"The FBI has recently adopted a novel investigative technique: posting hyperlinks that purport to be illegal videos of minors having sex, and then raiding the homes of anyone willing to click on them," reports Declan McCullagh at CNet.

A CNET News.com review of legal documents shows that courts have approved of this technique, even though it raises questions about entrapment, the problems of identifying who's using an open wireless connection -- and whether anyone who clicks on a FBI link that contains no child pornography should be automatically subject to a dawn raid by federal police.

The story covers the case of "Roderick Vosburgh, a doctoral student at Temple University who also taught history at La Salle University." He was "raided at home in February 2007 after he allegedly clicked on the FBI's hyperlink."

Vosburgh was charged with violating federal law, which criminalizes "attempts" to download child pornography with up to 10 years in prison. Last November, a jury found Vosburgh guilty on that count, and a sentencing hearing is scheduled for April 22, at which point Vosburgh could face three to four years in prison.

McCullagh points out that the FBI could just as easily spam millions of Americans "advertising illegal narcotics or child pornography -- and raid people who click on the links embedded in the spam messages."

Actually, if just reaching the site is a crime to be punished with imprisonment, couldn't they just send everyone an illegal TinyURL or obfuscated link in a phishing e-mail that says: "Have a look at this lolcat. Funny!"? Or would that be taking entrapment a bit too far?

One message is to make sure you don't have any hidden thumbs.db files from other people, because you don't know what they contain. The case also adds a bit of spice to ideas of speeding up the web by testing or starting to preload links just in case users want to click on them....