Digital Vigilantes: Hacking for a Good Cause

[gonzo]

Brad Willman was installing networking equipment out of an emergency van in British Columbia when a policeman showed up and asked for him. Willman knew the officer from a case he was involved with a couple of years earlier, so he didn't worry--until he arrived at the police station and was introduced to a couple of U.S. cops.
The visit marked the end of Willman's version of vigilante justice.
A Trojan Horse Used for Good

It was 2000, and Willman was 19. He had spent the past few years surreptitiously distributing a Trojan horse program to more than 1,000 people to try to uncover child-porn activities. All told, Willman said his work sent around 70 people to prison.
But then Willman stumbled on a prominent California judge. He discovered that Ronald Kline, at the time a superior court judge in Orange County, had a big collection of child porn and a diary on his PC indicating he was planning to try to seduce young boys. The high-profile case put an end to Willman's career as a crime-fighter.

"Oh, I knew it was illegal," Willman said in a recent phone interview. "But I really didn't care. I felt if I'm helping a few people in the process, cool." Until Kline, Willman had managed to remain anonymous.

Read the rest of this article....

This reminds me of the guy that got off using PGP to encrypt his kiddie porn files on a technicality.

Anyone interested in discussing the moral vs the legal dilemna here?