Slashdot Mirror
Judge Rules Twitter Data Fair Game In Wikileaks Investigation
Wired reports that "The Justice Department is entitled to records of the Twitter accounts used by three current and former WikiLeaks associates, a federal judge ruled Thursday, dealing a victory to prosecutors in a routine records demand that turned into a fierce court battle over online privacy and free speech. ... The Justice Department has been seeking the Twitter records under 18 USC 2703(d), a 1994 amendment to the Stored Communications Act that allows law enforcement access to non-content internet records, such as transaction information, without demonstrating the 'probable cause' needed for a full-blown search warrant."
Jacob Appelbaum, one of the three, was also detained on his re-entry to the U.S. last August (as well as on numerous other occasions) and had his email records seized as well. The others are Birgitta Jonsdottir (a member of Iceland's parliament) and Dutch businessman Rop Gonggrijp.
eom
mfwright@batnet.com
I've donated several times to wikileaks, support them on facebook, reshare their posts, own a tshirt as well as host a wikileaks mirror my name is undoubtedly somewhere in that mess of paperwork haha
Don't want something to leak out? Then don't do something where you can get caught with your pants down.
This just shows how free the common man really is.... not.
Ok so now we know what the government CAN do... question is... what CAN'T they do? Is framing someone for rape "fair game"?
Flattr is still open for donations to WikiLeaks.
https://flattr.com/profile/WikiLeaks
There is a question raised, occasionally, of freedom from government versus freedom through government. It should be apparent, by now, to everyone that Free Speech cannot be had through the U.S. Government. They no longer defend the clear expressed will of The Constitution. That leaves us only one choice for the defense of Free Speech: Darknets.
If you've got the skills, get a darknet node up now, and begin teaching your less skilled friends how to do so. It is the only chance we have of retaining our right to Free Speech. And as so many of The Founding Fathers made so clear, Free Speech is the most important right for the defense of democracy. Without Free Speech, we are no more than a tin-pot dictatorship in sheep's clothing.
One important note before you venture there, though: Truly free speech can be a horrifying thing. I have seen things on I2P that have forced me to run back through the logic that leads me to the conclusion that the good of Free Speech outweighs the bad of it. There are things out there that are painful to see if you stumble across them. My advice is this: If you think it might be there, and it might be disturbing; do your very best to avoid stumbling across it. The worst you can imagine is a good enough representation of what is there -- you don't want to see it. Seriously. I heard the same advice but did not take sufficient care about what links I clicked on. It is so profoundly disturbing that I considered uninstalling I2P, despite my absolute conviction that darknets are necessary.
This is what escalation in the war on Free Speech leads to. Sigh. Those images in my head are because of the MAFIAA and the authoritarians. They did this. And I hope someday they suffer for it. They are monsters.
Stop-Prism.org: Opt Out of Surveillance
...sound of crickets chirping...
Associate with communi^H^H^Hwikileaks? You are a suspect.
Palm trees and 8
This really seems like quite the abuse of the fourth amendment. The whole lack of a need for probably cause is extremely troubling.
A nasty blow to privacy.
Need any dad jokes?
What is happening? Lots of posts were just modded down...is this a bug in Slashdot or is it tinfoil time?
Palm trees and 8
If we're going to completely ignore the Fourth Amendment, could we at least repeal it so that we don't have to live under the false pretense that it still has any meaning? I mean, how hard is it to get a damn warrant these days?
--Abraham Lincoln
echo '[q]sa[ln0=aln80~Psnlbx]16isb572CCB9AE9DB03273snlbxq' |dc
Lincoln ignored a court's ruling that his detention of people without habeas corpus was unlawful since the Constitution reserved the power to suspend habeas corpus to Congress alone.
Congress later approving the action does not make it right. He did what was at the time blatantly unconstitutional.
That is such patent bullshit. The law, as a vehicle for justice, is nonsense. All this work to find out guilt when they could just cut to the chase and hold them underwater. After they drown, you can decide if that means they were innocent or guilty. Won't hardly matter, it will surely clear the case.
And then, it makes it a lot easier for the accused to decide if they want to shoot the people coming to arrest them.
.gov already has a contract with facebook, twitter, google. To them, its just another choicepoint.
I'd bet my lunch you're wrong there. Your post assumes we have anything left of privacy. When someone invokes magic words about Security Threats all that goes away.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I, as a lesbian, enjoy sticking my fingers in my partner's dripping twat when I perform Analingus. Is there a term for this for us females?
The problem with a large number of you Americans (and I say this as someone that, for the most part, likes visiting and likes the American people, it's hard to not like you when you grew up watching Back to the Future in the 80's) is that you've forgotten the lessons of your forefathers, it is the responsibility of a proud and patriotic citizen to question, criticise and shout at their governments. Crying out that if you don't all get in line then "the terrorists win" and swallowing everything your government tells you is something a stupid man does.
You got all that from Back To The Future?
Or did you watch Teen Wolf too?
Seems like Jacob Appelbaum should start using more the software he co-develops (Tor) and using less Twitter.
That's good, I need some lunch.
My post does only address what is covered by this case -- not what the investigators could possibly request (and successfully obtain) in the future.
I wrote a blog post on my site on how to mirror the Wikileaks website on your smart phone anonymously using some simple tools. Jacob Appelbaum tweeted about this, and we followed each other. Then shortly after, this all happened with the Twitter info and the stops at the border. I watched his live tweeting with a bit of worry for myself.
Why do agencies want Twitter and email information? Appelbaum is a smart guy, part of the Tor project, so you can bet anything that is sensitive is encrypted. What they want are connections. And that disturbs me when it comes time to spread blame.
In the UK, they sent people to prison for Facebook posts. I really don't want to get locked up like Bradley Manning for a damn blog post on how to mirror a website using your phone: http://i8-d.com/2010/12/05/mirror-wikileaks-anonymously-on-your-android-phone/ Then again, some might say, "Well, then you shouldn't have written it." To that I say, even if it meant going to prison, I'm glad to have stood up for free speech.
Not that I'm totally idealistic. Prison is not my idea of a neat-o claim to fame. I have a family, a son, and a good job. Who the hell wants to put "Felony conviction - Federal conviction for accessory to treason," or whatever strange and trump up charges they are trying to come up for these people, on their resume?
On the other hand, if nobody stands up to corporate censorship, what kind of world will my son grow up in?
The chances are probably low that they'd come after me for not actually doing anything illegal, but when has that stopped them before? In the search for a scapegoat, any goat will do.
I8-D