They want to put this women away for 40 years of her life for something...

[naum]

....they can't prove.

http://www.norwichbulletin.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070106/NEWS01/701060312

Oct. 19, 2004, while substituting for a seventh-grade language class at Kelly Middle School, Amero claimed she could not control the graphic images appearing in an endless cycle on her computer.

"The pop-ups never went away," Amero testified. "They were continuous."

The Web sites, which police proved were accessed while Amero was in the classroom, were seen by as many as 10 minor students. Several of the students testified during the three-day trial in Norwich Superior Court to seeing images of naked men and women.

Computer expert W. Herbert Horner, testifying in Amero's defense, said he found spyware on the computer and an innocent hair styling Web site "that led to this pornographic loop that was out of control."

"If you try to get out of it, you're trapped," Horner said.

But Smith countered Horner's testimony with that of Norwich Police Detective Mark Lounsbury, a computer crimes investigator. On a projected image of the list of Web sites visited while Amero was working, Lounsbury pointed out several highlighted links.

"You have to physically click on it to get to those sites," Smith said. "I think the evidence is overwhelming that she did intend to access those Web sites."

Among the sites Amero visited were meetlovers.com and femalesexual.com, along with others with more graphic names.

Defense attorney John Cocheo moved for a mistrial shortly before closing arguments Friday, based on reports jurors had discussed the case while eating lunch at the Harp and Dragon. Each of the jurors denied the allegation under questioning by Judge Hillary Strackbein and the motion was denied.

Max 40 year sentence for spyware infestation... ...friends don't let friends use Windows...

Even Computerworld editors are not immune to gross stupidity, supporting this miscarriage of justice:
http://www.computerworld.com/blogs/node/4346

[Strazos]

What a joke. None of these people has ever encountered spyware? Geez.

[geldonyetich]

Every once in awhile when I was doing the hell desk job I'd get a call from some poor granny or another who ran into one of those annoying loops.  They hijack the home page or even end up on the start menu and basically make sure the computer is blaring porn no matter how many x's you click.  If you're the least bit computer savvy you can usually put them down with Alt-F4.  But, sadly, not everybody is the least bit computer savvy.

[Krakrok]

On a projected image of the list of Web sites visited while Amero was working, Lounsbury pointed out several highlighted links.
"You have to physically click on it to get to those sites," Smith said. "I think the evidence is overwhelming that she did intend to access those Web sites."

Because you know.. no one has ever mistakenly clicked a link under a window you were trying to close that was poping up and moving around.

[Etro]

What a joke. None of these people has ever encountered spyware? Geez.

Guess the network admins hadn't ever, would have thought there would be a walled garden of sorts for a school network.

However for some reason this reminds me of the terrible deed of winding up people with installing Mac OS on their PC

[Trippy]

If I was Microsoft I would be hiring the best appeals lawyers I possibly could for that woman.

[Signe]

This has happened to me several times when I accidentally found myself browsing pirate software sites.  My course of action is to scream for my husband and lock myself in the bathroom until it's all over. 

[Calantus]

She handled it poorly if the children got to see it. The second one of those popped up the computer should have been removed from the reach of children until some techie cleaned up the system. She also shouldn't have been browsing anything even remotely likely to do that sort of thing to a school computer. I'd say she definately needs a slap upside the head and to be dealt with by the board of education, or whatever you guys have there, but jail time (and even firing) is way excessive.

[Cheddar]

Politics.

[Yoru]

Politics.

The people have a choice. They can choose victory; they can choose to make jokes about inept computer users or something.

Or the turrists can win and it'll get sent to Politics.

[Jeff Kelly]

She handled it poorly if the children got to see it. The second one of those popped up the computer should have been removed from the reach of children until some techie cleaned up the system. She also shouldn't have been browsing anything even remotely likely to do that sort of thing to a school computer. I'd say she definately needs a slap upside the head and to be dealt with by the board of education, or whatever you guys have there, but jail time (and even firing) is way excessive.

If these children are anything like those we have over here than the probability is high that some hormone laden 12 year old boy has moved to those sites while the teacher wasn't looking.

A friend of mine who does computer education in a german school has the computers so severely locked down because of that. Not because childre could be accidentally exposed to porn otherwise but so that they cannot surf to those sites out of their own accord. And we are talking about 11 or 12 year old boys.

That verdict is totally of the mark.

That most people are so computer illiterate as to not know what to to do when that happens ios normal and every tech support guy already knows that.

Also 40 years in prison for "risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child."? WTF? That is inane. The US has crossed the line from sensible legislation to utter stupidity when sex and protection of minors is concerned.

[lamaros]

HAha the world is fucked up.

I changed all the default web pages of our school PCs to porn sites one day when I was bored in our "library" class. I sure as help no one got fired for that.

Stupid puritans.

[Calantus]

Yeah we used to set the desktop background to porn all the time. One time I remember someone had set the desktop background as some bestiality picture. Fun times. I just assumed they had used the timing of when the surfing of those sites had occured to pin it exactly on the teacher. If not... that's fucking stupid. I guess I should not be surprised though.

[CmdrSlack]

Also 40 years in prison for "risk of injury to a minor, or impairing the morals of a child."? WTF? That is inane. The US has crossed the line from sensible legislation to utter stupidity when sex and protection of minors is concerned.

Actually, it's not because of the "content" of the crimes so much as it is because she was convicted of four felonies.  Felonies are punishable by (at minimum) 1year+ incarceration -- oh, and fines, but usually incarceration.  It's also worth noting that 40 years would be the maximum penalty, not the required penalty.

ETA -- I have been digging around in the Connecticut statutes.  If the article is accurate, four class C felonies could result in her spending one to ten years in prison for each.  If they ran the sentences consecutively, that'd be "up to 40 years in prison."

HAha the world is fucked up.

I changed all the default web pages of our school PCs to porn sites one day when I was bored in our "library" class. I sure as help no one got fired for that.

Stupid puritans.

Translated:  "Unf. Unf. Unf.  I am so l33t and was super cool when I was in high school.  And by, 'when I was,' I mean yesterday, at noon."

[Llava]

So she may have intentionally been looking at porn, but accidentally ended up showing it to students.

If that's the case, she should be fired but certainly not jailed.  If these kids are 10 or older, big fucking deal, they're in sex ed already.

[SurfD]

I for one, would like to know a bit more about the circumstances which ended up with here "exposing" the kids to the porn.

Why was she browsing the computer?
Why were the kids watching?

Was she attempting to show them something completely innocent, like the aformentioned Hairstyling website, and got cought in a popup loop?

Was she just browsing on her own time while the kids worked on something?

I can just picture the prosecution trying to paint her as some deviant, with shifty looks, going "hey kids, wanna see something neat",  meanwhile, in all probability, she was going out of her mind trying to kill the damn popups while the kids stared on in fascination at what had their sub all freaking out.

I myself have been cought in popup loops of varous types from time to time, either the ones that open litterally hundereds of popups at the same time, or the ones that open 2 windows for every one you manage to kill.  She may have been far to shocked at what was going on to manage to coherently consider just pulling the plug, or killing the monitor or something.

[Strazos]

It can be funny to try to race the popup programs with Alt-F4 - Can you close more windows than the devious spyware can open?

[Abagadro]

Weird case. But as pointed out above, the 40 years is a stretch. Even if convicted of all, she is likely to get 4 counts of 1-10 running concurrently.  Depending on whether they have a "no probation for felonies" policy in CT, she will likely just get probation or serve something like 7 months in jail.

[naum]

Weird case. But as pointed out above, the 40 years is a stretch. Even if convicted of all, she is likely to get 4 counts of 1-10 running concurrently.  Depending on whether they have a "no probation for felonies" policy in CT, she will likely just get probation or serve something like 7 months in jail.

Which is still absolutely absurd — any jail time for this women whatsoever. Even dismissal from her job is questionable (i.e., not knowing from what has been reported if she did use school equipment in violation of established edict)…

[Strazos]

She should just lose her job, at most.

[lamaros]

HAha the world is fucked up.

I changed all the default web pages of our school PCs to porn sites one day when I was bored in our "library" class. I sure as help no one got fired for that.

Stupid puritans.

Translated:  "Unf. Unf. Unf.  I am so l33t and was super cool when I was in high school.  And by, 'when I was,' I mean yesterday, at noon."

Humor?

And by, "Humor?", I mean Humor...

[Azazel]

The thing I really don't get about this story, is why she didn't just do what I would do - press the power button/switch it off at the wall/yank the cord, and go right to the principal and tell them WTF happened. Yes, the principal first before whoever does the school's tech, because covering your own arse to authority/your superiors takes priority over a shitty school PC.

The "ZOMG it won't stop and I'm too stupid to turn the monitor off in front of the kids" argument just seems a bit.. broken.

[Jeff Kelly]

The thing I really don't get about this story, is why she didn't just do what I would do - press the power button/switch it off at the wall/yank the cord, and go right to the principal and tell them WTF happened. Yes, the principal first before whoever does the school's tech, because covering your own arse to authority/your superiors takes priority over a shitty school PC.

One thing I experienced time and time again while working as a voluntary firefighter, when people panic they usually act totally irrational. Some people are so panicky that they even forget very basic things like the ability to use a phone or open doors.

That is why when we educate people the first thing we try to get across is "Don't Panic!". Stay calm and remeber what you have learned.

[Ironwood]

They should put this woman away.  For the rest of her life.  She's lucky she's not getting the needle for what she did.

Bitch.

[Righ]

Never work with children or animals.

[Llava]

They should put this woman away.  For the rest of her life.  She's lucky she's not getting the needle for what she did.

Bitch.

Yeah!  I know I was reasonable before, but I just had a few drinks so I'm totally switching sides!  I say hang the bitch and put the video on YouTube!

[schild]

You started drinking and didn't tell me?!?!!

[lamaros]

Something is amiss. Where is the green text. 

[Signe]

Green text is for n00bs.  Sarcasm should be subtle.  Like beige.

[Llava]

Yeah I started drinking. Grew a taste for rum.  And I have f13 to thank for starting me on my journey down Liquor Lane. 50% credit to Schild for getting us into open bar parties, 50% to Yoru for pointing out drinks girly enough for someone who didn't like alcohol to enjoy.

Ookii, sorry, no credit. You did nothing.

Though there's this really nice bar near me that is also partially to blame, because I really enjoy hanging out there and hanging out in a bar without drinking seems fairly odd.

[Riggswolfe]

At first blush this sounds to me like a prosecutor who is trying to cultivate an image of caring for the kids. I myself have gotten caught in those porn loops, and sometimes I wasn't even trying to get on a porn site.

[lamaros]

Green text is for n00bs.  Sarcasm should be subtle.  Like beige.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=9110.msg261775#msg261775

[Signe]

I don't understand!  What are you trying to say to me?!?

(panic!!!!)

[sinij]

I don't understand!  What are you trying to say to me?!?

I think he was trying to say "Get to the kitchen and make me a sandwich, bitch. *bitchslap*" Fucking sexist. Lets ban him.

[Calantus]

It doesn't work like that.

First, the people with catass postcounts need to have a meeting in their secret computer room while dressed as bums, though the last item may or may not be necessary if french, but since nobody is french I suppose that doesn't matter. Then if they indicate allowance of the deed via the secret hand signals, we're to follow him around and bash him in every post he makes until the inevitable drama queen "I quit" thread is made. Then we get to post funny things in that thread while they secretly read them but do not reply because that would be sad. After a few days of checking their thread to read what new things the bad mans (and womans) have said about them, they finally leave the site. Sometimes a mod needs to step up and add in a fun little gimick like removing the ability to edit, but they do not move directly and openly, as that is not their way.

You should know this already. Or if you don't, maybe I have to kill you now? I await the hand signals of confirmation in regards to that last question.