Re: PGP in Fidonet

[Mike Godwin <mnemonic@eff.org>]

Doug writes:

> Some time back (maybe quite a long time ago, I forget) I heard rumors
> that a BBS that someone had uploaded child porn or some such to,
> without the sysop's knowledge, resulted in the sysop's arrest. Was that
> merely a rumor?
> 
> Or is that a different category than the mail traffic you're commenting on?

Uploading a GIF to a BBS is definitely a different issue from those raised
by ECPA, which has to do with electronic mail. For one thing, presumably
an uploaded GIF is not a private message, so there's no reason for the
sysop or anyone else not to look at it.

In a child-porn case, the sysop may be arrested, but his criminal
liability will likely depend on whether he knows about the image and his
knowledge can be proved to a jury beyond a reasonable doubt.

Nothing I have written here should be construed as telling sysops they
can't look at a) public files on their systems, and b) private files on
their systems that aren't communications.


--Mike