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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
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.
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
And now they have your Slashdot UID. If they didn't have your name before, they probably have it now...
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
I've never tried to be anonymous with wikileaks though I wouldn't mind martyr'ing myself for the cause... free health care in jail :) as I have no health insurance atm that would be really nice
I wouldn't mind martyr'ing myself for the cause..
Thats because you want to use wikileaks for your own personal gain, much like Assange himself. Sorry, he'll do his best to insure you don't get to take any of his spotlight.
free health care in jail :) as I have no health insurance atm that would be really nice
The 'free health care' in jail is no better than what you already have. You can in fact, go to the emergancy room and get health care right this instant, its not even a little bit hard. You can in fact, tell them you have absolutely no intention of paying them ... and they'll help you anyway! Now they aren't going to give you braces for your snaggly teeth, but neither will the prison doctors, so you must be rather fucking stupid to think going to jail is an upgrade to your existence. Any 'good' free thing you can get in jail, you can also get ... for free ... outside of jail ... at better quality levels, even the bleeding asshole that goes with the gang raping you'll get.
Persistent Volume manager for Kubernetes - https://github.com/dwimsey/openshift-pvmanager
Smart motherfucker :)
and I wouldn't mind doing the same
Mentioning the t-shirt first and then casually throwing in that you host a mirror of the site is kind of an odd set of priorities.
OOh, an AOL.com article. You showed HIM.
Also, Bettridge's law of headlines states that the answer to AOL's headline question is "No".
Some US states seem to have better prison medical care than others e.g.:
http://gawker.com/5856346/prisoner-given-aspirin-to-treat-tumors-still-has-tumors-surprisingly
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
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.
.gov already has a contract with facebook, twitter, google. To them, its just another choicepoint.
If you have a real emergency (i.e. bleeding) then they will patch you up and then pursue you relentlessly for their outrageously overpriced "services". If you truly have no assets, you can probably ignore their bill collectors but if you have any assets or income, they will come after you and they will get their money.
However, emergency care is not health care. You can't get a physical exam or routine tests to determine if you are healthy. You can't get a workup for those unusual symptoms you have been having. You can't get routine care if you have a chronic medical condition such as high blood pressure, diabetes, heart disease, etc. In any of these cases (which most people consider "health care"), you will be sent home with instructions to "see your doctor". If you don't have health insurance, you are SOL. You will have to wait until you have advanced disease and are ready to die. Then they will patch you up (although often it is way too late to do anything useful).
I don't read your sig. Why are you reading mine?
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
The 'free health care' in jail is no better than what you already have. You can in fact, go to the emergancy room and get health care right this instant, its not even a little bit hard. You can in fact, tell them you have absolutely no intention of paying them ... and they'll help you anyway! Now they aren't going to give you braces for your snaggly teeth, but neither will the prison doctors, so you must be rather fucking stupid to think going to jail is an upgrade to your existence. Any 'good' free thing you can get in jail, you can also get ... for free ... outside of jail ... at better quality levels, even the bleeding asshole that goes with the gang raping you'll get.
Not unless he shoots himself in the gut first. Without a genuine emergency, they are not obligated to treat you and will not. And emergencies aren't things that will kill you, just things that will kill you immediately. If you have cancer they don't have to do anything until you collapse on the brink of death, and by then anything they do will be too late to matter.
And whether you intend to pay for not, you almost certainly will--unless you have no assets and never plan to work again. I guess you're off the hook if you die--which is a real possibility. People can and do die all the time in this country simply because they have no health insurance--many of whom would gladly pay for it if the insurance companies would allow them to. Much as you may wish to scoff at the idea, going to jail could save your life if you are one of those people. Your non-emergency pre-existing condition can be treated BEFORE it reaches the point where it's a untreatable life-threatening emergency.
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?
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