In a rather disturbing and unexpected move, the FBI dropped its prosecution of a man accused of λήψη of child sexual abuse photos, so as not to reveal details of how they came to his attention.
Jay Michaud, a Washington-based teacher from Vancouver, was arrested in July last year after his visit to Playpen, a dark web web site for tens of thousands of perverts who use it to exchange pictures and porn videos and abuse of minors.
Unknowingly at the time of his visit, the FBI was for about a fortnight, the site administrator, when he managed to access the servers he was using.
Με αυτό τον τρόπο οι ομοσπονδιακοί κατάφεραν να εγκαταστήσουν μια διερευνητική τεχνική δικτύου ή ένα network investigative technique (NIT) που τους βοήθησε να βρίσκουν πραγματικές IP και διευθύνσεις MAC. Για όσους δεν γνωρίζουν το Playpen ήταν κρυμμένο στο ανώνυμο δίκτυο Tor, και το spyware ήταν αναγκαίο για να ξεσκεπάσει τους υπόπτους (περίπου 1.300 διευθύνσεις IP συλλέχθηκαν κατά τη duration of operation of server from the FBI).
According to the prosecutor's office, a police raid at the actor's house revealed too many photos and videos of child sexual abuse on his computers. But guilty or not, it does not matter why the FBI filed an application to stop the prosecution [PDF] at the end of the previous month.
Why
Because Michaud's attorney was persistently asking the FBI for a sample of the NIT code he used to review to ensure he did not violate the terms of the warrant the FBI used to installation of malware.
US District Judge Robert Bryan agreed, saying that if the prosecution did not show the code, it would have to reject the charges.
The Playpen case has proven to be a legal minefield in more than one way. For starters, the assumption that the same FBI for 15 days at least shared images and videos of child abuse had troubled many.
Continuing the service requested only one warrant for the distribution of NIT spyware worldwide, which was illegal at the time.
This is no longer the case since the change to Article 41 of the Federal Criminal Procedure Code approving such international warrants entered into force on December 1 of the previous year.
And in the past the FBI has stopped prosecution to uncover their research techniques, particularly with Stingray mobile tracking equipment. However, the cases were minimal and were not as severe as cases of child sexual abuse.
