Boston College Campus Police: "Using Prompt Commands" May Be a Sign of Criminal Activity

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Seriously.... I do hope he does not lose this case, that would really be sad.

Aside from the remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment, nothing cited in the warrant application could possibly constitute the cited criminal offenses. There are no assertions that a commercial (i.e. for pay) commercial service was defrauded, a necessary element of any "Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation" allegation. Similarly, the investigating officer doesn't explain how sending an e-mail to a campus mailing list might constitute "unauthorized access to a computer system."

Shouldn't the IT department of the college be able to explain the stupidity of it to the school?

 

[cirrrocco]

Damm, that is seriously messed up. boton college police is teh ghey

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: cirrrocco
Damm, that is seriously messed up. boton college police is teh ghey

Be careful what you say, posting on ATOT may be an indication of illegal activity too!

 

[babylon5]

Makes you wonder how out of touch our government authorities are in the high tech age.

 

[jackschmittusa]

The words just escape me to express myself about this ignorant fool of a cop.

Maybe I'll send him a 5¼" floppy to examine.

 

[Double Trouble]

Wow.... just wow. The stupidity just never ceases to amaze me. I do hope there's a judge with half a brain to see this and toss it out immediately. Then I hope the student sues the school.

 

[Skyclad1uhm1]

Originally posted by: jackschmittusa
The words just escape me to express myself about this ignorant fool of a cop.

Maybe I'll send him a 5¼" floppy to examine.

Won't that be too large for his DVD player?

 

[Vette73]

Originally posted by: babylon5
Makes you wonder how out of touch our government authorities are in the high tech age.

Get out of my tubes you terriost!!!

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: Skyclad1uhm1
Seriously.... I do hope he does not lose this case, that would really be sad.

Aside from the remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment, nothing cited in the warrant application could possibly constitute the cited criminal offenses. There are no assertions that a commercial (i.e. for pay) commercial service was defrauded, a necessary element of any "Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation" allegation. Similarly, the investigating officer doesn't explain how sending an e-mail to a campus mailing list might constitute "unauthorized access to a computer system."

Shouldn't the IT department of the college be able to explain the stupidity of it to the school?

They probably did but the officer had problems with the pictographs!

 

[PokerGuy]

:laugh: ... and this is a place of "higher learning"? Anyone considering getting an "education" there should reconsider.

 

[halik]

Whaat?

Lawyer up immediately and then counter sue for harassment.

 

[Zenmervolt]

Has anyone actually read the warrant?

There is a legitimate cause for search based on accusations of copyright infringement (the suspect's roommate made accusations of both music and movie piracy) and harassment (someone created a phony user account for the suspect's roommate on a homosexual dating site and then sent that E-mail to a campus-wide distribution list and the IP logs show that the suspect is responsible).

Yes, some of the statements are ridiculous. But there are also some accusations that do need to be checked out.

ZV

 

[silverpig]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Has anyone actually read the warrant?

There is a legitimate cause for search based on accusations of copyright infringement (the suspect's roommate made accusations of both music and movie piracy) and harassment (someone created a phony user account for the suspect's roommate on a homosexual dating site and then sent that E-mail to a campus-wide distribution list and the IP logs show that the suspect is responsible).

Yes, some of the statements are ridiculous. But there are also some accusations that do need to be checked out.

ZV

The music and movie downloading part is pretty lame. Want to get someone's computers taken away? just accuse them of music downloading.

I agree with the other stuff you said though.

 

[StageLeft]

c:\bostoncollege
dir *.fail
1 File(s)

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: silverpig

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt
Has anyone actually read the warrant?

There is a legitimate cause for search based on accusations of copyright infringement (the suspect's roommate made accusations of both music and movie piracy) and harassment (someone created a phony user account for the suspect's roommate on a homosexual dating site and then sent that E-mail to a campus-wide distribution list and the IP logs show that the suspect is responsible).

Yes, some of the statements are ridiculous. But there are also some accusations that do need to be checked out.

ZV

The music and movie downloading part is pretty lame. Want to get someone's computers taken away? just accuse them of music downloading.

I agree with the other stuff you said though.

I don't disagree that the music accusation part is weak and probably wouldn't stand on its own, but it is at least a legitimate crime and not a case of "he's a hacker because he uses the command prompt".

ZV