That evening, Krop spent hours watching the screen, taking screenshots and video captures as the other man wrote IMs, visited Facebook, and downloaded porn. He was eventually able to ID the user after he started a video chat and Krop was able to see his face. After calling the police, Krop got both of his laptops back the next morning. The porn fan had no regrets. "I didn't care whether it was stolen," he said. "I buy stolen stuff all the time. I don't care... If I can save $600, I'll do it." No word on what Krop did with the screengrabs he took, or the files that had been downloaded to the laptop the previous evening.

An Amazing Laptop Recovery Story [PC World]

Eventually, one shopper apparently realized the video wasn't a promo for a new line of linens or gardening implements and contacted management. Meanwhile, the store surveillance video, which was released to a local TV station, is apparently a big hit, and several customers who found the DVD footage inspirational have already been offered jobs in the adult-entertainment industry (no, not really, though we suspect that some of them may never be the same again).

In-Store Porn Leads To Arrests [Times Record Online]

The real pain is being felt by the actors, and not just by those who specialize in scenes involving leather, latex or gardening tools:

For the 1,200 active performers in the Valley this means less action and more hardship. A young woman without [Nina] Hartley's name-recognition might have charged $1,000 for a straight scene before the crisis, but gets $800 or less now. Men are worse hit. If they averaged $500 for a straight scene in 2007, they are now lucky to get $300.

In addition to the recession, the industry is fighting an even greater evil: free and cheap porn on the internet. Porn, says actress Nina Hartley, is now "like potato chips, everywhere and cheap, to be consumed and tossed." Um, ah, oh, never mind.

Hard times [The Economist]

(Photo: Great Beyond)

Barry, who is 52, was charged with securities fraud yesterday morning. He's been accused of bilking "hundreds of investors, including many retirees, out of $40 million in what prosecutors called a 'classic Ponzi scheme' dating to the 1970s."

From the New York Times:

Mr. Barry ran a group of small companies, known collectively as the Leverage Group, out of a small storefront office in Bay Ridge, where he grew up and where he still lives, and earned the trust of investors through his local ties and unassuming nature, his clients told investigators.

He eventually collected the $40 million from 800 investors by promising consistent returns of 12 percent or higher from stock options, according to the criminal complaint. Mr. Barry generated quarterly statements detailing fictitious trades and account balances, and promised investors they could withdraw money from their accounts whenever they chose, the complaint said.

In a separate case, the Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil fraud charges against Mr. Barry on Tuesday, echoing the criminal complaint and adding the contention that Mr. Barry had funneled investors' money into a mail-order pornography business.

At some point, Barry stopped using the incoming funds to invest, and instead funneled the cash into real estate purchases and his porno venture. The NYT adds, "It was unknown whether the pornography business turned a profit." His scheme continued for 30 years, and he seems to have only been uncovered after 2007 when the number of people asking for their money back outgrew the funds he had on hand.

The maximum sentence he can expect, if he's found guilty, is 20 years.

If you're shopping around for a money manager, remember these 5 tips on how to avoid falling into a Ponzi scheme.

"Man Accused of Running Ponzi Scheme in Brooklyn " [New York Times]
"SEC busts Brooklyn money manager in $40M porno Ponzi scheme" [Investment News]
(Photo: swimparallel)

After a technician began looking through the computer, images of naked 10- to 13-year-old girls in suggestive and explicit poses were found, according to court documents.

...

Court documents show Miller came into the store Sunday afternoon because his Power Mac G5, a high-end desktop computer, was pulling photos from its hard drive and using them to overwrite thumbnails of other pictures in his photo libraries.

When an Apple technician told Miller they would need to keep his computer overnight he refused to let them keep it because he needed to pay bills with the computer, court records show.

At least we know that the technician had a valid excuse to see random folders full of image files on the computer, and didn't go randomly looking for porn. Illegal material found during the process of computer repair is admissible in court.

Move over, Chris Hansen. Catching a predator: there's an app for that.

Fairfield man arrested after Stamford Apple store worker allegedly finds child porn on computer [The Advocate]
Apple Genius Finds Child Porn on G5 In Need of Repair [Gizmodo]

RELATED:
Delete Your Porns: Court Says You Have No Right To Privacy When Your Computer Is Repaired

(Photo: Stamford Advocate)

Beginning Friday, an AT&T customer was impacted by a denial-of-service attack stemming from IP addresses connected to img.4chan.org. To prevent this attack from disrupting service for the impacted AT&T customer, and to prevent the attack from spreading to impact our other customers, AT&T temporarily blocked access to the IP addresses in question for our customers. This action was in no way related to the content at img.4chan.org; our focus was on protecting our customers from malicious traffic.

Overnight Sunday, after we determined the denial-of-service threat no longer existed, AT&T removed the block on the IP addresses in question. We will continue to monitor for denial-of-service activity and any malicious traffic to protect our customers.

[Press Release]
PREVIOUSLY: AT&T Reportedly Blocks Wildly Popular And Deeply Offensive Website

You may find 4chan weird, chaotic, or offensive, but you can't deny that the Internet wouldn't be the same without it. There would be no cat macros. There would be no Rickrolling. There would be no Anonymous protests against the Church of Scientology. Did I mention the cat macros?

AT&T has decided to discover what a world without 4chan would be like. They've reportedly blocked it. Specifically, the forums /b/ and /r9k/.

[Editor's note: We won't be linking to these sources. If you want to be offended, you know where to find them.]

TechCrunch had the story early on:

4chan has been called many things, most of which aren't particularly flattering. Some parts of the site are entirely unmoderated, leading to a wild-west, highly NSFW environment where irreverance, mischief, and lewdness thrive (I like to think of it as the Mos Eisley of the web). But that doesn't mean the site isn't extremely influential on web culture. Many of its exploits are famous, including taking over the Time 100 list, and it's also where some of the Internet's most famous memes got their start, including the Rick Roll and LOLcats. It's also known as the main hub for Anonymous, a group that has held a very public campaign against Scientology.

In other words, AT&T has just opened perhaps the most vindictive, messy can of worms it could have possibly found. Blocking any site is an extreme breach of user trust, but the decision to block 4chan in particular just seems stupid. Expect the web equivalent of rioting if this doesn't change soon.

So, how about that net neutrality?

AT&T Reportedly Blocks 4chan. This Is Going To Get Ugly. [TechCrunch]
Report: AT&T Blocking 4chan [Mashable]

RELATED:
FCC Chairman Says Comcast "Violated Our Principles" By Arbitrarily Blocking Internet Traffic

In the video, Mark, with the air of a man who made several local TV ads, reads a statement of the facts leading up to and following the taping. The statement was signed by the reader, Jason. Mark owns a pen, a pair of glasses, and a ficus. He provides a few new pieces of information: the videos were taped in June 2008, but Jason didn't send the letter with the videos to Mark until May 2009. Mark then took Jason out to lunch, thanked him for brining the matter to his attention, offered a private apology, and offered a $2000 service contract as restitution. A month later Jason gave the videos to us.

Apparently, Mark's private offer wasn't good enough for Jason. He also wanted to get the word out about this dealership to other consumers.

On the one hand, that's kind of a dick move. On the other, you have to wonder about a dealership that hires three sleazy mechanics and a look the other way service manager. In any event, it took balls to make this video. Though, nota bene, future corporate fuckups, it really should have been out Wednesday at the latest.

UPDATE: Jason sent this email in response to the Hampton video:

Just to clarify, when we met on Memorial Day, the warranty was mentioned, but not solid. This value of $2,000 didn't come up until the local paper ran their article. I never heard a thing from them from that Memorial Day meeting until the local article ran. I didn't get that "confirmation" that they were sending the warranty until the day after the article ran. It was just mentioned. The warranty wasn't mailed by them until July 1st, which I can prove by the actual paperwork.

PREVIOUSLY: Toyota Employees Taped Stealing From, Watching Porn In Customer's Truck

The first two times Jason brought his truck in to his local Toyota dealership for service, he noticed that someone had taken quarters from his change compartment. He complained both times, but was ignored. So the third time he brought his truck in, he placed a video camera on the passenger side. The dealership didn't ignore him this time.

Jason was originally only concerned about the missing quarters, but his camera also captured Hampton Toyota employees sifting through his medication, using racial slurs, and watching porn in Jason's truck. Jason emailed us a copy of the letter he sent the owner of Hampton Toyota.

Dear Mark Hampton:

I am writing to you as an unsatisfied customer. I think the DVD enclosed will speak for itself. First, a little history about my experience with your dealership.

I purchased my truck, brand new from your dealership, in June 2007. I brought my truck in for the first 5,000-mile service/oil change. Upon picking up my truck I noticed over $10 worth of quarters were stolen from the driver's side door compartment. I complained and even mailed a personal letter to the dealership, addressed to the general manager. I never received a reply, or an apology.

The second time I brought my truck in was in December 2007, for my 10,000-mile service. I took note of the amount of quarters in that same compartment. Upon picking up my truck, I noticed that half of them were stolen. I immediately complained to the service department. I was told the manager was in a meeting and would contact me. He did not return my call, and I was able to speak with him after calling several times.

I also informed my salesman, by letter, after he sent a follow-up letter asking how I was enjoying my truck. I explained both of these situations, yet never heard back from anyone.

In June 2008, I decided to use Hampton Toyota to get my truck serviced again. I previously used dealerships out of Lafayette, but I was tired of the drive and inconvenience of driving to Opelousas or New Iberia. After all, I was not in the wrong. This time I decided to take action to prove the theft. I placed a small digital video camera, clearly visible, in the passenger side inside door handle compartment. Upon me arriving I hit record to see what would happen. I also inventoried everything in my truck, specifically the amount of money inside. The result is on the DVD enclosed. On this DVD you will find the following:

1. The first person to touch my truck was the service manager, Mike (see DVD video #1 "Mike the Service Manager"). He opens my door, puts my keys in the ignition, writes down my mileage, and then removes the keys. Next, he takes a notice in my keys. I keep a red pill vial, used for hikers, on my key chain. I keep personal medication in it for emergencies. He then unscrews the vial, looks inside and smells the vial. Next, he pours them into his hand and inspects them. He then puts them back in the vial and then licks the pill dust from his hand. He then screws the vial back together, replaces the keys, and then writes down the VIN number from the door sticker. Before closing the door, he checks the door compartment where my previous thefts occurred. He closes it without taking anything. He then returns to the vehicle, opens then compartment and proceeds to remove quarters (3 of the 6, totaling $0.75). He then inspects the other contents of the compartment, closes it, and then inspects the bottom door compartment before closing my door.

2. The second person to appear is the unnamed service male (see DVD video #2 "Oil Change Guy"). Upon entering my truck, he places it in reverse and says "ole stupid nigger, back the fuck up." Apparently someone was behind him and he could not back up. He then proceeds to drive my truck around the dealership and into the service garage. Immediately after placing the truck in park, he opens the astray, which contains pennies, nickels and dimes, and visually inspects the contents. Next, he lowers the center seat console, which was raised, and inspects the first compartment. He then opens the second compartment, takes out my CDs and inspects the compartment. He returns the center seat console to the upright position. Next, he inspects the contents of the glove compartment and the compartment above it. He is seen pulling out a personal bag from the compartment to inspect it. He then rolls down the window and inspects the door compartment, which Mike the Service Manager previously stole money from. He drops a small flashlight, which was in the compartment and picks it up off the floor. He then inspects the bottom compartment located in the door.

3. The third guy is the computer technician. He connects the laptop to my truck, located under the steering wheel, and begins working on the laptop. At approximately 3:27 into the video, a male and female voice, is heard coming from the laptop. The audio from the laptop plays the following:
MALE: "I'm sitting here with Violet. How are you today Violet?"
FEMALE: "Pretty good."
MALE: "You doing pretty good?"
FEMALE: "Yeah"
MALE: "So you're gonna do some modeling for us today, huh?"
FEMALE: "Yeah"
MALE: "Yeah, nice. So I see you're wearing a little see-through top. Not bad, nice. A little skirt."
This audio, which is coming from the laptop, is obviously some type of pornographic video due to the language and context in which it was spoken, which is being accessed using the company's laptop.

I have been deciding what to do with this video footage. I would hate for it to go to waste; therefore I have decided to make it available to you. This is not the first time my encounters of theft has been reported. I have complained in person and in writing, yet nothing has been done.

My next course of action is to make it available to the media outlets in Acadiana. Both the local newspapers and TV stations will receive the same DVD and letter I am providing to you. I have already reported this to Toyota, Inc. and am waiting for the southern region representative to contact me regarding this.

Everyone always wonders if the workers dig through personal belongings. I think this DVD not only answers that question, but proves it happens multiple times. Could it be a coincidence that this happened only to me three times?

In closing, I hope you and your management staff find some way to address this with your employees. Customer satisfaction is crucial, especially in slow times like these. I know other customers feel the same, as your Better Business Bureau rating is an F, as verified using the bbb.org website. However, I feel my video will speak more than their report could ever do.

Soon after Jason sent the letter, the owner fired all three employees and the service manager who had ignored Jason's complaint, personally apologized to Jason, and extended the warranty on Jason's truck.

Jason has taken the videos off of YouTube after the dealership resolved his situation, but he said we can post a couple clips he sent us. Here's the repairman snooping through Jason's pill container:













And here's the repairman taking change from Jason's car:













Hidden Camera Catches Dealership's Attention [The Daily Advertiser]
(Photo: Great Beyond)

Wait...what?

After navigating the circuitous Sprint tech support line, unsuspecting callers are routed to a promo for phone sex. One man has documented his experience on YouTube, revealing Sprint's secret plan to make millions by offering customer service that's so shitty, you'll pay just to get someone-anyone-on the line.

Called Sprint, Got Transferred to Porn Ad [Hardware Geek] (Thanks, Josh!)

Update from commenter Ezra Ekman:

"it's a singles talk line. This particular one happens to have a business model similar to domain squatters: they buy up hundreds of toll-free numbers that are very similar to other, more popular numbers, then make money on the percentage of callers who are dumb/bored/desperate enough to stay on the line. In other words, someone at Sprint probably programmed a transfer number one digit off (human error, basically), and it happened to be one of the Talk Line's numbers."

Guest Bloggers Carrie McLaren & Jason Torchinsky are coeditors of Ad Nauseam: A Survivor's Guide to American Consumer Culture. In previous lives, they worked together on the hopelessly obscure and now defunct Stay Free! magazine.

Earlier this month, Ian Goodson discovered this close encounter. It disturbed him, because his 9-year-old daughter regularly checks the programming guide to see what's playing on ABC Family HD and Disney HD. Even though all she might see is a few suggestive words, rather than the programs themselves, Goodson does not want his daughter to stumble upon the obscene while seeking out the wholesome.

"At noon there's pornography right above the kids' channel stuff," Goodson, 28, a sales rep who lives in Minnetonka. "It just doesn't make any logical sense at all."

Comcast already offers a way to screen what it calls "rather graphic" titles out of the programming guide, but even cable execs should realize that kids shows and porn shouldn't play anywhere near each other.

Comcast agrees with angry parent: no more close encounters between porn channels and kids' channels in program guide [The Star Tribune]

Egan... immediately deleted it from her phone and called T-Mobile.

Twice.

"And both times they put me on hold, and came back and said, 'Well we're sorry. We'll make sure you don't get charged," said Egan.

Frustrated, Egan posted her experience on the Web site's community forums page to warn others. She also called the Oregon Attorney General's Office and wrote in to KVAL News.

[...]

T-Mobile later e-mailed this statement:

"T-Mobile is taking this very seriously and will fully investigate. We understand the importance of child safety and offer customers options including content blocking and parental controls. We will work directly with the customer and law enforcement to fully address this."

"Child porn hits cellphone instead of ringtone" [KVAL.com] (Thanks to Kyle!)
(Photos: LeeBrimelow and gumuz)

Since the government isn't talking nudie magazine bailouts, it's up to Playboy to get its stuff right and start heading back to hemorrhaging money. The solution? If every magazine you print loses money, don't print as many magazines. Industry mag Folio said that's the plan for interim Playboy Enterprises CEO and chairman Jerome Kern, who stepped in after Hugh Hefner's daughter, Christie Hefner, resigned last year.

Playboy is considering "radical changes" of the print business model, including price increases, a frequency reduction and lowering its rate base of 2.6 million. The company said it would combine Playboy's July and August issues into a double issue.

I vote for Playboy to drop the skin pics, which make the magazine too racy to read in public and yet too tame to arouse anyone who's ever logged onto the Internet, and focus on its journalism and fiction.

Playboy Plans 'Radical Changes' to Print Model [Folio]
(Photo:yoshiffles)

What not so many people know is that Smutslayer doesn't do all the work himself. He's got a trusty team of decency deputies working full-time to fight for truth, justice and the absence of boobies.

Newsweek reports that of the 850 employees Facebook has on its payroll, 150 are part of its User Operations division, which is charged with tracking down user-submitted violations of the site's code of conduct, which disallows nudity, porn and drugs. Fully exposed butts, visible crackage and nipples give your photos a one-way trip to Deletionville. Also, no calling anyone a "jerk." Seriously, that's also a code violation.

Part hall monitors, part vice cops, these employees are key weapons in Facebook's efforts to maintain its image as a place that's safe for corporate advertisers-more so than predecessor social networks like Friendster and MySpace. "[They were] essentially shanghaied by pornography and sexual displays," says David Kirkpatrick, author of the forthcoming book "The Facebook Effect." It's a tricky job: by insisting that users sign up under real names and refrain from posting R-rated photos, Facebook hopes to widen its user base to include upscale professionals, but at the same time it's aware that too much heavy-handed censorship could upset its existing members. "If [Facebook] got polluted as just a place for wild and crazy kids, that would destroy the ability to achieve the ultimate vision, which is to create a service for literally everyone," Kirkpatrick says-and then its potential for profits would disappear, too.

The virtual lawmen make about $50,000 a year, a pittance in the face of the $900 million in revenue the social networking site is expected to make in 2009.

The presence of the porn cops isn't much of a surprise, considering Facebook has been known to go a little George Orwell on its users. Of course, the company has also caved when its overbearing policies are brought to light.

On the other hand, there's something to be said for a classy, porn-free online network, and it's tough to forge cleanliness without substantive muscle.

Yet it seems that the powers of these gumshoes could somehow go to more productive ends. Who's up for waging a campaign to get these watchmen to eliminate all those obnoxious quizzes?

Facebook's 'Porn Cops' are Key to its Growth [Newsweek]
(Photo: pbm)

My Fox Tampa Bay says that the boy told his mother, who then called Walmart.

"I showed it to my mom, and I ran back to my room…she said I'm not in trouble," the boy told Fox.

Walmart, however, was in trouble.

"I explained the situation [to the Walmart manager] and his response was, well bring the machine down and we'll let your son pick out a new game. And I was like, no I don't think you heard what I said," Mom said in an interview.

Walmart says they're looking into the situation and are "concerned." The accidental porn viewers say they would just like an apology and to exchange the used (ew) PSP for a new one.

Child finds porn on PSP [My Fox Tampa Bay] (Thanks, Andrew !)

This picture is essentially the epitome of why it's really messed up that Best Buy will take a piece of used or returned equipment and sell it as new... eventually someone is going to get a DVD player with a copy of "Buckets of Cum" in the disc drive. The caption on the photo submitted to our Flickr pool reads,

When we went to Best Buy and purchased a cheap DVD player after our old one broke, we were surprised to find "Buckets of Cum" in the DVD player. Ewwwwww...apparently, even though it was sold to us as new, it was actually used. I tried to call Best Buy that night, but they were already closed.

I guess it's an improvement; instead of stealing our porn, Best Buy is giving it to us for free.

NSFW: IMG_1477 [Flickr user Lisaya]

Before you start giggling about dirty Mormons, however, Edelman notes that "in regions where more people report regularly attending religious services, overall subscription rates are not statistically significantly different from subscriptions elsewhere." (However, churchgoers are less likely to begin their subscriptions on Sunday, which implies that they "shift their consumption of adult entertainment to other days of the week.")

Instead, it looks the higher consumption is actually connected to states "that have enacted conservative legislation on sexuality."

Now that we've veered into political territory, here's a bit of interesting red state/blue state trivia to fuel future accusations in the comments:

Furthermore, I found no significant relationship between subscriptions to this adult entertainment service and presidential voting in 2004, based on poll data by congressional district.

However, using individual-level data from a Hitwise sample of ten million anonymized U.S. Internet users, Tancer (2008), finds that adult escort sites are more popular in "blue" states that voted for Gore in 2004 [we assume he meant Kerry? -ed.], while visitors from the "red" states that voted for Bush in 2004 are more likely to visit wife-swapping sites, adult webcams, and sites about voyeurism.

The Salt Lake Tribune has Edelman speculate on why Utah is so porn-happy:

Another possibility for Utah's top porn billing may be the scarcity of adult entertainment outside the home.

"If it is distinctively difficult to get this material in retail locations in Utah, Utah residents who seek such material may have to get it online," said Edelman, in an e-mail. "On net, then, Utah residents would be buying more online adult entertainment — but perhaps not more total adult entertainment. That said, I analyzed only online adult entertainment, so I'm not in a position to assess the magnitude of this effect."

Here's a link to the report (PDF), so those of you who love to argue over methodology can examine it in more detail.

"Utah: Online Porn Capital of America?" [PC World]

"We have shared all of our information on this situation with the FBI and will continue to provide our full cooperation to them throughout their investigation," spokeswoman Kelle Maslyn said in a statement e-mailed to the Arizona Daily Star.

Wow, a real whodunit.

Comcast asking the FBI to solve its porn interruption [AZ Star]

"It's not fair. It's not fair to me to pick up a telephone that you loan me, that you loan me, and look at some trash like this," Phillip said.

No, it's not fair. Whats even more troubling is the fact that any pictures were on there to begin with. Chances are, if pictures are on the phone, there will be personal data as well, as a recent post highlighted.

Of course, Best Buy is 'investigating' the issue.

Best Buy said they are looking into the situation to ensure it does not happen again.

"At Best Buy, we are committed to protecting customer data privacy. We're investigating the situation and are fully prepared to change our procedures if necessary," said Justin Barber, of Best Buy.

They do know they can't just say they are committed, right?

[Thanks, Brandon!]

[WHDH News]

"We feel really bad for the customers that were just getting into it when Comcast rudely switched back to the football game before the clip could really get going," Kim Kysar, a spokeswoman for the company, said in a news release.

To get your free coupon, go to www.iPinkVisualPass.com and entering ‘pornbowl' into the promo code box.

Porn firm offers 'discount' over Super Bowl interruption [AZ Star]

Super Bowl porn clip 'a malicious act' [Arizona Star]

UPDATE: Comcast To Give $5 To Every Accidental Penis Viewer?

The clip from cable show "Club Jenna" shows a woman sitting on a couch and struggling to pull out porn actor Evan Stone's genitalia from his pants. The pair laugh at the difficulty. Mr. Stone then jumps up and pulls his pants down and twists from side to side, slapping it against his body, and then the game comes back on.

""We were like in shock," said Cardinals fan Alice Soto, 53, who was watching the game with her 11-year-old daughter and 80-year-old mother," writes TucsonCitizen.com.

The NSFW clip was captured by a viewer and is hosted on comcastsuperbowlporn.com (also mirrored by Gizmodo)

Comcast said the interruption only affected the standard definition broadcast and engineers were banging away furiously at the problem around the clock to figure out what happened. There were also reports of an earlier interruption where some movie credits played on the screen.

Comcast 09 Super Bowl Porn [Official Site, NSFW]
Porn interrupts Super Bowl broadcast in Tucson [Arizona Daily Star]

According to the ad, your parents are going to find out exactly what kind of sick, perverted stuff you are into - unless you use their new Holiday wish-list website (titled HintOrElse.com, just to rub it in). It's good to see one company really get into the holiday spirit, if 'the spirit' happens to be free-wheeling paranoia and abject horror.

Funny gamestop Commercial (Hint or else) [youtube]

866-878-7962 [800notes] (Thanks to jurijuri!) (Photo: Getty)

Why did it change its mind? Who knows. Previously, the plan was to let flight attendants be the porn police and instead only block Skype and other internet phone services.

Now the Dallas Morning News says:

American said that it is working with Aircell LLC "to implement technology to filter pornographic content over the Gogo inflight Internet service."

Delta will also be filtering porn when it launches its own WiFi service.

American to filter out porn on its Wi-Fi [DMN via Gothamist]
(Photo: benh57 )

The "vast majority'' of travelers use good judgment in what they look at, said Tim Smith, a spokesman for Fort Worth, Texas-based American. 'Customers viewing inappropriate material on board a flight is not a new scenario for our crews, who have always managed this issue with great success.'

[...]

American's attendants don't want to become ``moral policemen,'' said Frank Bastien, a spokesman at the union's headquarters. Attendants also don't want to be exposed to laptop images of violence or pornography, he said.

"It's a real concern to our members,'' Bastien said. American "put on filters that will prevent people from making Wi-Fi phone calls, and they don't seem to have any qualms about doing that. Where's the protection for other things out there?''

Ars Technica correctly points out that passengers have always been able to smuggle aboard promotional materials for the Mile High Club, mostly without incident.

What's worse: sitting next to a guy watching porn, or sitting next to a guy yabbering away on Skype?

American Air Attendants Urge Filters to Bar Web Porn [Bloomberg via Ars Technica]
(Photo: Getty)

Nancy writes:

Time Warner is charging me for movie purchases which I have not ordered. My current bill is 1400.30. The overwhelming majority of these movies are pornographic. My bill informs me that among many others, 17 were ordered on May 8 and 14 were ordered on May 10. Time Warner says it is impossible (their word) that these movies were NOT ordered from inside my house using my remote control and my cable box. I am a 60-year old English teacher. I have never seen a porn movie in my life. I LIVE ALONE. No one else has access to my house when I am a work. My husband who works out of another state is helping me in an effort to rectify this mess.

So far, we have been through the telephone drill (on hold, rude customer service clerks), a 90-minute visit to my local cable company where I was told that "maybe your dog ordered them," a phone call to the Time Warner CEO's office in Connecticut (national, not district) where I talked with a Customer Relations rep, a call from a Customer Care rep at district level, etc. None of this has helped. I was told at every level that the only way known to man that these movies could have been ordered is from inside my house using my equipment. I am 100% certain that they haven't been ordered from my house.

It looks like I'm going to have to swear to that under oath in court because my husband and I have agreed that we will not pay for these movies (52 movies since 4/21, most of them costing $11.99 —- I didn't even know there were on demand movies that cost $11.99). Though I have been researching this problem for hours and hours and have seen comments from others being charged for movies they say they didn't order, I have not seen anyone with a problem with Time Warner of this magnitude. Can you think of any possible way this could have happened?

17 porn flicks in one day? We're young. We're ambitious. But that's too much—by far—even for us.

Nancy's situation calls for a dose of common sense, which means executive customer support. Call Jeff Simmermon, Time Warner's Digital Communications Director, at (203) 351-2221, and see if he can't help wipe off those misfired charges.

(Photo: Getty)

"When I saw it, I was shocked," said Milfs. She was so offended by the books that she prepared a complaint to her state representative and to other organizations such as Morality in Media, Concerned Women of America and the American Family Association.

Milfs contacted Urban Outfitter's corporate office. "They said they are not sex books or pornography books, but that they are art books and their goals are to support the artists," Milfs said. Urban Outfitters has not made any official comment.

To protect children from sexually explicit content, many states have laws that limit children's access to any material that lacks "serious, artistic, political, scientific or literary value," said Robert Peters, president of Morality in Media, a group established to fight pornography. "The vagueness of the state law creates a legal gray area," according to Peters. "Arguably, an item that is inappropriate for children might be allowable if it's found suitable for adults."

According to Milfs, "It's not freedom of speech. It's selling adult books to teenagers." Whether or not a book such as this qualifies as "adult" is subjective to each adult individual, and just because a book has the word "porn" in its title, doesn't mean it's pornography. While we certainly agree that Milfs has the right to raise her child in a porn-free environment, we're just not convinced that paper genitalia qualifies as porn, however, your mileage may vary.

Mom appalled at racy books in store for teens at Alderwood mall [The Herald]

Once again, the lesson is to keep a separate hard drive just for stuff you don't want people in the repair shop to see.

Geek Squad: A matter of trust [Star Tribune]

Statements + Lawsuit (PDF)

Consumerist Forums reader "1gunit" discovered free porn while channel surfing on his new HDTV. It began when a strange program appeared that started to automatically fast forward itself through what was some presumably boring dialogue. When the program began to play at normal speed, "1gunit" realized he was watching someone else's "On Demand" porn. How did this happen? His letter, inside...

About a month ago i discovered that i was getting a few unlisted channels on my cable tv. I do not subscribe to "Digital Cable" I get "Extended Basic" (basically all the channels you can get with out the box) one of the 1st shows i came across was a porn and to me and my wifes surprise right after a rather interesting scene it started to fast forward to right passed all of the talking parts. It was then we realized we were watching other peoples "On Demand" shows. It varies from Blues clues to PPV movies to hot girl on girl action
This only happens on my newest tv which gets HDTV channels the Chanel's in question are in the 107 range..107-1....107-10. I asked about it at my local charter office when paying my bill and after a lot of apologizing and assurances that I was the only one this was happening to (more on that below) they took my number and told me some one would call the next day its been 8 days still no call and I still get free porn.

I went to work the other night (At a group home for mentally handicapped people) and guess what they get the free porn as well

I'm just wondering of anyone else is getting the same thing on there HDTVs. I'm not really complaining I like free porn (even if the jerk with the remote fast forwards through the redheads)but I bet someone a little less open minded than me will freak upon discovering this.

We commend you on your strength of character because most people wouldn't complain about free porn. For most adults this would be no problem but naturally there are others such as children who should not be able to freely receive adult programming. Since you also observed this phenomenon at work, it must mean that this situation is at least partially widespread. Because you have already reported the problem once with no relief, you should elevate this problem to someone in a higher position and see if they can help you bring a happy ending to this story.


Free porn on my charter cable [Consumerist Forums]
(Photo: Getty)

I discovered last night that my Comcast Adult on Demand channel is 333. Easy buttons for a child to accidently press, particularly when Nickelodeon is 33. That's right, one extra push, and my five year old gets the Playboy listings instead of Spongebob.

Yeah, I blocked Adult on Demand, but I only found it in the first place because I was searching the hinterlands of Showtime en español.

(Photo:rick)

Daniel Dean Thompson, 31, of Orem, was released from the Utah County Jail on bond Friday afternoon, according to the Utah County Jail Web site. Isaac R. Lifferth, 24, of Springville, is still in jail. Bail was set at $30,000.

Thompson, owner of the edited-movie retail store at 908 S. State St. in Orem, was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse and two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old. Lifferth was arrested on two charges of forcible sexual abuse, a charge of unlawful possession of a prescription drug, two charges of aiding prostitution, two charges of unlawful sexual activity with a 14-year-old and two charges of patronizing a prostitute.

According to a report Thursday by John McCombs, an investigating officer with the Orem Police Department, Thompson told the girls that edited movies were sold at Flix Club as a front, but he and Lifferth actually made and distributed pornography.

Thompson, a former dealer of edited movies with CleanFlicks, started Flix Club at the same address after the dealership was terminated at a time when the Hollywood movie industry was bringing legal pressure on businesses that edited movies.

Flix Club was forced to close last year in the wake of a landmark federal court ruling that said several movie-editing businesses violated U.S. copyright laws when they altered movies to remove nudity, profanity and other offensive content and offered "sanitized" versions for sale.

Clean-film business was front for porn, police say [Daily Herald via Philmguy]

Geek Squad employees viewed over 800 images contained in a folder titled XXXYOUNGS. The images featured young girls believed to be between the ages of 7 and 15. In some of the pictures the children were nude; in others, they were engaged in sexual acts with adult males.

Middle School Employee Charged with Child Pornography Possession [FOX9] (Thanks to Nick!)

Police Blotter: Can Circuit City techs legally peruse files? [ZDNET]
(Photo: jadakatt)

I wanted to write in about my recent experience with employment at circuit city. I work at a circuit city in Colorado, I was recently hired as holiday help. I was hired on as firedog, but only got the position for a few days, while I was at the post I got a standard firedog USB flash drive as a part of my job, it belonged to my supervisor. It was apparent he had wiped it before he gave it to me, which made me rather suspicious that he wouldn't leave the standard firedog tools on there...

So I obtained a file recovery tool to check the drive..What I recovered gave me quite a shock.

Massive amounts of porn. And not just the pornstar kind, lots of pics of people in their bathing suites posing with friends, many self taken shots, just creepy stuff that you know was stolen from peoples computers. But other than that I have seen nothing else that would suggest a massive porn ring like that of best buy.

-Anonymous

(Photo: wingless girl)

The autographed implants have been placed on eBay and Carey, whose real name is Mary Cook, said she planned to donate some 90 percent of the proceeds to the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation.

She intends to use the rest of the money on medical bills for her mother, who suffered major injuries after jumping off a four-story building in 2006.

I had worked for Geek Squad for over a year, and Best Buy a year and a half before that and was recently let go. Back when they started scanning computers, they said they found downloaded music and movies on our machine and we were to send them the hard drives. So we boxed them up and sent them out.

A month or so later the interrogations happened. We all had our turn, and when it was mine, I walked into a room with the table pushed against the wall and two chairs in the middle of the room sitting two feet apart with nothing in between.

Our store's loss prevention manager and the district loss prevention manager was there, and I reached out to shake his hand. He shook mine, looked me in the eyes and said "I already know if you are going to tell me the truth or not," with an intimidating grip on my hand still. Then we sat down, our knees inches apart. He asked me how long I had worked there, and how many hours a week I worked, why I liked working there. He didn't really care why, he just wanted to tell me why he liked working for Best Buy. He told me, "Well, I used to be a cop, and when you're a cop everything you do is reactive, you can't really stop people from committing crimes. Here I normally get to come in and make sure processes are in place so we don't have problems. But here we have a problem, and now I have to be reactive and be a cop again."

From there he asked me all sorts of questions about why there was music on our computer and where it came from, which was mostly us backing up customer's music because they paid us to, and my coworkers and i bringing in our iPods, which was ok with all the levels of management in the store. He even made a joke about how that wasn't "SOP" (the Best Buy bible), but he knew that our store LP manager was ok with it. It was ok because they trusted us. I was asked why we had Linux isos, which made me laugh. Also, during the interview anytime I was asked a question, I don't know wasn't an acceptable answer. At one point I stopped answering him because I was just sitting there saying I don't know. Then he had me write down everything I knew about in the precinct and sign it at the bottom. The district manager told me he would read it over afterwards to make sure it was "what they needed." I filled out the paper, signed it and gave it to him. Then they told me if I talked to anyone about what happened I would be fired.

Then the interesting began. My supervisor immediately started looking for another position at one of the 3 new stores opening in our area. He got one and put in his two week notice and stopped caring about his job. Everything started falling apart, then he left so we had no supervisor. So I put in my two week notice and found another job. The thing was our supervisor didn't know anything about fixing computers. All he card about was "selling our services" to people so he would meet his budgets and then tell us techs to fix whatever the customer wrote down which more than once included "retrieve deleted files" which yes we could have done if we were allowed to use the software, but we weren't. So he left and everything got better. And I talked to my general manager about staying, and he told me he saw how I had helped being a leader once our supervisor left and he was impressed and would like to see me move up in the company. A few days later we had a new supervisor who was a really nice guy and knew his stuff about computer fixing.

Now, I know you guys know about Jonny Utah (internally Geek Squad drops the 'h' so they don't get sued). Well I despise JonnyUtah. The entire time I worked there we were given goals of a certain number of computers which were to be fixed by JonnyUtah each week. The goal was seven. Most of the time we didn't hit our JonnyUtah goals because we were able to fix all the computers we brought in ourselves without needing help. I disliked it because:

1) I didn't get to work on the customer's computer
2) Someone in another country that does not have the same privacy laws as the United States was fixing our customer's computers.
3) Anytime we asked where the JonnyUtah guys were located we were told either it was "Top Secret" or "An undisclosed cave in a mountain on a remote island." Seriously.
4) We did a much better job than Jonny ever. We had so many people bring computers back that those guys "fixed" still having problems or hardware issues that you can't really fix over a remote connection.

On October 18th, the day after my birthday I came into work early and the entire district staff (probably 6 or 7 people) were hanging out in our area where we fix computers talking to my friend who was one of the other full time techs. I went into the break room to eat my lunch and my buddy came in and told me the district guys were asking him if he would be offended if he had to go out on the floor and sell Geek Squad services instead of fixing computers, and having JonnyUtah fix more of the computers. I clocked in and five minutes later was told by my general manager that I was being let go for having music and movies and unapproved software on the computer.

So whatever I don't work there anymore, I'm not crying. But I wish people would realize that Geek Squad isn't worth what you pay. Best Buy's rules kept us from being great computer techs. They wouldn't let us use linux in the store to do data backups because that required an extra $1500 (not exaggerating) from the customer and we had to UPS the drive to California. We weren't allowed to do laptop repair in the store, even though I'm capable of handling a soldering iron to reattach people's DC power jacks. And they'll tell you this is because they are sending them to the "laptop techs" or whatever, but most of the time that stuff would come back broke anyways and customer's would yell at us. It was a horrible situation for everyone and I think shows that not everything can work on a large scale. For someone like me computer repair is easy. I could have done so much more than they expected of me and brought in so much more money for them and made customers a lot happier not having to wait two days for a guy to put his laptop on the UPS truck. But that's the thing. Geek Squad doesn't want me. They want someone who will take your money and have someone in another country actually do the work. To sell you a $59 diagnostic fee to call you the next day and say "yeah, your laptop is completely dead just like you told us, com buy a new one."

I hope people start realizing that Geek Squad is nothing more than marketing. You see the tie and the white shirt and you assume that the agent knows what they're talking about. The truth is most of them don't. There are no tests. There is very little training and that is mostly on how to sell things. In fact my old supervisor had a motto I heard him use way too often: Perception is reality.

I've enjoyed reading your site since before any of this ever happened, and although in some round about way I ended up getting fire because of an article that was posted on your site, I'll forever support you guys because it's sites like this that can make a difference (and you guys have) in how companies do their business and treat their customers.

Cheers,
Agent Zero

PREVIOUSLY: Leaks: How Geek Squad Investigated Its Own Porn Thieves
Best Buy's Geek Squad Scours Stores In Person For Stolen Porn N' Stuff
VIDEO: Consumerist Catches Geek Squad Stealing Porn From Customer's Computer
(Photo: Victor Chiu)

Just to make sure there's no other child pornographers out there, Geek Squad will continue to scour the hard drives of its customers for salacious images and video, helping itself to whatever media it fancies as a sort of automatic gratuity for the vigilante services it provides to the community.

Geek Squad trip lands child porn "trafficker" in slammer for 10 years [ArsTechnica] (Thanks to Hassan!)