Internet privacy

Lean One

Well-known member
Ok, I was reading Rick collins collumn in MD about the patriot act and privacy on the internet. It got me seriously thinking about the subject, and some questions came up for me that I could use some educated feedback on. Sorry if this has been discussed before.

It's my understanding that If they want, "Big brother" can sneak a peek at any and all contacts we have on the internet. My question is that's where it ends right? I mean they can't use the content of say a thread we paticipate in against us can they? I'm asking because I'm starting to wonder if it is such a good idea to discuss cycle logs on the board. Am I just being overly paranoid here? Can anything we say here come back to haunt us? My assumption is no as long as we keep our noses clean and not make ouselves the suspect of some drug investigation right? I would love to hear some knowlegable opinions(well FACTS really)on the issue.
 
Well I think that part of the problem here is that there are many arguable and unanswerable questions you pose. What specifically do you want to know? I ask this because, after working at a law school for a few years and hearing some of the discussion on admissable facts and all that crap, I think I've leraned one thing: very few things are written in stone ;) It depends on the law enforcement in question and the methods and tactics they use, the skill and creativity of the prosecutor and defense attorney(s), the way the judge rules, federal or state laws, etc etc.

I would assume (and I stress this is assumption) that in order to use any threads on a message board, for example, it would need to be proven that the identity of the poster of the threads or messages in question is in fact you, and could not possibly or reasonably be someone else. That might require cooperation with your ISP and the message board in question, as well as possibly some expert testimony from IT specialists tracing your IP address and analyzing your PC, possibly refuting specialists from the defense side. LOL I can actually imagine a clever defense attorney being quite good at raising a reasonable doubt and/or getting many electronic forms of evidence thrown out if these are to be used as major points of the prosecutions' case.

I'm not an attorney, and it's quite hard to actually get any good advice from anyone who isn't because every Tom, Dick, and Harry tends to think they "know the law" well enough to give out such advice :rolleyes: I suppose what I'm saying is: unless you clarify your question by asking specific questions and giving a detailed context, it could be somewhat difficult to get specific answers ;)
 
Fair enough. My main concern is this. Lets say one aquires some legal and quasi/legal sipps.ie Fina. That person uses a kit to make an injectable and decides to share his experience with others on a message board. Is there any way that in doing so the person puts himself in a position to be prosecuted for something illegal. I would think no, because steroid boards have been in existence for years. I have yet to hear of anyones confessions on a board lead to criminal prosecution. Just something I have been giving a lot of thought to lately.
 
I believe they CAN use such info as it is posted on a board (like this one) that is publicly available to all. You can't have an expectation of privacy when you nail your message to a telephone pole in a public street, which from a legal standpoint, is what you are doing.

They would have to subponae (sp?) the relevant ISP records to obtain the true identity of the e-mail or IP address you are using.

I dont know if this has ever been done, but it could be done. Someone in Law Enforcement would have to decide to target you for an investigation, and get authorization from the people who decide whether or not such an investigation and prosecution would be worth their time and money.

Generally, their strategy is to go after the dealers, but who knows? Its a gamble. Of course one way of getting the dealers is to get some buyers to turn states evidence, by threatening them with jail time if they dont testify.
 
is it possible, sure.....of course, anything is

is it probable (esp. as a simple user).....not IMO

also remember that a clever defense attorney can work through anything ;)
 
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