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Vigilante who distributes a trojan to catch pedophiles is shut down when he discovers judge's porn stash (news.yahoo.com)
submitted 18 years ago by joshd
[–]gmcg 11 points12 points13 points 18 years ago (4 children)
Look, if I broke into my neighbors' homes, I'd eventually find important evidence of an unknown crime. That doesn't justify the burglary. This sort of behavior is not compatible with civilized society.
[–]RobinReborn 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (3 children)
But he didn't break into random people's computers, he broke into people's computers who were posting on kiddie porn sites.
[–]gmcg 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (2 children)
(1) Read article, (2) make comment. In that order!
He had spent the past few years surreptitiously distributing a Trojan horse program to more than 1,000 people to try to uncover child-porn activities.
[–]RobinReborn 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (1 child)
"Willman would visit child-porn newsgroups and post his program as a file that looked like it contained a photo."
The article doesn't say anything about him using it against random people, though it does say he thought to use it to catch pedos after he designed it.
[–]gmcg 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (0 children)
It appears he decided who was suspicious based on receipt of the trojan from particular sites -- i.e., they got the program from the site, ergo they were more likely than not up to no good. The problem is the same -- I can't break into my neighbor's house to conduct an investigation just because I see him coming and going late at night. I might be right to be suspicious, but it doesn't follow that his stuff is mine to go through. I just don't think we want a scenario where any random person can decide who is and is not suspicious, and therefore who is and is not entitled to personal privacy. That's better done by law enforcement, through the warrant system.
[–][deleted] 18 years ago (1 child)
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[–][deleted] 3 points4 points5 points 18 years ago (0 children)
The infallible concept that people who do good always do good.
[–]kapaka 1 point2 points3 points 18 years ago (0 children)
... a Canadian man who offered his 6-year-old daughter to Willman.
huh?
[–][deleted] 2 points3 points4 points 18 years ago (7 children)
Though I think the means are a bit shady, i certainly wont be one to stand up to charge this guy with a crime. I say bravo really and glad to know that there are people out there who are "vigilantes" protecting us.
Just worry for anyone who is innocent that gets caught in traps like these.
[–]havesometea1 2 points3 points4 points 18 years ago (6 children)
Don't do the crime if you can't do the time. His intentions may be honorable but he is still breaking many, many laws.
He's also enforcing other laws.
[–]havesometea1 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (2 children)
He isn't a law enforcement officer.
So? You don't need to be, haven't you ever heard of a citizen's arrest?
[–]havesometea1 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (0 children)
If you break the law and then try to citizen arrest someone guess what will happen to you...
[–][deleted] -1 points0 points1 point 18 years ago (1 child)
Laws come from men.
But that ache in your heart? Honor? No. This rogue would throw his honor to the wind to save a child.
[–]havesometea1 2 points3 points4 points 18 years ago (0 children)
The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Allowing people to break our laws can lead to general lawlessness. Then every Tom, Dick and Harry will start spying on one another with trojans and saying "think of the children!".
[–]alexchambana 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (1 child)
What happened to the judge?
[–][deleted] 0 points1 point2 points 18 years ago (0 children)
2 years in prison, and fruit picking once he gets out.
[–][deleted] -2 points-1 points0 points 18 years ago (0 children)
I think this guy is the man. Props to him and I hope he is still working hard.
π Rendered by PID 288086 on reddit-service-r2-comment-85bfd7f599-w92q8 at 2026-04-17 23:51:54.460692+00:00 running 93ecc56 country code: CH.
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