from the surveillance,-surveillance-everywhere dept
The elephant in this week's news has been Edward Snowden. While he's been quiet since ditching Hong Kong early in the week, the effects of his leaking of evidence of the NSA's spying on American citizens continue to reverberate.
Rep. Mike Rogers, head of the House Intelligence Committee (insert joke here), has twisted himself into logical knots in his attempts to condemn Snowden. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the NSA's former General Counsel went further and laid into the Washington Post's Bart Gellman for reporting on the NSA. Disappointingly, other journalists are lining up to smear The Guardian's Glenn Greenwald over trivialities. It makes you wonder if the FBI's undercover payroll is limited to WikiLeaks.
Despite the flagrant attempt at distraction, details continue to emerge. We finally have confirmation that the NSA has been bulk collecting email metadata. The NSA's general response has been to lie about the message and double down on messengers.
Aside from being blatantly unconstitutional, sifting massive data collections is unlikely to catch actual terrorists. Even a former East German Stasi officer recognizes the problems with the NSA's nearly limitless scope.
Fortunately, it hasn't been all bad news this week. The US Senate, at least, may have been belatedly woken to its oversight duties. In something of a surprise, the FCC has insisted that Telcos protect meta-data, which could alter the 'expectation of privacy' that we are afforded to something closer to that which we expect. Is it too much to hope that the Department of Justice will follow its own guidelines not to treat leaks as theft of government property?
Elsewhere, the Marrakech treaty managed to provide for the blind despite heavy lobbying, which seems to debunk the USTR's insistance that secrecy is necessary for treaty negotiations. The Kafkaesque No Fly List seems to have met with a skeptical judge, while across the pond the EU CoJ AG weighed in against the Orwellian "right to be forgotten." Finally, those attempts to smear Glenn Greenwald mentioned above ran into instant Internet mockery. No doubt it's his fault.
8 Comments | Leave a Comment..
from the favorites dept
This week's favorites are from ChurchHatesTucker, who has been contributing to the community here for many, many years, providing all sorts of useful stories and insights.
If you read Techdirt for any length of time, you start to expect certain stories: ICE is off the hook, the BSA is against Open Standards, Hollywood and the US Senate just can't quit each other, Moby thinks the record labels should just die. You know the drill. So, it's always a relief to come across the unexpected ones, good or bad.
The "Jasmine Revolution" in China didn't amount to much, but that didn't stop a surprisingly large number of sites around the world from simply recycling pictures of other events. Did they think nobody would notice?
The works of the US government are (normally) in the public domain, as they're paid for by the American public. This includes the widely regarded reports of the Congressional Resource Service. Unfortunately, that doesn't mean that they're actually available. So, we're at a point where we have to petition the government to release public domain information to the public.
On the state level, Connecticut is considering a bill that would guarantee the public's right to record the police. More importantly, it would provide civil sanctions if that right is violated. Meanwhile, Florida is considering a measure to criminalize unauthorized photography of farms in order to protect the "intellectual property" of farm operations. Any interference with animal rights groups is purely coincidental.
I suppose 'wacky lawsuits' as a whole are part and parcel of Techdirt's coverage, but the individual stories never cease to amaze. Groupon, whose very name is a portmanteau of "Group Coupon," finds itself in court over charges that its offerings should be considered gift cards. Meanwhile, Facebook is being sued for one man's failure to be elected to Congress.
A continuing theme in the digital age is that companies seek to use all the advantages of digital media, while trying to impose all the disadvantages of physical media on their customers. Along those lines, HarperCollins has apparently decided that the problem with ebooks is that they last too long. To remedy that situation they've imposed a DRM-enforced license on libraries to ensure that a book can only be lent out 26 times.
In yet another example of copyright as a means of control, rather than incentive, Ubisoft has blocked an advertisement for its European "We Dare" Wii game. I'm left wondering why they don't block it in Europe.
And finally, Libyans organized protests around the country under the nose of the secret police by leaving cleverly coded messages on an online dating site. I LLLLove it.
22 Comments | Leave a Comment..
Funny
At some point, realism has to set in
No, wait. I meant tragic.
Typical
This is the Republican MO these days. Prove that government doesn't work by appointing spectacularly unqualified people to fail us.
(untitled comment)
Whatever the purpose of trademark has become in modern times, I doubt the framers had intended it to simply create busy work for lawyers and USPTO employees.
Spoken like someone who has never had to justify their job.
Re: Re: Re: Jeebus Tim
The FBI's conclusion was (roughly) that she did plenty "wrong" but nothing that merited an indictment.
Comey has backed down on every 'wrong' when pressed (likely because Powell, and indeed the entire Bush team, was FAR more egregious. Hillary actually complied with FOIA.)
Re: Re: Jeebus Tim
no it seems the intent was there, the ability to achieve the goal seems to be lacking. The emails we are hearing about now were deleted, just not irretrievable.
Facts not in evidence.
Jeebus Tim
- She deployed her own private email server despite being warned against doing so, and while receiving input from other officials who hinted it might be a good way to route around public record requirements.
While Powell *advised* her to to route around FOIA, like he did (page 11 of the FBI notes) she obviously did not do that or we wouldn't be hearing about her emails all the damn time.
Running your own email server is rarely a good idea, but let's not imply motives contrary to her actions.
Re:
Yeah, the Feds probably just showed the judge his browser history.
Re:
That last part, anyway.
Re: Re: Re: Re: an annual read
Stephenson's masterpiece is the first chapter of Snow Crash.
The Frak?
allowing defendants to pay for representation out of funds on hand will only encourage criminals to spend ill-gotten gains faster in hopes of denying sought retribution while availing itself of the most expensive defense lawyers they can afford.
Oh, you want to mount a vigorous defense? You're robbing the victims!
Oh shit!
Florida Man is a cop?
Fraud!
It's not champ without potatoes and scallions.
He sure did
Reddit's CEO Steve Huffman responded in the comments in a manner that doesn't totally clear anything up at all
In context he was perfectly clear. "I've been advised not to say anything one way or the other." The only reason he'd be advised not to answer that question is if they had received an NSL.
"youremahm"
You know who else likes to take selfies?
Re:
Screenshot of terrorist encryption
Not just that
He points out that the only thing that has truly helped stop another 9/11-style plane hijacking (as Bruce Schneier points out repeatedly) is not the TSA security theater, but reinforced, locked cockpit doors that make it impossible for people in the cabin to get into the cockpit.
What really stopped another 9/11 is the passengers realizing that hijackings were no longer unscheduled Cuban vacations. The threat ended in a field in Pennsylvania. (see, e.g., the shoe bomber, the underwear bomber, etc.)
UK Nook owners
Google "Apprentice Alf"
Re:
Start the timer!
Sounds familiar
It's like the recent hue and cry over "election fraud" that's really aimed at preventing the wrong people from voting. This is about the wrong price from prevailing.
Zdziarski's take
Where Gates is wrong is that FBI is not ordering Apple to simply cut the ribbon.