The sheer number of idiotic things going on here is astounding. If ignorance of the law is no excuse in committing a crime, isn’t ignorance of technology in arresting someone for using technology you don’t understand while not committing a crime even worse?

On Friday, EFF and the law firm of Fish and Richardson filed an emergency motion to quash and for the return of seized property on behalf of a Boston College computer science student whose computers, cell phone, and other property were seized as part of an investigation into who sent an e-mail to a school mailing list identifying another student as gay. The problem? Not only is there no indication that any crime was committed, the investigating officer argued that the computer expertise of the student itself supported a finding of probable cause to seize the student’s property.
[…]
Aside from the remarkable overreach by campus and state police in trying to paint a student as suspicious in part because he can navigate a non-Windows computer environment, nothing cited in the warrant application could possibly constitute the cited criminal offenses. There are no assertions that a commercial (i.e. for pay) commercial service was defrauded, a necessary element of any “Obtaining computer services by Fraud or Misrepresentation” allegation. Similarly, the investigating officer doesn’t explain how sending an e-mail to a campus mailing list might constitute “unauthorized access to a computer system.”

On a vaguely related topic, your company’s website will destroy your life and your dog’s life and your Aunt Tilly’s goldfish’s life if you don’t buy this guy’s package, whatever it is. As he says, “Let me show you how dead serious I am.” And he means it!

Both found by Brother Uncle Don who is now too terrified to turn on his computer anymore because he knows how to use command prompts.