme court and for good reason.
now i feel guilty... your name is a "sign" T^T
I think though with the computer techs its not a fair thing to say that because its on the computer and they find it, that its ok to arrest the person. There's plenty of other crimes that are noticed by working professionals that never are reported. I deal a lot with finances and I've seen clear cases where people cheat on their taxes but rules and regulations prevent us from doing anything about it.
Tax cheat is not child porn. But, I think there's an obligation of professional conduct and its not fair that if a tech finds illegal stuff on your computer its an automatic police reports. Psychologists for instance have clients that cheat, heavily use illegal drugs, muder, rape, abuse their spouse, etc. All illegal acts but depending on the State or country they are usually obligated not to say anything for client/patient confidentiality. Hell you can admit to your lawyer you broke the law and they usually won't mention a peep to the judge/the court.
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