Updated/corrected posting

[hkhenson@cup.portal.com]

About two years ago I helped a guy from Milpitias (just north of San 
Jose) deal with a BBS bust at what he described as a "light" porn BBS. 
The San Jose cops realized shortly that they had really goofed by not 
considering the ECPA and related laws in their search & seizure.  The 
result was that they gave his system back after five weeks, and stated 
in a written release that this guy's activities were within the scope 
of the law.  The BBS is called Amateur Action, and the sysop's name is 
Robert Thomas (408-263-1079).  Robert's lawyer, Richard Williams's 
phone number is 408-295-6336.

Last night about 8 pm, Robert (who I have yet to meet in person) 
called.  A search warrant was being served at that very moment by the 
US Postal Inspectors, who (with the help of San Jose cops) were 
packing up his equipment and carting it out--again.  Robert managed to 
get one of these inspectors on the phone with me.  This inspector 
seemed to be rather knowledgeable of such things as the ECPA, 2000aa, 
and the Steve Jackson case.  He stated he was completely unconcerned 
about their lack of warrants for email!  He piously stated that, 
because it was their intent to bring the system back within a "few 
days" and, as a result of the short interruption of user access, and 
their good intent "not to look at private email," they were completely 
safe from the provisions of the ECPA.  This postal inspector gave his 
name as David Dirmeyer, from Tennessee (does this sound like Bible Belt 
prosecution for pron?) and gave me the name of the US Attorney he was 
working under, one Dan Newson with a phone of 901-544-4231 in TN 
(though he stated that the phone # would be of no use because Dan was 
at a conference for a week).  

For what it is worth, the postal inspector said they were using the 
San Jose cops on the bust because they did not have the expertise 
themselves to move the system and make copies.  According to the 
investigator, they did not know that they could get a court order to 
have a backup of the system made on the spot.  It may be that Robert 
is the target.  (In spite of not meeting him, I suspect Richard may be 
the kind of smart alec who attracts the attention of cops.) 

Robert said there was a mystery package which came today in the mail 
today (which his son and wife picked up and she opened).  The package 
turned out to be real honest-to-gosh kiddy porn.  

Robert claims not to have ordered it, and considering that his wife 
picked the (unexpected) package up and opened it, I think this is the 
actual case.  Robert was busy with system problems that afternoon and 
had not gotten around to doing anything about the stuff.  The guy who 
sent it is known as "Lance White," who Robert thinks is one of his BBS 
members. (As is postal inspector Dirmeyer.)  They had Robert pull all 
postal correspondence with this guy (video porn orders) from his files 
and took it with them. 

Robert thinks the postal folks may be after this guy, and his BBS just 
got caught in the middle.  An interesting side point is that while they 
asked for the package which came that day when they came in, they did 
not have a warrant for it, and said they would have drive over to SF 
to get one unless he volunteered to give it up.  Robert signed off that 
they could take it, and they did.  He noted this morning that the 
original warrant he has was neither signed nor dated, though a judge's 
name was typed in. 

I don't know if this is something of marginal concern to those of us 
concerned with government abuse of people's computers and 
communications or a major concern.  I intend to find out more, but if 
the ECPA is applicable, this guy had about 3500 users, over 2k pieces 
of protected email on his system, plus (I think) agreements with his 
uses for him to represent them in an ECPA related legal action--two 
million dollars if I am multiplying right.  (My "Warning to Law 
Enforcement Agents" was part of his signup screens.) 

Question for Mike Godwin.  One aspect of this case gives me the shakes. 
*Anyone* with a grudge (and access to this kind of stuff) can send you 
a package in the mail and tip off the postal inspectors.  Short of the 
obvious (don't make enemies!) how can you protect yourself from this 
kind of attack?

My non-lawyer thoughts:

              Burn it at once! 
              Call my lawyer.
              Call the cops.

For a while this will be a very serious problem, because *any* of us 
with readily available morfing tools can make (what looks like) kiddy 
porn out of legal porn.

Keith Henson 
408-972-1132 
hkhenson@cup.portal.com