Even if you didn’t put it there! – How bad can things get? A computer virus can place porn on your computer without your knowing it, and if the police search your computer, as happened to a couple recently, they could arrest you for having child pornography.
This could be done by someone looking for a place to “stash” nasty photos (where he can retrieve them later) or by someone playing a particularly unpleasant joke. Security expert Jeremiah Grossman says, “Just because it’s there doesn’t mean the person intended for it to be there, whatever it is, child porn included.”
When a government worker who was being investigated by his boss for other reasons, having nothing to do with pornography, had his state-issued laptop confiscated, a technician found huge amounts of child porn. His boss had become suspicious because his internet bill was over 4 times higher than that of his co-workers. After he and his wife were put through a harrowing legal battle, they were finally exonerated, after nearly a year of misery.
Physorg.com quotes federal prosecutor James Anderson as saying, “We call it the SODDI defense: Some Other Dude Did It.”
While police tend to be skeptical about this excuse, not everyone is: Cyberlaw expert Phil Malone says, “It’s an example of the old ‘dog ate my homework’ excuse. The problem is, sometimes the dog DOES eat your homework.”
At least you can’t be arrested for searching for UFOs (we take that back!)
Art credit: Dreamstime.com
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