My career as a purveyor of child pornography.

Case Type:

Exigence:

Audience:

Possible
Constraints:

The first wave:

The trouble started when I got two mysterious emails:

• 1/97: Two from webtv.

When I realized what might be happening, I began to respond by posting the solicitations minus identifying information, by complaining to the senders' ISPs, and by slowly increasing the explicitness, size, color and blinkiness of the warning on the Child XXX webpage. But the email continued:

• 3/97: An Australian.
• 3/97: A particularly loathesome Brazilian.

Since the warning didn't work, I got annoyed and started to leave in the identifying information.

• 4/97 W. Frohmiller of the AOL universe wants to buy.

But this didn't deter the intrepid if illiterate Mr. Frohmiller.

• 6/97 Frohmiller wants more.

Are these people dumb? desperate? Are they net vigilantes trying to catch me selling child pornography? I'm too stubborn to take the site down, too committed to 'net responsibility to take my name off it. In August, 1997 I tried an experiment in taking the words "kidporn" out of the URL. For now (June, '99) that seems to have worked, although I still get a trickle of:

• loathesome people like Manuel Scaccabarozzi (12/97) who continue to solicit "pics."
• a guy that I've kept anonymous because I'm not sure he's soliciting.
• or Alexander Bergsmann (6/99)
• or Cool Don (11/99)

The second wave:

As the apparent-solicitation-archive grew, I began to get overtly anti-porn responses. To my amazement, at least some of these people had read the warning! Their emails to me seemed to come in clumps; I suspected that the URL was being distributed--among anti-porn activists, perhaps?

• 5/97: I am advised how to deal with those soliciting me to sell.
• 6/97: I am informed that the original perpetrator was arrested (I don't think this is the case, by the way).
• 7/97: Questions from a Canadian student.
• 7/97: Outrage from one of the original recipients of the Child XXXX email.

A few of my correspondents were more aggressive, as blind as the apparent solicitors to the warnings.

• 7/97: I am accused of sending the Child XXXX email to someone's cousin.
• 7/97: A purveyor of adult pornography turns me in to the FBI.

Decision:

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