Evading Punishment

[Leo Mauler]

--- Earle Beason <Earle-Beason at 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 at tarcanfel.org>
> wrote:
> 
> >>On Monday 27 August 2007 07:39:17 am Leo Mauler
> >>wrote:
> >>
> >>>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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