Michael Fortino
Ars Technica via the Consumerist:
a man in Arkansas has just been sentenced to 135 months in jail and a $10,000 fine after a Best Buy tech found child porn on the man’s hard drive.
Michael Fortino, an “author, speaker, and media personality,” found himself in Fayetteville, Arkansas, on a business trip, and he took his laptop to a local Best Buy for repair. A Geek Squad tech there found child porn pics on the PC and contacted the police, who obtained a search warrant and examined the PC.
Because Fortino traveled across state lines with his laptop, he was accused of interstate trafficking in child porn and faced federal charges. Fortino pleaded guilty earlier this year, and his sentence was handed down yesterday.
I’m all for putting this guy in jail, but charging him with porn trafficking? Come on…
Best to have a good trusted friend maintain your computer .
Best to stay away from eyeball chat and the nice women there
Don’t take your computer to big box stores for treatment of bouts of spyware and malware
3. “Best to have a good trusted friend maintain your computer. Best to stay away from eyeball chat and the nice women there Don’t take your computer to big box stores for treatment of bouts of spyware and malware “
Or you could simply not have any child porn on your computer. But I guess that’s too difficult for some people.
#3 Too right!
Cheers
AGREED,
BUT,
For those with a strange habit,
It is best to have 1 DIR, that can be erase’d IF’ your machine has to go public.
You can excuse STUFF that has been sent to a Internet temp DIR, but anywhere ELSE…NEVER.
Many years ago Geraldo Rivera did a TV special on child pornography. On the last segment he showed an actual video where a young naked child was riding an adult man on a massage table. Her top and the intercourse part were censored. I’ll never forget the look on that child’s face– the pure evil that was happening to that girl was unspeakable.
This is right on the edge for me. Mere possession? Stuff from the internets? This could be anything from 1000’s of hard core to a few photos of casual mild interest while surfing?
Absent more facts, seems to me anything more than a misdemeanor charge and probation is excessive.
No need to wonder why GOUSA has more people in prison THAN ANY OTHER COUNTRY!! and its not anti-crime, its puritan fundamentalist religion at work and the repugs using this base to get elected.
Freedom?
My question is this…
The man was from Arkansas… the incident happened in Florida… BUT, the “bug” in the lower right hand corner has shows WTAE (which is the ABC affiliate in Pittsburgh). What is the Pittsburgh connection?
As much as I’m against child porn, why was Best buy looking at the content of his HD. I’ve repaired lots of computers, and I’ve never had to screen somebody’s JPGs to do it.
#8″What is the Pittsburgh connection?”
SN probably used google for “Michael Fortino” and used the pic found there? (it comes first in a google image search anyway)
I imagine it was considered news worthy, so that station covered it.
Child porn is not something to be caught with. Unless it was a considerable amount though, eleven years is excessive.
See what happens when you wear Hawaiian print shirts?
It’s simple really. The guy was a complete idiot. If you have something illegal on your computer, encrypt it or password hide it before taking your computer in for repair.
No one complaining about the law itself huh?
The rationale here that defeats the free speech argument is that the distribution of child porn “encourages” the production of child porn which puts the kiddies at risk. I agree–but that argument doesn’t work for pics downloaded for free off the internets.
So, here we have a tax paying otherwise law following American in jail now an expense to all the rest of us and for what?
Only a small matter of degree between kiddie porn and half the headers right here at DU?
“The priests in black gowns, were making their rounds, and binding with briars, my joys and desires.” Not about kiddie porn, but rather denying whatever it is that brings someone happiness, instead of submission to (religious) authority.
Here in GOUSA.the religious right can’t get their dogma enforced directly, so they wrap it in kiddie protection and get it that way.
Freedom?
#3
rarely am I impressed, jerk-face, with your harsh attempts at sarcasm, but today..I salute you!
This wasn’t a picture cashed by a chat client, or something in his web cash from a popup. The best buy kid found a folder full of kiddie porn jpegs.
14. “The rationale here that defeats the free speech argument is that the distribution of child porn “encourages” the production of child porn”
Not really. Child porn is illegal because kids are being harmed in its production. Fake child porn is legal because no real kids are actually being harmed.
it’s the same with snuff films. They’re illegal because someone has to be murdered to make the film.
The state has a strong interest to protect children from actual harm and to stop murders.
Thus, it simply doesn’t matter whether you bought the child porn in a magazine or downloaded it from the internet. Because regardless of where it came from, actual children were harmed in the process.
16–I’m making the distinction that the harm comes when producer A sells his product to Buyer B. When B puts the porn on the internet and Downloader C comes across it and copies it FOR FREE, I don’t see the feedback loop to Producer A being made.
Anti Snuff Films?–Same argument with less force as being murdered certainly is harmful whereas child porn may and may not be harmful to the kiddies.
Just a matter of priorities. I have searched .jpg .gif .bit and moved ALL pics off my puter. Good back up anyway. The only questionable pics I saw were of Bush.
17–Sorry==YES the harm comes from Producer A actually making the porn. His motive in doing so is selling it to B. THAT is a an extended but still legitimate linkage. Carrying it to C I think is a bit far.
Same argument was made about child looking adults making the same pictures but the court didn’t take it that far. Kiddie Porn with adult or cartoon characters is legal. Splitting hairs if the rationale was actually “solid!”
Wanna screw someone’s life up totally?
Copy kiddie porn into their computer without them knowing it.
Hate your boss? How about that ahole in your class? Maybe setup your husband for a divorce?
The wife, or the kids, or the IT department or the Best Buy employee may eventually find it, and off you go to jail…. even if you didn’t put it there.
You did it, it was traced to your computer. Just like all that music on your computer, it is all probably pirated!
Given the reputation of Best Buy employees and their “Geek Squad”… I put no faith in their behavior.
Now, if the guy had actually been trafficking in kiddie porn and caught red handed, it would be different. But he was not trafficking.
I don’t care about the pros and cons of child porn. What bothers me about this story is that the Geek Squad is being applauded for improperly searching a customer’s hard drive and then informing on the customer. They should never have looked at those pictures in the first place. (I don’t care what the fine print says in their service agreement.) When informing on fellow citizens is encouraged and rewarded by the government, our society begins to resemble Stalinist Russia in the 1930s.
I have a tough time with the trafficking charge, – that seems pretty bogus. Maybe they had sufficient reason to believe he was involved in trafficking and just couldn’t pin it on him any other way.
Something is missing here. Seems like his lawyer did a pretty crappy job defending him, – unless the pics were the tip of the iceberg. We only know part of the story.
I wonder if anyone checked the best buy service guy’s system?????
In most cases the regional FBI computer forensics lab is involved in these situations. http://www.rcfl.gov. They don’t mess around with “maybe she’s 17” cases. The stuff they see is brutal, and it only exists because there is an audience.
Bobbo said: child porn may and may not be harmful to the kiddies.
You, sir, are a fucking idiot.
Question : What do you think Best Buy’s business is ?
A store to sell electronics ?
Wrong
Best Buy is a factory to sell extended “warranties ” of dubious value
The Geek Squad tech has done a real good job of promoting Best Buy’s level of service for extended warranty repairs
The joke would be if this poor fellow took in his laptop for repairs under the extended service plan coverage
Talk about the ultimate big box store non coverage of extended warranties
23–Baggins, I would never do that to you.
What some people call porn, others call baby pictures. Its why its called a fetish. Often too difficult to make such analysis, so condemn it all.
And with lack of insight/appreciation for the variables/ thats how such intrusive rules are made and then over applied.
Right now, mere possession gets you 11 years. You have to assume alot of facts not in the record before such a sentence is justified at all besides your own prejudices and fears.
Is the guy a ringleader in child porn and they can’t get him directly on that, so they go this way? Ok, maybe. But those facts aren’t presented. Are there alot of pictures that are really gross with the kiddies being horribly mistreated. Ok, maybe. But those facts aren’t presented.
Porn of underage kiddies. Mere possession. 11 years. – – On those facts alone, the only ones we have, Not appropriate in my book.
“Americans like Michael Fortino are a role model for future generations”
-President George Bush Senior
#25 – He was arrested for PORN; not baby pictures, and yes, there is a difference. Also, notice that he pleaded guilty, which indicates that he was a willing party and knew full well what was going on with his computer – open and shut case.
“You have to assume alot of facts not in the record before such a sentence is justified at all besides your own prejudices and fears.”
…it’s not my fears; it’s my concern for every innocent child that this perv is now NOT going to be molesting for the next 135 months; maybe a few kids of your own would change your thoughts on this subject
I’ve worked on a lot of computers for friends, co-workers, etc. – it’s pretty scary what you can find / see without even snooping. People are pretty stupid with regards to their computers.
You got child port on your hard drive, you deserve what you get.
Putz. That’ll teach him to not back up data on rewriteable DVD or CD and wipe the files before a perfect stranger has access to his hard drive. Did he really think no one would go snooping? People are far nosier than you can imagine.
Alright, let’s just cut straight to the point:
The guy was a stupid idiot.
If you’re going to have shit like kiddie porn on your computer, it’s best to keep it on an external drive.
If you want to jack off on the go a $100 4GB stick drive roughly the length of his harden penis wouldn’t have even put a dent in this guy’s wallet if he was such a “Media personality”
A good copy of KeePass for the stick drive wouldn’t have hurt either, it can be found free from portableapps.com.
So there; Ways not to get busted with pr0n.
Oh, and FYI, I look down on this kind of stuff too, nor do I look at any of that disgusting shit on the web. Still good advice to keep our stupid inmate population low.