TELECOM Digest OnLine - Sorted: Re: Last Laugh! Re: Texas Officials Wary of Plan to Hunt

Re: Last Laugh! Re: Texas Officials Wary of Plan to Hunt

Michael A. Covington (look@www.covingtoninnovations.com.for.address)
Sun, 21 Nov 2004 00:08:30 -0500

You forgot the April 1 dateline. Admittedly it's November now... :)

RobertPlattBell <robertbell@erols.com> wrote in message
news:telecom23.557.15@telecom-digest.org:

> You think Internet HUNTING is bad? Take the concept to its logical
> conclusion ... (some fun with cut and paste techniques).

> By Jeff Franks

> HOUSTON (Reuters) - Killers soon may be able to sit at their computers
> and blast away at people in an unnamed third-world country via the
> Internet, a prospect that has human rights activists up in arms.

> A controversial Web site, http://www.live-shot.com, already offers
> target practice with a .22 caliber rifle and could soon let Killers
> shoot at women and children, site creator John Underwood said on
> Tuesday.

> U.S. Government officials are not quite sure what to make of
> Underwood's Web site, but may tweak existing laws to make sure
> Internet killing does not get out of hand.

> "This is the first one I've seen," said senior FBI agent Mike Berger.
> "The current state statutes don't cover this sort of thing."

> Underwood, an estimator for a San Antonio, Texas auto body shop, has
> invested $10,000 to build a platform for a rifle and camera that can
> be remotely aimed on his 330-acre (133-hectare) estate located in an
> undisclosed third-world country, by anyone on the Internet anywhere in
> the world.

> The idea came last year while viewing another Web site on which
> cameras posted in in various third-world countries are used to snap
> photos of people. "We were looking at a beautiful young Hispanic girl
> and my friend said 'If you just had a gun for that.' A little light
> bulb went off in my head," he said.

> Internet killing could be popular with the disabled unable to get out
> of the house who still want to experience a "thrill kill", or for
> those who cannot afford a trip to third-world countries to commit
> murders, Underwood said.

> Berger said state law only covers "regulated people" such as U.S.
> Citizens within the United States and cannot prevent Underwood from
> offering Internet kills of "unregulated" people such as foreigners
> located in distant lands.

> He has proposed a rule that will come up for public discussion in
> January that anyone killing people via Internet, even if the victim is
> in a foreign land, could be tried for murder in the State.

> Berger expressed reservations about remote control killing, but noted
> that humans have always adopted new technologies to kill.

> "First it was rocks and clubs, then we sharpened it and put it on a
> stick. Then there was the bow and arrow, black powder, smokeless power
> and optics," Berger said. "Maybe this is the next technological step
> out there."

> Underwood, 39, said he will offer human killing as soon as he gets a
> fast Internet connection to his third world estate that will enable
> killers to aim the rifle quickly at passing people.

> He said an attendant would retrieve shot people for the shooters, who
> could have the heads preserved by a taxidermist. They could also have
> the meat processed and shipped home, or donated to orphanages.

[TELECOM Digest Editor's Note: There is a problem in any event with
using a gun on the internet. What if someone logs in using a false
name, then uses a gun to shoot at a person in a deliberate way? Who
is held responsible, the user, the web site operator, or?? PAT]

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