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God fucking damn it
If this Julie Amero case ends up in a conviction, then I cast my vote of no confidence in the entire American judicial system. Fucking seriously.
If you aren't familiar with the case, google it, check wikipedia, or read a couple of the following links:
Porn pop up teacher gets new attorney, PC World outs juror
Police, school get failing grade in sad case of Julie Amaro
This is bullshit. This one case is worse by far than every RIAA suit. A woman could go to jail for FORTY FUCKING YEARS for not turning off a monitor, for using IE 6 and Windows 98, and not, god forbid, exposing children to thumbnail-sized pornographic images.
I'm not even going to go into the sex insanity in this country. It makes me fucking sick. DRM drives me nuts, and I would gladly trade permanently crippled music and movies for reform in sex law.
But the point is something far more insidious. The technologically ignorant are in charge of law enforcement, and serve as judge and jury. The same people who would make this mistake are the ones condemning someone for doing so. This isn't about IP addresses and screenshots being used as evidence, this about 40 years of federal, pound-me-in-the-ass prison. For pop-ups.
Go to Julie Amero's web site. Donate to her legal fund. I did. Contact everyone on the references list and tell them they need to stop this madness.
If one innocent person is convicted, just one, the entire concept of the American judicial system is forfeit.
If you aren't familiar with the case, google it, check wikipedia, or read a couple of the following links:
Porn pop up teacher gets new attorney, PC World outs juror
Police, school get failing grade in sad case of Julie Amaro
This is bullshit. This one case is worse by far than every RIAA suit. A woman could go to jail for FORTY FUCKING YEARS for not turning off a monitor, for using IE 6 and Windows 98, and not, god forbid, exposing children to thumbnail-sized pornographic images.
I'm not even going to go into the sex insanity in this country. It makes me fucking sick. DRM drives me nuts, and I would gladly trade permanently crippled music and movies for reform in sex law.
But the point is something far more insidious. The technologically ignorant are in charge of law enforcement, and serve as judge and jury. The same people who would make this mistake are the ones condemning someone for doing so. This isn't about IP addresses and screenshots being used as evidence, this about 40 years of federal, pound-me-in-the-ass prison. For pop-ups.
Go to Julie Amero's web site. Donate to her legal fund. I did. Contact everyone on the references list and tell them they need to stop this madness.
If one innocent person is convicted, just one, the entire concept of the American judicial system is forfeit.
Comments
Her hope now --- assuming the media reports are more or less true --- is for some appeals court to be smarter than the schmoes in that bit of Connecticut. Failing that, the judge may decide to be sensible.
I personally would not rate what she is alleged to have done as felony-worthy. If she had done what the powers that be allege, canning her would be appropriate. A felony conviction with possible jail time is overkill.
This is why I --- a father --- have to fight the urge to urinate on anyone who says we should do the latest idiotic thing "for the sake of the children". If it leads to stuff like this, fuck the children, sez I.
Cheers,
Hank
Julie Amero's case makes me very sad. I'll definitely donate and contact those people on the reference list.
But it also needs judges, legislators, and a general public who understand that mysterious force which binds everything in the modern world. 100 years ago, every house was heated by coal in a stove, delivered by men in the back alley and mined from the earth. Everyone understood this. If you said "hey, my stove stopped working" and the answer was "did you light the coal?" you weren't "coal-illiterate"...you were fucking stupid. If your entire civilization depends on a technology, you can't afford not to understand it.
Computer literacy should be considered every bit as important as literacy itself. Everyone in the industrialized world who sits at a desk uses a computer. Even factory workers use computing and IT every minute in their work--assembly lines aren't powered by superintelligent hamsters. If your chair at work breaks, you've at least got a clue how to fix it, or how to replace it. Why should your computer be this strange, mystical thing?
If you take politics and law as an example, apparently the overwhelming majority of people think it's possible to "filter" pornography and other objectionable content automatically. These same people have filters on their e-mail, yet they get a half-dozen spams a day anyway. They realize that spam filters aren't perfect...but porn filters have to be? Never mind that there isn't a shred of evidence that pornography has any harmful effect on children whatsoever; it's pure moralism, with no more scientific merit than the Salem witch trials.
Technology law is probably the least well-enforced and well-judged area in American law. Patent trolls can steal billions from corporations (read: you), the RIAA can sue old ladies and dead people, and teachers can go to jail for using IE. There really is a serious need for reform, and a strive for 100% computer literacy in the entire industrialized world.
We've got to set up some sort of foundation for the promotion of computer literacy. This shit has to end.
Wait wait wait the "whims of these computers"? When did computers begin to assert a level of sentience that allowed them to subjugate humanity? Where is this intelligence when I play RTS games against the computer?
Wait wait wait the "whims of these computers"? When did computers begin to assert a level of sentience that allowed them to subjugate humanity? Where is this intelligence when I play RTS games against the computer?
It's all a ploy. They're just trying to fool you into a false sense of security, so that when the revolution comes, you'll be an easier target.
Ridiculous.
Yes, the result of the first trial was a horrible miscarriage of justice, but this result shows that the system can sometimes work.
I've never seen a defendant granted a new trial by the trial judge. It's not uncommon for a case to be reversed and remanded for new trial by an appellate court, but it's very unusual for a trial judge to grant a new trial at sentencing - even more unusual for the prosecutor to stay silent and not object.
Another thing - she was in custody before yesterday. Can you imagine actually sitting in custody waiting to be sentenced in this case? It would have been a nightmare.
*Edit* I guess this is the universe restoring "balance". I just heard on the radio that Paris Hilton has already been released. - proof that if a person is a celebrity or has enough money, they're effectively above the law.
I'm not really feeling frisky enough for flaming, but I would opine that journalists don't have much room to talk. Neither of our professions are held in very high esteem and that's because people in both our professions have not behaved very professionally.
My point was that she is kinda getting a raw deal re: what she did versus how much time she's been given.