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Show The Salt Lake Tribune NATION/WORLD Friday, August 10, 2001 Texans Who RanPorn Site’ Claim to Be Victims Couple charged Internet subscribers more for child porn;split profits with webmasters BY DAVID KOENIG { then 6. He was already working on ‘THE ASSOCIATED PRESS a start-up Internet company, DALLAS — Thomas and Janice Reedy lived in an upscale Fort Worth neighborhood where neighbors say they threwall-nightpool parties and where luxury cars would pull into their half-moon driveway at all hours ofthe night. They told neighbors they were in the. business, which was partly true: They sold access to child pornography on Internet sites Landslide Inc. Janice Reedy was trained to keep the company’s books. Shetestified that she saw offensive-sounding names of Web sites, but a woman training her in 1997 told her to ignore them. For more than two years, Reedy charged users a fee to view sexually explicit sites, kept 40 percent of the money and sent 60 percent to webmas- ters,in Indonesia and Russia. She said she learned the sites contained child pornography when a Thomas Reedy, a licensed vocational nurse who taught himself computers, didn’t tes- tify during the five-daytrial in federal court in Fort Worth. His wife was UTAHNS CHARGED former em- State to prosecute eight subscribers D-2 heroff in 1999. collecting “I went to myhusband,and he said he had moneyforother businesses. contacted the FBIandit was all Attorney Steven Rozan, who is preparing their appeal, said being handled,” Reedy said. Less than a month later, po- the Reedys are victims — Reedy was sentenced tolife in lice raided the business. ployee tipped to Reedys' Web sites prison and his wife received 14 years. “To lose 10 years of a person’slife in prison is a helluva lot for a crime that doesn’t involve death, doesn’t involve maiming, butis basically a cybercrime,” Rozan said. “These people were basically ticket Investigators didn't believe Janice Reedy’s claim to be igno-,* rantof the child pornography. Ron Eddins, who helped prosecute the case, said she exchanged e-mail messages with foreign webmasters about irate turing United States, Eddins said: Instead, they postet-mes- sages in Internet chat rodjiis announcing their arrests ang asking for moneyto hire lawyers. ~ with names like “Cyber Lolita” and “Child Rape.” Authorities say it was an international operation with 250,000 subscribers that grossed as much as $1.4 million a month. This week, the Reedys were sentenced to prison for con- spiracy to distribute and possess child pornography On Wednesday, authorities annouiiced the arrests of 100 of the ¢ouple’s subscribers in what they called’ the largest child-pornography° business discoveredin the United States. “This is the worst kind of exploitation,” said Ruben Rodriguez, a director at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. “Tothink of the image of child pornography—a childis being molested, raped, abused. You're allowing people to pay to look at this victimization of a child.” The Reedys’ attorneys call them victims of an overzealous government. They were arrested in April 2000. j In court, Janice Reedy, 32, testified that she met Thomas Reedy, 38, in South Texas and moved to Fort Worth in 1997 with her daughter, who was ae Lax Laws Let Child Porn Thrive Abroad THE ASSOCIATED PRESS JAKARTA, Indonesia — Takinga longpuff on his cigarette, the street vendor questions a passer-by: “Hey mister, do you want blue?” using the slang for pornography as he points to racks of pirated movies stacked up undera bright orangeplastictarp. His is just one of the hun- dreds oflittle shops jammed into Glodok, a sprawling market in ‘Jakarta’s Chinatown district considered to be one of i WHEN YOU BUY A QUEEN MATTRESS AT GRANITE FURNITURE. nt the largest pornographic ba- zaars in Southeast Asia. Although pornographicfilms and magazines are banned in Indo- nesia, where they are considered a violation of the country’s modesty and Islamic conservatism, Glodok’s sellers operate withoutfear of arrest. For those whooffer pornography ontheInternet, it iseven easier; after all, Indonesia has no laws regarding pornography online. Thecostof such lack of regulation came into play this week, when U.S. agents announced they had arrested 100 people and cracked the largest child pornography business ever discovered in the United States — andit was online. The bulk of the Texas-based business’ material, agents said, came from Indonesia and Russia, where suspects known as webmastersoperated thesites. Butofficials here said they haveno authority to arrest two Indonesians charged in the case, since thereare nostatutes barring what they may have done. In fact, government offi- cials and activists say Indonesia is oneoftheeasiestplacesin the world to establish a pornography Website. Indonesian police spokesman Maj..Gen. Didi Widayadi said officers would try to find Aries Dharmann and Michael Yamim — the twosite operators identified by U.S, agents in the Texascase. Buthesaid that withoutlegal regulations prosecution wouldbe difficult, Officials in Moscow said Thursdaythat at least 10 Russians were underinvestigation in connection with the Texas operation. Russian law does notdistinguish between child pornography and pornography involving adults, and treats the production and distribution of either as a minor crime, said Dmitry. Chepchugov, head of the Russian Interior Ministry's t it for high technology An Interior Ministry official in Moscow said that at least 10 Russian operators are being investigated in the case, but that they are certain to get awaywith no more than 2 years in prison ifconvicted there. USE YOUR TAX REBATE CHECK TO BUY WITH, OR AS A DOWN PAYMENTAT GRANITE...AND WE’LL ADD AN "Based CUOg non te oie ADDITIONAL $50* TO IT! Stimeecar| Pon boon Debra ails check. Purchase of $300 Te Pe ROe UCR HU eRaD eC s. One check per purchase, per ener NO DOWN!* | NO PAYMENTS!* NO INTERE! |