--- Earle Beason <Earle-Beason@kc.rr.com> wrote:

I disagree, I had more interactions with convicts then most, and I disagree with the thought our laws our fair and unbiased.

The main difficulty here is that the only people legally allowed to decide what is or is not compliance with the law are the police (their discretion) and the courts (their judgement). So what we think about the law is largely irrelevant...unless we can convince a police officer or judge otherwise. If we're prepared to wait a bit, we can also try to convince a legislator to change the law itself.

I think this is perfectly acceptable solution for the dilemma at hand. It is not violating the parole restrictions, “monitor the use of the Internet,” as long as this condition is met, the parole restrictions are met

Having considered the method a bit longer, and also taking into account all your additional suggestions, I have come to the conclusion that, absent Linux monitoring software, forcing him to use Windows for the duration of his probation is quite likely the most enforceable option for the court and his probation officer, and the best option for him as well. On the court and probation officer side, while sk0t can show the probation officer A only links to C through B, anyone who has ever hooked up cable to a TV through a VCR/DVD Recorder knows perfectly well that prior to the recorder the cable directly connected just fine to the TV. As soon as the probation officer departs, the Cat5 cable from the Linux box miraculously connects itself directly to the Internet cable box, and the monitoring software is bypassed completely. So the courts and the probation officer have no real incentive to allow him to use Linux behind Windows to connect to his Internet. Sk0t himself has two problems: first, that Windows monitoring software most definitely "calls home" to its human monitors on a very regular basis; and second, he is in school and has to use the Internet as a requirement of his education. If the monitoring software reports back "no use of Internet", while his college instructors report back "excessive use of Internet", off he goes to prison. So any bypassing of the monitoring software will be recorded, even if he doesn't get punished right away. Violation of parole is an offense in and of itself and can result in additional jail time. Internet cafes most likely constitute a violation of parole as well, since he is bypassing his monitoring software. Frankly, probation is only five months. Jail time for violating parole is going to be more than five months. Do the parole and then wash your hands and go back to Linux.

Now, because circumvention of the monitoring software is so easy, I will have to say the judge and prosecutor are ignorant to computer tech. Every user here should know that Microsoft Windows can be bypassed with a LIVE CD, and Internet access may be gained.

You can also get a “Free Internet” disk for dial up from AOL, Kmart, net zero and other companies, with spare hard drive and prepaid phone line.

There are hundreds of ways to defeat such an order; the judge/prosecutor is crazy to think this is something they can really enforce.

I suspect that whether or not they think it will be easy to enforce, they will still put him back in prison if they catch him "easily defeating their orders."

What they should have done was place a filter in with his IP provider and mandated that he keep the same provider, and inform the parole office before he changes IP providers. I have seen a filter of this sort, it tracked everywhere I went and kept a copy of everything I downloaded.

Didn't you just say that he could easily get Internet from another source and thus bypass this filter? I'm certain that the law enforcement organizations know about disposable prepaid Internet, just as they know about disposable prepaid wireless phones, and both are known to the police for about the same reasons.

--- Jonathan Hutchins <hutchins@tarcanfel.org> wrote:

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On Monday 27 August 2007 07:39:17 am Leo Mauler wrote:

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He could put up a Windows box with the tracking software, share its Internet out over a local network, and use Ubuntu on a second computer that gets all its Internet from the Windows computer.

I'm glad so many of you have never known or been involved with someone who has served time and is on probation. Even -thinking- about ways to evade and avoid the intent of your restrictions is a bad idea. It puts you in entirely the wrong frame of mind to complete the probation successfully.

The object is not to comply with the letter of the terms and blatantly violate them at the same time. the object is to do EXACTLY what is expected and requested of you, because the ONLY alternative is to return to prison and serve the remainder of your sentence.

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On Tuesday 28 August 2007, Earle Beason wrote:

Yes, I am the guy who advocate better right for convicts/felons/ and other "undesirables"

Convicts/felons gave up their rights the moment they committed the crime (obviously depending on severity, intention, and such). That said, I'd like to know when copyright infringement became an actual crime... regardless of whether or not it should be illegal at all, does anyone seriously think it should be a criminal act like murder and rape?