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I'm no lawyer but I don't we why it wouldn't be admissible unless it somehow violated the perpetrators rights. Even then since we are not the police the situation might be different.

Anyone know for sure? There must be rules of evidence that cover this situation.

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Even if it's not admissible, it may provide helpful leads.

I think there may be issues with authentication. Usually, you would have a witness authenticate a photo ("yes, i took this with my camera at this day and time, etc."). If it's a random photo on a website, it may be more difficult to prove its accuracy.

Seems like there would be two stages: (1) solve the crime and (2) gather the evidence. Seems like as long as the evidence is not tampered with it would still be usable in court. For example uploading a picture shouldn't destroy its value as evidence.

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