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The Supreme Court Fight Over Microsoft's Foreign Servers Is Over (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: The much-anticipated Supreme Court case U.S. v. Microsoft -- which could have decided the extent of American jurisdiction over foreign servers -- is now, for all intents and purposes, dead. On March 30th, the Department of Justice moved to drop the lawsuit as moot, and today, Microsoft filed to agree with the motion. While the Supreme Court has yet to officially drop the case, it's a foregone conclusion that they will. Both the government and Microsoft agree that the newly passed CLOUD Act renders the lawsuit meaningless. In U.S. v. Microsoft, federal law enforcement clashed with Microsoft over the validity of a Stored Communications Act warrant for data stored on a server in Dublin. The CLOUD Act creates clear new procedures for procuring legal orders for data in these kinds of cross-border situations. In last week's motion to vacate, DOJ disclosed that it had procured a new warrant under the CLOUD Act.
Is this another invasive anti-privacy act, or does this one have all the correct and proper controls to protect the American people?
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The CLOUD Act was snuck into a must pass omnibus budget bill and not left on its own legs to be debated. But the biggest issue is that it makes it a international diplomatic affair to deal with what can best be described as a local law enforcement issue.
Now, I don't know about you, but I would rather my government concentrate on the bigger issues when doing international diplomacy and not having to constantly ring up someone in the ambassador chain of command in order to get a sign-off on this sort of thing. Analogy time: It's one thing to ask to borrow a cup of sugar or an egg from time to time of your neighbor. You know you're going to do it for them and probably have in the past. It's another thing to ask for 10 grams of sugar every hour. The first isn't a big deal, the latter can really put a strain on your relationship with them. To the point that they might tell you to go away.
And unless the point was to otherwise accelerate the international isolation of the US, then this was a poorly written piece whose authors knew it. Which is why it got attached as an amendment to a must-pass piece of legislation.
it still doesn't give you jurisdiction in Ireland dickheads, i doubt Ireland want a foreign government poking around their citizens data, you want the data ? then apply for a warrant to an Irish Judge.
Is this another invasive anti-privacy act, or does this one have all the correct and proper controls to protect the American people?
If you have to ask the question you probably can guess the answer.
So, we have two losers and one winner here:
- American privacy rights are trampled, yet again
- American cloud providers lose access to EU markets since we cannot provide the privacy protections they require
+ American law enforcement and surveillance agencies get their Christmas wish at last
My vote this November is going to whoever promises to repeal this, regardless of the D/R/I after their name.
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According to the latest ruleset, this post should be modded as Vorpal Flamebait +5.
Then it doesn't matter where the data is stored or who uses a warrant to make themselves a copy.
in Europe, to not having to declare each and every american cloud product as unfit for guaranteeing EU data privacy laws.
Because this is effectively the Save Haven disaster reloaded, now that keeping the servers within the EU is a moot point.
Fight for civil rights? You got more zingers light that, you could maybe make your own standup routine.
MS knows damn well that if they cave in, they can as well kiss their international customers good-bye. Nobody in their right mind would store their data with them if they rolled over instantly the moment the US wants to engage in some friendly industrial espionage.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
the use of data has always been a controversy and as far as it can be used, but the fact is that this action has legally lost its legal object
for billionaires to hide their money overseas.
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if you don't primary your local congress critter then you'll be left deciding between 2 candidates that support the bill and a few crackpots with $500 in campaign funds and less than no hope of winning. Is that fair? No. Is that true? Yes.
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It remove compromise from the equation. And having non independent groups draw voting zone line further push the knife in the back.
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This is just one more way that Microsoft proves they can't be trusted in any way, shape, or form.
I am tired of the continuing lie that the US DoJ got a warrant against a foreign entity. The warrant named Microsoft USA, which is an entity wholly within the jurisdiction of the United States. Microsoft USA was ordered to turn over data that Microsoft USA said was within its control. Either Microsoft USA was lying about having the data within it's control or it was deliberately flouting the order to turn over the data.
It just so happened that the reason that Microsoft USA could not turn over the data is that it moved the data to Microsoft Ireland which is under the jurisdiction of EU law which did not allow that particular data to be sent back under those particular circumstances. However, Microsoft Ireland and EU law are not relevant to the US DoJ. That Microsoft USA lost control of the data that they claimed to control is relevant to the US DoJ and it should be relevant to customers of Microsoft USA. Microsoft USA desperately wants to obscure the fact that by transferring things to offshore business entities they might lose control of the data of their paying customers.
...Microsoft will probably appeal the new Warrant based on legality issues with the CLOUD Act and how it impacts business, which will probably get severely limited or struck down by SCOTUS. Basically, CLOUD Act has to be judicially proven.
Microsoft is right that their initial issue is not moot due to the CLOUD Act, but the CLOUD Act has yet to be tested. The ultimate outcome will probably be the same though as if CLOUD Act had not passed and this had continued out to a resolution. It's just going to take longer to get there.
Truth is like the sun. You can shut it out for a time, but it ain't goin' away. - Elvis Presley (source: imdb.com)