An alleged hacker who declined a 2-year plea deal is facing decades behind bars after federal authorities Thursday added multiple charges, including possession and distribution of child pornography. Barry Ardolf, 45, of Blaine, Minnesota, had rejected a plea deal in connection to charges accusing him of sending Vice President Joe Biden a threatening e-mail from his neighbor’s computer, a computer he is accused of hacking. The decision... 

New York’s attorney general Andrew Cuomo accused the social networking site Tagged.com on Thursday of not responding to user reports of child pornography and sexual solicitation of minors, which has allowed the popular site to become a place where sexual predators can exploit children. Cuomo sent a letter to the site, which claims 5 million users. The letter announces his intent to sue the site for violating trade laws by not adhering... 

Connecticut’s top law enforcement officer is subpoenaing Craigslist records to determine whether the site is complying with a year-old deal with attorneys general to censor the online bulletin board’s erotic ads. Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal Richard Blumenthal, the Connecticut attorney general, is seeking evidence to determine whether Craigslist is comporting with a deal with 39 attorneys general to recast its... 

Piracy is hurting the bottom line of the adult entertainment industry, according to a new public-address video starring porn stars. The Adult Entertainment Trade Association, a branch of the Free Speech Coalition , says DVD sales are down at least a third because of DVD counterfeiting and so-called internet “tube” porn sites that sometimes infect viewers’ computers with malware and spyware. Credible piracy…  Read More →

The authorities do not need court warrants to view and download files traded on peer-to-peer networks, a federal appeals court says. Wednesday’s 3-0 ruling by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals concerned a Nevada man convicted of possessing child pornography as part of an FBI investigation. Defendant Charles Borowy claimed the Fourth Amendment required court authorization to search and seize his LimeWire files in 2007. The San Francisco-based... 

A U.S. comic book collector is being sentenced to six months in prison after pleading guilty to importing and possessing Japanese manga books depicting illustrations of child sex and bestiality. Christopher Handley was sentenced in Iowa on Thursday , (.pdf) almost a year after pleading guilty to charges of possessing “obscene visual representations of the sexual abuse of children.” The 40-year-old was charged under the 2003 Protect... 

A federal appeals court is reversing a lifetime internet ban imposed on a child sex offender also handed a 15-year prison term. The outcome highlights the appellate courts are all over the map when it comes to internet bans often imposed on defendants, especially sex deviants, once they have served their time. What’s more, the courts appear to be accepting the internet as a basic…  Read More →

If you think the sexting phenomenon is growing, you’re not imagining it. According to a new survey, almost one-third of youths admit they’ve engaged in sexting-related activities that involved either e-mailing a photo or video of themselves in the nude or being the recipient of such images. Of those who admitted to distributing suggestive images of themselves, about 61 percent report that they were pressured by someone to send the image.... 

If you think the sexting phenomenon is growing, you’re not imagining it. According to a new survey, almost one-third of youths admit they’ve engaged in sexting-related activities that involved either e-mailing a photo or video of themselves in the nude or being the recipient of such images. Of those who admitted to distributing suggestive images of themselves, about 61 …  Read More →