POLICE on irc?

PingBad · Posted: May 17, 2006 10:05pm Post subject:

Hmm... its one thing for a cop to go onto a network and go snooping, another for the same cop to come on and just chat, and quite another for that same cop to come on invitedly and be given certain powers from the staff in the name of keeping the network clean.

Police (hopefully) have a very deep grasp of the law (like lawyers, but unlike lawyers, they dont rake $50/hr+ out of your bank balances), so having a police officer on the network on invitation to make sure the network and all activity happening thereon is legit may prove useful for a network (esp. given that a selling point would be that the network is 100% legal and there is zero activity in the illegal sectors of the internet regarding the network).

Having a police officer show up on a network and go snooping (without declaring to network staff their prescense and intentions) would certainly trigger "harrassment". Consider that if I was to show up on your network, magpie, go snooping around and start acting like a police officer (I'm not one, for the record), would you let me carry on or would you challenge me in demanding proof of being a Law Enforcement officer? You and I both know that you'd challenge me for proof. However, if I had connected, identified and proved myself (this is all hypothetical, mind you) to be a police officer to you, would you allow me to carry on making sure that there's no illegal activity on the network?

magpie · Idler Joined: 18 Jan 2004 Posts: 453 Location: Essex, UK

Loads of people go "snooping" around on networks across the world every day. I couldn't really care less - they're public networks after all.

I'm not sure what you mean by "acting like a police" office? If you mean asking for users IP addresses and other details, then yes, obviously I'd require proof. But would I care if they came online briefly to follow up a lead...no.

XB · none Joined: 08 Jul 2006 Posts: 16

Even if the police do come onto an IRC network they are unable to retrieve any information unless there given it via the hosting provider or by staff from the network. But i think 'cyber cops' there just kids off school hehe Smile