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The Supreme Court Fight Over Microsoft's Foreign Servers Is Over (theverge.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the dead-as-a-doornail dept.

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.

4 of 94 comments (clear)

  1. Absolutely Fabulous by EndlessNameless · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.
    1. Re:Absolutely Fabulous by Opportunist · · Score: 2, Informative

      Considering that they don't really differ on anything else, you can as well make that the issue.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. Re:create all the USA laws you like by Teun · · Score: 4, Informative

    As long as Google or (fill in corporation) wants to do business in the EU they will have to comply with the local laws.
    EU civilians have legal enshrined privacy rights, yes that might be shocking to US citizens and corporations, deal with it.

    The by far best solution for corporations and citizens in the EU is to keep their data in Europe, it avoids any misunderstandings about jurisdiction.

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    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."
  3. Re:Now let's see what excuses they'll come up with by Teun · · Score: 3, Informative

    Indeed, the EU has to be much stricter implementing their privacy rules, they are fundamentally incompatible with keeping data offshore in the US.

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    "The likes of Facebook and WhatsApp are free to those whose privacy is of zero value."