When a citizen uses a keylogger he or she can wind up with slammer time, although the debate is still out on metaverses like 2ND Life…it is ficticious, but I can tell you it is crawling with bugs too.

However when the FBI does it, it is called a good thing- even to 15 year olds “Within days, however, the FBI had obtained a warrant that allowed the agency to infect the student’s computer with a program it called a Computer & Internet Protocol Address Verifier (CIPAV). “If a warrant is approved, a communication will be sent to the computer being used to administer [the MySpace] user account ‘Timberlinebombinfo,’” said FBI Special Agent Norman Sanders in the June 12 filing”.

CIPAV- sounds like a veneral disease to me. Overall I have found the FBI a mixed bag- some really great folks, some not so happy folks and some mean pitbulls. I dunno- I just don’t like wiretapping and spying in general. I don’t think our forefathers would have approved..

The CIPAV, said Sanders, would “cause any computer — wherever located — to send network-level messages containing the activating computer’s IP address and/or MAC address, other environmental variables and certain registry-type information to a computer controlled by the FBI.”

Rpger Thompson of EPL called it right- “I’d call that spyware,” said Roger Thompson, “Or it’s pretty darn close.”

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