re: Some of you pervs are screwed...

quote:

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Michaud is arguing that his charges be dismissed on grounds that the government’s use of the tool violated the Fourth Amendment. Fieman argues that some people might have gone to the site seeking to express fantasies, which while repugnant, are legal. The site, he said, doesn’t clearly advertise itself as devoted to child pornogaphy.

He likened the government’s warrant to a “general warrant,” referring to the British practice during the colonial era of allowing government searches without any individualized suspicion.

The judge in Michaud’s case is scheduled on Friday to hear several motions that could result in the dismissal of charges against him.

“This is a gray area in the law,” said Thomas Brown, a former federal prosecutor in the Southern District of New York who handled cases involving the use of hacking techniques. “It’s another instance where you’ve got technology outstripping the law.”

Fieman also said that rules established by the federal courts, grounded in constitutional principles, require that a warrant be deployed in the district in which it is issued — in this case, the Eastern District of Virginia. Michaud’s computer was in Vancouver.

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