Conference moira::naturism

    uh...wasn't this sort of thing discussed in the previous issue
    of CWS?
    
    Hey, Neil or Judy (or the only other moderator that I haven't met yet),
    This could be the start of a new topic, eh?
    
    
    Ben

    
    I *DON'T* recomend trashing it. Sending pornography through the
    USPS mail is an offense - if I recall it is a felony. The correct
    thing to do is to immediately take the item with its packaging to
    your local Postal Inspector and lodge a complaint.
    
    And get a receipt for the items.
    
    Then *IF* the Feds arrive you show them the receipt, make a statement
    that you deny they have reasonable cause for the search, and that
    you will be bringing action against them in court for violation
    of your Constitutional rights against improper search and seizure,
    if they proceed.
    
    Note I am not a lawyer, but the above is the opinion of a relative
    of mine who practices at the English bar in corporate and
    international law. 
    
    /. Ian .\

My first guess is that the initial warning is a rumor, with some basis in 
fact.  It certainly sounds paranoid to me; but of course, "just because you're
paranoid doesn't mean that they *aren't* out to get you," and if I got some
unsolicited child pornography in the mail, I would certainly take the safe
course and consider the possibility that someone was setting me up for 
something.

Oh, the "basis in fact" that I mentioned...  As Ben mentions, there was an
item in CwS recently (which I wasn't able to dig up last night, but I'll 
look again) to the effect that the US government (through the Postal Service,
I think) was conducting a "sting" operation.  They had apparently produced a
catalog of child pornography (confiscated from producers who had been put out
of business), and were offering it through the mails in advertisements in 
magazines whose readership seemed likely to be a likely market.  Anyone who
actually ordered from that catalog would then be visited by the police after
receiving the material that they had ordered.  According to CwS, this actually
made the US government into the leading supplier of child pornography in the
country!

It sure sounds like entrapment to me, and I didn't know that it was legal for
a government agency to commit a crime (such as sending obscene material through
the mails), even as part of the law enforcement operation; but I don't know all
that much about the rules on such things.  In any case, I can imagine that story
going through several "friends of friends" and ending up as the paranoid-
sounding warning that got posted.

By the way, I would be inclined to agree with Ian -- if I got child pornography
in the mail I wouldn't destroy it, I would go to the post office and file a 
complaint.

	-Neil

We had a similar instance happen here in Colorado Springs.  A prominent and 
popular DJ at one of our radio stations was sent a child porn video which was
not what he had ordered.  His house was searched and according to what we read 
in the newspaper, this video was the only child porn he had in his possession.

When he went to court he pleaded guilty because he was told this was the easy
way out even tho it wasn't the truth and then they threw the book at him.  So
he is no longer a DJ and spending time for something he didn't do.

My suggestion is besides keeping the item received and any receipts, also have 
the advertisement that you used to order the item.  The more proof you ordered
something else besides what you received, the better.

Judy

    I pulled that article off a local bulletin board in Colorado Springs.
    
    I think that should something like this happen taking it to the
    postmaster, lodging a complaint and getting a receipt would be best.
    
    Should one be afraid, I'd destroy it.

In Note 159.5 I should have also reiterated take everything to the postmaster
and file a complaint!

Judy

Just reciently on one of the tabloid news shows. They had the grand
parents of a 15 month old child fighty for there live over pictures
they had taken of the grandmother in the nude holding the baby.
The grand father is a profesional photagrapher, and he thought it
was cute when the grand mother bathed the child in the bathtub. I guess
the grand mother removed her cloths will she was bathing the child.
It never tells you how much she had off. Her husband took pictures of
her and with the baby cuddled in her arms.
They took the film to K-mart to have the film developed. Well one of the 
employee's at K-mart thought that the film was pornoghraphic(sp). He
then turned it over to the Sheriff, needless to say they were aressted,
and are now in court. 

    Anybody remember the quote from the movie "Rainman"??