Slashdot Mirror
Wiretapping Lawsuit Against AT&T Dismissed
BalanceOfJudgement writes "A major victory by the federal government was won today when a federal judge dismissed the lawsuit against AT&T for providing phone records to the federal government. From the article: 'The court is persuaded that requiring AT&T to confirm or deny whether it has disclosed large quantities of telephone records to the federal government could give adversaries of this country valuable insight into the government's intelligence activities'" Not to be confused with the EFF case, this case was filed by the ACLU on behalf of author Studs Terkel and other activists who argued that their constitutional rights had been violated by the actions of AT&T and the NSA.
this lawsuit is fundamentally about secret wiretapping, right?
Wrong. This is not about wiretapping. This is about data mining. The wiretapping is a separate issue. This issue is about raw aggregate data. It's essentially the data on the second page of your phone bill.
Whether or not you feel this is wrong, it is NOT wiretapping.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Slashdot readers, more than just about anyone else, understand why the EFF's work is so important. YRO, right?
Got Encryption?
Like that the Supreme Court upheld Betamax?
Like your Broadcast-flag-free gear?
But most Slashdot members haven't joined the EFF. The EFF is fighting organizations that are thousands of times the size of the EFF, and the EFF is winning- that's the sort of thing to make you think Join the EFF today. Someone has to pay for the EFF, and right now that someone isn't 98% of Slashdot.
Yes, really. Slashdot has members in the high-hundred-thousands or low-millions. The EFF has nowhere near even 1/30th or 1/40th of that many members. 39 of 40 Slashdot members are relying on the donations of that 40th member to keep the EFF going. The 'Foundation' in Electronic Frontier Foundation doesn't mean 'trust fund.' It means 'you can make a tax deductable donation and that'll be helpful.'
Did you like that the Communications Decency Actgot killed?
Remember how quickly Sony got slammed for their rootkit?
Remember how long it took for non-technical people to understand how damaging the rootkit was? That's part of why the EFF is so important- they understand why the technical details matter so that they're ready when you call. But a small non-profit member-based organization depends on money from their members to run.
Disclaimer- I support the EFF and I know many of the people there- the 23 people who make the EFF look like it's 10x the size it is.General, you are listening to a machine! Do the world a favor and don't act like one.
The real issue is the method in which the numbers were obtained. They were gathered without warrents or court orders, i.e. they were illegally obtained.
This bad is because 1) the President/gov't is *not* suppose to be above the law, 2) any evidence obtained from this ill gotten booty would not be usable in court, this in turn makes convicting the terrorist that much more difficult and 3) the harm done out weighs the benefits.
Wouldn't the right of free assembly(1st amendment) and the right against unreasonable searches(4th amendment) come into play when tracking calls? It's ok for the gov't to disregard those rights in the pursuit of ______?
The Constitution was written as an attempt to prevent tyranny, by chipping away at the Bill of Rights and increasing the Executive branch's power(back-boor vetos) US citizens continue to lose legal means of protecting themselves from a tyrannical government.
Here is some reading material for you:
Bruce Schenier on NSA & Bush's illegal wiretaps
Bush blocks internal probe into illegal wiretaps
An Imminent Threat (to the Constitution)
There is more involved than just tracking who you are calling. That's just the cover story to distract you while the power grab is going on.
If the govt becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for law, it invites man to become his own law, it invites anarchy
The F***ing Opinion, for those that don't know acronyms, can be found on this page. Case Number 1:06-cv-2837.
And get arrested?
Right.... Their arrests were completely unrelated to crossing a police line after losing their court case.
This past presidential election there were actually _4_ presidential candidates.
No, there were at least 74 candidates, of which 6 could have theoretically (due to being on enough state's ballots) won the election. (Oddly, you omitted Ralph Nader - Independent/Reform (spite?) and Peroutka - Constitution).
Michael Badnarik the candidate for the Libertarian party, and David Cobb the candidate for the Green party were both arrested when they showed up for the debate. Some democracy, eh?
They weren't invited to the debate. They lost their court case. They crossed a police line. They were arrested. American democracy is fine, the Libertarian & Green parties, on the other hand....
much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
Two-party politics are an emergent property of a plurality voting system. Attack the issue at its root by advocating approval voting or Condorcet voting; if these other systems can be adopted, the party problem may consequently clear up.