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EFF Sues AT&T Over NSA Wiretapping

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the getting-caught-in-the-wrong-bed dept.

Omega1045 writes "Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing is reporting that the Electronic Frontier Foundation has just filed a lawsuit against AT&T for helping the National Security Agency execute illegal warrant-less wiretaps against American citizens. From the article: 'The lawsuits alleges that AT&T Corp. has opened its key telecommunications facilities and databases to direct access by the NSA and/or other government agencies, thereby disclosing to the government the contents of its customers' communications as well as detailed communications records about millions of its customers, including the lawsuit's class members.'"

26 of 746 comments (clear)

  1. TLA truck overturns on the turnpike by Thud457 · · Score: 5, Funny

    thousands confused...

    --

    the preceding comment is my own and in no way reflects the opinion of the Joint Chiefs of Staff

    1. Re:TLA truck overturns on the turnpike by tomhudson · · Score: 4, Funny

      How is this off topic? They couldn't have worked more alphabet-soup acronyms into the headline if they tried?

      Well, maybe they could. Let's try rewriting the story:

      YRO: EFF vs ATT re NSA FUBAR

      CD of BB SEZ EFF vs AT&T re: NSA USC H4X0R FTA: "SNAFU: ATT let NSA, other GAs p0wn NOCs, POTS, & DBs"

      19 acronyms, 5 abbreviations, etc.

      Well, its certainly Acronym 2.0 compliant.

  2. Yes! by s0rbix · · Score: 5, Funny

    EFF is my BFF.

    1. Re:Yes! by micahfk · · Score: 4, Funny

      the EFFect of this will bring it to everyone's ATTention.

    2. Re:Yes! by Eccles · · Score: 5, Funny

      Yeah, right.

      "But Osama, Osama, you said they had to go to FISA before they could wiretap our conversations! Now they're doing it without a warrant!"

      "What can I say, how can I get a lawyer when we won't deal with Jews?"

      --
      Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
  3. Comment removed by account_deleted · · Score: 4, Funny

    Comment removed based on user account deletion

  4. What'd they say? by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny


    "What'd they say?"
    "Said they're gonna sue AT&T."
    "Why?"
    "Dunno, probably because AT&T let's us wiretap illegally."
    "What're they saying now?"
    "Something about their line is probably even now being bugged."
    "Harsh!"

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  5. TLAs... by The+Good+Reverend · · Score: 4, Funny

    EFF Sues AT&T Over NSA Wiretapping

    OMG!

  6. Good for them. by RyoShin · · Score: 2, Funny

    Nice to see someone finally starting some backlash for the tapping, even if it's not against the government.

    In other news, Cory better be careful or he may get another mean letter calling him names and threatenin' all legal-like.

  7. Does the NSA need help? by Sen.NullProcPntr · · Score: 3, Funny
    I thought the NSA just happened to have satellite dishes right next to every communications down link in the US.

    Maybe they haven't yet perfected undersea cable interception.

    Where are those laser guided sharks when you need them?

  8. Re:Not illegal. by ackthpt · · Score: 5, Funny
    Who says it was US Citizens ? I've not seen that anywhere. The president was granted this power by congress and congress knew all along about it. Nothing to see here, move along.

    Aren't you supposed to be preparing for your speech tonight?

    --

    A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
  9. Re:It's about time EFF got back into the news! by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Funny

    Why, because the current President of the United States says so, and it's not like he's every got anything wrong before.

    --
    The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
  10. If AT&T is innocent, they have nothing to hide by bigtrike · · Score: 5, Funny

    Just like a citizen who is not guilty of any crimes should welcome the friendly government agent asking for his papers, if AT&T is innocent they should welcome this. If they have not been breaking laws by complying with the NSA, then they have nothing to fear. Should AT&T attempt to fight this, it must be because they are definitely guilty of violating laws.

  11. So next time you make a call by MasterCommanderZero · · Score: 3, Funny

    Just say "I'm a sex bomb". Your call will be recorded -> keyword match. Then you can pass any message you want to the governement, at least someone will be listening.

  12. Re:Interesting by Kesch · · Score: 1, Funny

    Everyone forgets about the unwritten rules.

    Unwritten Rule 37.2.b: Don't fuck with the NSA.

    I hope you realize the peril I'm facing for writting an unwritten rule, but I thought it had to be said.

    --
    If this signature is witty enough, maybe somebody will like me.
  13. Re:Excuse me? by waynemcdougall · · Score: 4, Funny

    Do nothing. Roll over. Keep quiet. Don't stick your neck out. Hunker down. Give up. Deal with it. Surrender. Comply.

    Is that what you'd recommend in the face of arrogance and tyranny?

    Uh, no, I'd recommend:

    click...I, for one, welcome our warrantless, wire-tapping overlords...hello, hello, is this thing on, CAN YOU HEAR ME NOW? I SAID I can be useful in rounding up fellow slashdotters to slave in your undeground Echelon data store....click

    --
    Recycle PCs and build a wireless community network www.hillsborough.org.nz
  14. Re:Excuse me? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    How I wish I had been born as one of those average folk who could be satisified by nightly television and a cookie cutter job. Unless a person finds themselves accepted into social circles filled with already-powerful individuals the desire to excel is a sentence of lifelong misery. Ridicule and ostricism comes from the average folk--the overwhelming majority--and denial, ridicule, harassment, and ostricism comes from the priveleged folk.

    Honey, I know it's hard for you right now, but you hang in there. In a few years you'll be at college and everything will seem so different. Now turn off your music, log out of your blog and I'll be back to tuck you in in five minutes :)

  15. Re:What ever happened to ... by shiafu · · Score: 2, Funny

    Immigants! I knew it was them! Even when it was the bears, I knew it
    was them.

  16. Re:If AT&T is innocent, they have nothing to h by sholden · · Score: 3, Funny

    whoosh. You'll need to jump higher to catch those over your head shots.

  17. Re:What can we, as individuals, really do? by (1+-sqrt(5))*(2**-1) · · Score: 2, Funny
    Imagine a cancerous lump the size of your fist in your stomach. A single vote is like taking a single cell out of that lump.
    I always thought that was one of the capital advantages of monarchy: there's someone, namely, to defenestrate; and therewith an end.
  18. Y RLY by mobby_6kl · · Score: 2, Funny

    01001001 00100000 01110111 01100001 01110011 00100000 01100111 01101111 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101111 00100000 01100100 01101111 00100000 01100101 01111000 01100001 01100011 01110100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110111 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01100111 01100111 01100101 01110011 01110100 01100101 01100100 00101100 00100000 01100010 01110101 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101110 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101001 01111010 01100101 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01101001 01110100 00100111 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101100 01101101 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 00110011 00100000 01100001 01101101 00100000 01101000 01100101 01110010 01100101 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101000 01100001 01110110 01100101 00100000 01100001 00100000 01100110 01101001 01101110 01100001 01101100 00100000 01110100 01101111 01101101 01101111 01011110 01010111 01110100 01101111 01100100 01100001 01111001 00101110 00100000 01010011 01101111 00100000 01001001 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01101000 01101111 01110000 01100101 00100000 01111010 01100101 01110010 01101111 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01101111 01101110 01100101 01110011 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101110 00100000 01100010 01100101 00100000 01100011 01100001 01101100 01101100 01100101 01100100 00100000 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101000 01100101 01101101 01100001 01110100 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 00100000 01101110 01101111 01110100 01100001 01110100 01101001 01101111 01101110 00101100 00100000 01100001 01101110 01100100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110011 01101001 01101110 01100011 01100101 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100000 01100111 01101111 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01100110 01100001 01110010 00101100 00100000 01111001 01101111 01110101 00100111 01100100 00100000 01101010 01110101 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100001 01110011 01110011 01110101 01101101 01100101 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100101 00100000 01100001 01110010 01110100 01101001 01100011 01101100 01100101 00100000 01110011 01110101 01101101 01101101 01100001 01110010 01111001 00101110 00100000 01000001 01101110 01101111 01110100 01101000 01100101 01110010 00100000 01101001 01101110 01110100 01100101 01110010 01100101 01110011 01110100 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110100 01101000 01100001 01110100 00100000 01110100 01101000 01101001 01110011 00100000 01110000 01101111 01110011 01110100 00100000 01100100 01101111 01100101 01110011 01101110 00100111 01110100 00100000 01110010 01100101 01100001 01101100 01101100 01111001 00100000 01110011 01100001 01111001 00100000 01100001 01101110 01111001 01110100 01101000 01101001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01110101 01110011 01100101 01100110 01110101 01101100 00101110

  19. Re:LOL! by Traa · · Score: 4, Funny

    NSA==GWB
    NSA>EFF
    :-(
    FU AT&T

  20. Re:"if you're doing nothing wrong, then you have n by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Monolithic kernels are better.

  21. Are you talking smack about US intelligence? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
    including the terrorists who were being tapped that have since found other means of communication

    Like what, sport? Smoke signals? Wooo, the terrorists KNOW that US Signals Intelligence is trying to listen in on their phone calls/email/faxes and any other form of electronic communications they can get their 40 foot dishes on! Oh Noes!!1!ONE1!ELEVENTY1!

    Do the words "No shit Sherlock" hold any meaning for you? Any terrorist that didn't already know this was already killed or captured long before 9/11 or any other major event. It's just common sense. Terrorist darwinism. If you are too f'in stupid to stego-encrypt your plans to blow up the White House in an apparent P3N15 enlargement spam, you were a dead terrorist already. The ones that aren't dead are the ones that know better. Either that, or you're saying the good men and women of our nation's intelligence agencies are incredibly stupid, endangering American lives with negligent job performance, and deserve to be fired.

    Wait a minute... that's exactly what you're saying... That's it isn't asshole? You're talking shit about our CIA/DIA/FBI/KGB/SIGINT/STASI/NSA/NRO/DHS, aren't you, you mother fucking unpatriotic piece of horse shit!!! You're saying there are terrorist sending plain text email that haven't been captured! You mother fucker... Call in the jack boots and kick itsdave's ass. You're with us or against us you unpatriotic towel head son of a bitch. What's it gonna be 'dave' or should I say Akmed?!?!

    ... there, now you know how stupid you sound to the rest of the free world.

  22. In other news... by squidguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    It was later revealed that the EFF was being funded by Verizon and Sprint...

  23. Ambulance Chasers by squidguy · · Score: 2, Funny

    Damn shysters... now my phone bill will be as expensive as a coronary bypass.