Police crackdown on Merb: Only a matter of Time?

[YouVantOption]

What actions? Are you planning to abuse childrens? Rape old ladies? Beat-up Mr. Bush? Downing planes all around the world? All of this using MERB as a base to communicate information between your terrorist cells?

I doubt it...

We're not doing anything bad, stop worrying!

I didn't say that. I inplied that were I to get popped - they can bust Johns here you know - I'll deal with it. Explicitly, my actions involving prostitution, you know, as a purchaser of the services of? There are others who might not be quite so lassier-faire.

If anyone is interested in privacy issues as they relate to technology - I'd suggest you check out Eff.org, Declan McCullah's Politechbot and Dave Farbers 'Interesting People' (IP) lists.

But don't think privacy violations, law enforcement actions, or security breaches can't happen and you are 100% safe, because that would make you out to be an idiot. They happen all the time.

Personally, I'm not worried about it, but I respect the fact that there are many who are.

 

[YouVantOption]

There isn't going to be any police crackdown on MERB. Several years ago the operators of TBD were VERY unsuccessfully prosecuted in Tampa, Florida. They had to pay probably $$$$$ in attorney's fees but the charges for promoting or facilitating prostitution were thrown out due to constitutional rights to free speech. Therefore a precedent has been set and no two bit police chief is going to lose his job over a dog's ass prosecution.

I really wish you guys paid attention to events in the real world which matter. It doesn't seem as though any of you do. You live in a fictitious world dominated by paranoia and false notions of what LE can and cannot do.

Educate yourselves and remove the ignorance!

Yes, do educate yourself. I'd suggest a map (this here's Canada, down there is the U.S. - different laws - imagine that!!), and a review of the wonderful privacy laws in your country. Oh wait, there aren't any. Sorry.

 

[YouVantOption]

1. As others have said/asked-rhetorically - what's illegal about the Board?

2. (More so in other contexts) it can be a dangerous error to think police act rationally.

Depending upon the jurisdiction (remember, we do have Americans who post here too), there are a number of issues discussed and admitted to here that have an intersection with prostitution laws.

1) Prostitution - indys making announcements
2) Pimping - agency owners making announcements
3) Availing oneself of the services of a prostitute - the majority of the posters

As to your point 2 - quite so. Were you to screw and review someone who turned out to be underage, you could be liable to prosecution under relevant sections of the criminal code, even if you didn't know.

If you think any of what I have written is paranoid or too far-fetched, you are most welcome to disprove me - call a LAWYER and inform yourself.

Chez Stella also has an overview of the current laws from the SP persepctive* (which are under review)

I am not arguing that any of this will happen - I think it unlikely, but I do think it is possible, and it isn't that much of a stretch.

* Article 213 of the Canadian Criminal Code: ‘To communicate with another person, in a public place, with the objective of practicing prostitution.

 

[Wombat2]

3) Availing oneself of the services of a prostitute - the majority of the posters.

The pertinent section of the criminal code reads "procures, attempts to procure or solicits a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another person, whether in or out of Canada" The rest of this section deals with "bawdy houses" or bringing someone to Canada for the purpose of prostitution. * see below regarding telephone calls as private not public communication. Ok say I'm the police, how would you like me to prove that you called someone to come to your hotel for purposes of prostitution? Given that I can't use your phone call (unlike the U.S. a private communication), that the act itself isn't illegal, that if you have any brain power at all you haven't directly linked does she XYZ with $.

Article 213 of the Canadian Criminal Code: ‘To communicate with another person, in a public place, with the objective of practicing prostitution.

However the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a telephone conversation is a private communication.

 

[YouVantOption]

The pertinent section of the criminal code reads "procures, attempts to procure or solicits a person to have illicit sexual intercourse with another person, whether in or out of Canada" The rest of this section deals with "bawdy houses" or bringing someone to Canada for the purpose of prostitution. * see below regarding telephone calls as private not public communication. Ok say I'm the police, how would you like me to prove that you called someone to come to your hotel for purposes of prostitution? Given that I can't use your phone call (unlike the U.S. a private communication), that the act itself isn't illegal, that if you have any brain power at all you haven't directly linked does she XYZ with $.

However the Supreme Court of Canada has ruled that a telephone conversation is a private communication.

Right. Actually that is also covered in PIPEDA. But posting about one's exploits on a public internet discussion board is ____________ ??? Indeterminate at best.

 

[mrten]

While I'm sure that the police check out this website they surely have bigger fish to fry then the guy who grabs a little tittie on the side. With all the hate groups advocating violence, terrorist sites and wack sites (read:kimveer gill) I would like to believe that they have a list of priorities. With that being said, Merb is definitely not one of them.

 

[mrten]

Hate-filled VampireFreaks website linked to several violent crimes

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/news/story.html?id=765b7ad8-e00a-49a1-9d72-d3d35e5c2627

 

[YouVantOption]

While I'm sure that the police check out this website they surely have bigger fish to fry then the guy who grabs a little tittie on the side. With all the hate groups advocating violence, terrorist sites and wack sites (read:kimveer gill) I would like to believe that they have a list of priorities. With that being said, Merb is definitely not one of them.

Yep. And the minute some sociopath pig farmer starts using agencies instead of trolling vancouver streets, or Steveie Harper's Calgary-based supporter's son get a killer dose of the clap from a tweenie he booked online, the priorities will shift. But it is hard to argue that an online discussion group will be as easy pickings and as high profile as the hundreds of ads at the back of the Gazette or the Montreal MIrrror or the Jounral de Montreal or in the Yello Pages.

 

[metoo4]

Right. Actually that is also covered in PIPEDA.

What's PIPEDA?

But posting about one's exploits on a public internet discussion board is ____________ ??? Indeterminate at best.

Indeterminate? Not at all! Totally legal! You're allowed legally to go to a bar and brag about your latest conquest to your buddies. Now, if this isn't a public place?
Remember, prostitution is legal in Canada so, no matter if your conquest is an SP or not, it's not like you're bragging or confessing a crime. So what if you banged and SP and you're bragging about it everywhere? She wasn't a minor, you didn't molest her, no problems. Molest her or bang a minor, then there's a big problem and then yes, MERB or whatever can rightfully be used against you.
And then again, look at MrTen's link. Takes a lot to get some LE action.

 

[metoo4]

Yep. And the minute some sociopath pig farmer starts using agencies instead of trolling vancouver streets, ...

And, since in lots of robberies, the thiefs use a car, cars will get banned soon.

When you start extrapolating without fixing realistic boundaries that are known, not extrapolated ones, you get an extrapolation of an extrapolation so, the end result is totally unreliable and bear no statistically relevent outcome: it's only fabulation.

 

[EagerBeaver]

Response to Tony In Deleted Thread on MERB Crackdown

Tony-

I guess the Mods deleted that thread so here is the response to your last post.

It's persuasive precedential authority as is the law of any foreign jurisdiction. I never said it was binding authority. However I find it highly unlikely that if such a prosecution failed in the US deep south it would ever be successful in Canada.

I also believe that in a lot of the litigation over issues involving the Internet the legal principle of stare decisis has no application due to the paucity of decided jurisdictional cases to look to. Every case is becoming a case of first impression. Thus, persuasive authority from other jurisdictions becomes more persuasive.

Since you did not go to law school and make law review, you are forgiven for your sins of misanalysis.

To me, this is also an issue that is economically driven from the Canadian perspective. Canadian LE must necessarily be sensitive to doing things that tend to undermine the local economy.