Do honeypots constitute entrapment?
No. This is the most commonly asked question about honeypots, and the answer is a clear no. Entrapment has a clear legal definition whereby law enforcement officers encourage somebody to a commit a crime that they were not otherwise disposed to do. This means: • If you are not a law enforcement officer, you cannot entrap. • Affording the means for somebody to commit a crime is not the same as encouraging the crime. The FBI can setup a honeypot without risk of entrapment. • If the FBI contacts somebody in alt.2600 and posts a bounty for cracking into a system, then it would be entrapment.
