In Kutztown it is a felony to bypass the school’s porn filter
13 teens face felonies
Discussion and analysis at Slashdot
Updated 01 July 2005: Link to Slashdot discussion/analysis added. Tip credit to Craig Bell for the link.
The administrative password was well known at Kutztown Area High School (in the Kutztown Area School District). Between 80 and 100 students used it to reconfigure their computer accounts. They were able to disable the spy programs on their laptops and removing their Internet browsing restrictions. Prosecution on third degree felony charges has been recommended for fourteen of them.
James Shrawder spoke on behalf of a group of parents of six of the accused at a June 20 school board meeting. He said the administration may have railroaded the process by not providing authorities with the whole story.
“That’s absurd,” Superintendent Brenda S. Winkler said after the board meeting, in response to Shrawder’s allegations that the administration withheld information until the end of the school year.
Shrawder asked that the school board act in order to reverse the damage done by the administration.
…
“I don’t know why this is such a big deal,” he said. “At no time was the security of the server breached, and I don’t know that it has cost the taxpayers any money.”Winkler agreed that the server, where grades and other private records are stored, was never threatened.
The administrative password was widely distributed at the beginning of the year and the student’s use of it apparently continued until May. This begs the question “Has the administrator been fired yet?” There is no excuse in the world for having a security breach of this magnitude and scope.
I also wonder if the school could be found guilty of contributing to the delinquency of minors. If I left a beer unattended in the presence of students and they drink it I am guilty of this crime. They left an entire network unprotected for the bulk of the school year. The students could not have committed the “crime” of looking at porn at school without the improper actions of the school’s employees.
(Tip credit to Mihir Patel)
> Skavinsky consulted with the Berks County
> District Attorney’s office and recommended
> charges of “Computer Trespass,” in
> violation of PA criminal code section
> 7615, which carries a third degree felony
> charge.
What, exactly, did they “trespass”? These are computers specifically for the students’ use, so I don’t see how they could “trespass” onto those computers. Did they break into other computers? The article makes no such mention of that, but rather “music and innapropriate images”.
http://begthequestion.info/
For too long, we linguistic pedants have cringed, watching this phrase used, misused, and abused, again, and again, and again. “This begs the question…” we read in the editorials, see on TV, hear on the radio, (perhaps even read in one of those newfangled “web blogs”) and we must brace ourselves as the ignoramii of modern society literally ask a question after the phrase.
What It Means, and What You Got Wrong
“Begging the question” (BTQ) is a form of logical fallacy in which an argument is assumed to be true without evidence other than the argument itself. (e.g. “He’s dumb because he’s stupid and it’s so because I said so.”)
It does not mean “raising the question,” and it is not meant to apply to an actual question (e.g. “That begs the question, why is he so dumb?”). If that’s how you used it, you got it wrong, and no doubt the more knowledgeable folk listening to you winced as you said it.
ENOUGH! NO MORE!
Too many people have abused BTQ too long, and WE WILL STAND FOR IT NO LONGER! We’re marching on Washington. We’re petitioning our lawmakers. It’s time to stop the horror. We demand that Congress enact a law to regulate BTQ use, levying heavy penalties on any who use it to mean “raise the question” — a $100 fine for the first offense, and 6 months imprisonment for repeated offenses. We have the means, the surveillance equipment necessary to monitor conversations and writings: we need only the will to clean up our language!
I knew stuff like this would happen when schools started giving students computers. What did they think they’d do? I know that if I’d been given a computer to take home in HS, I would’ve done everything in my power to disable restrictions and spy programs on it.
Seems like a typical shift-the-blame issue. The school doesnt want to get in trouble for spying on students and letting the password out, so they bring up some outlandish charges to get everyone all hot and bothered about “Those Damn Hackers” so nobody starts questioning big brother.
As for the web blockers, well… www.peacefire.org put it best.
Zach - actually, no.
Beg; (’beg) verb:
a : to ask earnestly for
b : to require as necessary or appropriate
I was not pointing out a logical fallacy. I was using the word ‘beg’ in correct context.
When I was in high school, we _did_ have computers. Of course, they were AT&T teletypes with an acoustic coupler to call into the BOCES timeshare system. Not exactly “high tech” by today’s standards.
The biggest trouble I got into was using the phone to dial into my cousin’s school’s much-better computer. (A long-distance call.) My punishment was having to pay the phone bill.
Well, that and my ability to dial out on the “incoming calls only” phone without any dial.
I don’t want to turn this into Grammarfest ‘05 here, especially because this is an issue near and dear to my own heart. (I was bypassing security on school computers as early as sixth grade.) But Jim, you’re wrong on the BTQ thing. “Begging the Question” is an idiomatic phrase that exists as a whole, and it is the name of the type of logical fallacy described in the previous comment. The phrase has that specific meaning.
It is used as such (The verb in the sentence is in bold):
“His argument was [b]begging the question[/b].”
Not:
“His argument was [b]begging[/b] the question, ‘Blah blah blah?”
On subject, though, when I would try to circumvent computer security at my school, I remember the policy seemed to prevent the circumvention of security measures, even if there really was no system to “get around.” In middle school, my school kept the Windows NT Administrative tools on an unprotected network drive. I was able to access them to disable the System Policy Editor, and grant myself full access to the Start Menu, Control Panel, etc. The only security measure in place was the assumption that no one would find the programs and know how to use them. Had I been caush, I don’t know what would have happened, but the general feeling I always got was that the onus was on the student not to do things that were left open, as opposed to the administration to protect those resources.
–adam
I really do understand “begging the question”. I also really wasn’t using it. I was saying that SUPPOSITION A literally begs (def: requires as necessary or appropriate) QUESTION B.
Anyway…
I agree that the students shouldn’t have hacked their computers and they should face discipline for doing so. However, they are facing criminal charges for doing it. If they are criminals due to the negligence of the school then the school is complicit in their delinquency. That’s what “contributing to the delinquency of a minor” is all about.
Jim,
If you were going to use beg as a verb, you should have said that it begs for the question. Beggars don’t beg food or beg money, they beg for food or money. Likewise, situations don’t beg questions, except in the idiomatic sense.
oh good god, leave the guy alone!
although, thanks for the lesson on “begs the question”
Chad
zach, i BEG you, check the plural of ignoramus.
Maybe Jim just ‘begs’ to differ?
And GrammarBoy, is not ‘to differ’ an object of the verb ‘beg’ and furthermore, is not ‘the question’ (following ‘beg’, of course) an object with the definite article
(special adjective) ‘the’ before it?
Get it?
According to A Dictionary of Modern English Usage, to beg the question is “the fallacy of founding a conclusion on a basis that as much needs to be proved as the conclusion itself.”
Premise: Students need discipline.
Premise: Discipline needs to be harsh to be effective.
Conclusion: Students need to be charged with felonies.
Jim’s Conclusion: Fire an incompetent computer administrator and the problems are solved.
I wouldn’t say incompetent so much as i would say arrogant. They just underestimated their students desire to see the real internet and not the propoganda being spoon fed to them by the web censors.
Let’s change the scenario slightly…
You own an apartment building. You can’t get into the building without a key, or by someone inside buzzing you in. But, there’s also a numeric keypad allowing you to get in without a key, if you know the code.
This code becomes general knowledge somehow, and the owners of the building know it has become known.
Many months pass by, and the code has not been changed, despite the owner’s knowledge of it no longer being secure.
Someone get into the building using this code, and robs/attacks/rapes a tenant.
Guess what? The owner can be held liable.
Now, how is this different from the original scenario with the laptops and password? If the kids have committed a felony, then those in charge of the network should be liable as well.
First time reading ZT, huh? Yeah we all make that mistake the first few times, trying to use logical arguments and whatnot. Doesn’t work that way with schools.
Who says they were looking at porn? I know at my old school, several perfectly innocent albeit recreational sites and quite a few research ones were banned because the filter was too far-reaching. We’d all cracked it by winter break.
Given the usual level of intelligence and originality at the school administrator level, I’m betting the password was probably “PASSWORD” or “ADMINISTRATOR”.
While felony charges may be excessive here, the lack of vigilance in securing the password on the part of the school personnel is not a mitigating factor. It’s nobody’s responsibility but your own to keep you from breaking the law. Think about it in terms of other violations -
“Well, there was never a cop watching that stop sign the other 300 times I ran it.”
“If the guy wants to keep his CD player, he should lock his car.”
“Walking in that neighborhood, dressed like that, she was asking for it.”
That said, however, if the kids didn’t access propietary school data or applications, but merely went surfing PUBLIC DOMAIN websites past the blocking software, this doesn’t qualify as computer trespass - more like a violation of terms of service, a contractual issue. I’ve also seen no indication of who owned the actual laptops in question.
School-Issued Laptops: Some Lessons To Be Learned
Should the students be disciplined for what they did? It would be my guess that they knew that what they were doing was in violation of the “use policy” that the district probably had them sign before being issued the computers. But I think that crim…
According to an AP article today, they were charged with “computer trespass, an offence state law defines as altering computer data, programs, or software without permission”.
So, basically, if you change the computer’s wallpaper without permission, you can be charged with a felony, if the law is worded as the AP article says.
Ken:
In your scenario, does the rapist get off because of the code being known? Do we say to the rapist, “Gee, you are not responsible for you actions because the owner didn’t change the code.
I didn’t know that viewing websites was equivalent to rape.
Dale,
No, obviously the rapist doesn’t get excused in my scenario. (For those coming in late, it’s my post from July 4.) My point was that, if a crime gets committed by means of the security hole known by the landlord, the landlord can be held liable. If a felony was really committed here, why wouldn’t the school administration also be liable?
On the other hand, you can’t be charged with breaking and entering if the door isn’t locked. (AFAIK)
However, in the Kutztown case, you have to remember that the “crime” was the bypassing of the “security” measures. Accessing websites and chatting with your friends is not a crime, even if there were some porn sites. (And I haven’t heard anything about stealing credit card info to access the porn sites.)
Finally, there were AP reports that the school was claiming that numerous steps were tried (ie: conferences with the parents, suspensions, etc.) prior to getting the police involved. If that’s true, then it’s not as simple an issue anymore.