http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/kidporn_pr.html
http://articles.sfgate.com/2003-03-11/entertainment/17479878_1_child-pornography-child-molesters-operation-candyman
Operation 'Candyman' gets sticky...
The truth is, few of the people arrested in Operation Candyman were child molesters. Even more amazingly, it would appear that most of the people in the 700 homes searched were not even consumers of child pornography.
This story has been out there for six months, ever since Steve Silberman wrote a painstakingly researched piece in Wired magazine in October. You can read the entire article at www.wired.com/wired/archive/10.10/kidporn_pr.html.
One of the key points in Silberman's article: The search warrants contained the false allegation that everyone who logged on to the Candyman site received e-mail containing pornographic images. That was not true. You had to opt in to e-mail, and most visitors to the site did not choose to do so.
That was what U.S. District Judge Catherine Perry was referring to when she talked about "false information (that) was recklessly included in the search warrant application." She added that saying that logging on to the Candyman site constituted probable cause for possessing child pornography was like "saying if someone subscribes to a drug legalization organization or newsletter, then there is probable cause to believe that person possesses drugs."
