Today's theme seems to be “We're the
government. We don't need to worry about laws, regulations or that
Consti-whosit thing!”
There is no “government of the
people” – people don't have the same rights as governments.
(King George is laughing)
Anonymous
Speech, Subpoenas and Internet User Identities, and Government
Investigations
October 11, 2011 by Dissent
Eugene Volokh writes:
Over the last
several years, various courts have held — in cases such as Dendrite
Int’l, Inc. v. Doe No. 3 and Doe v. Cahill — that
the First Amendment provides substantial, though limited, protection
against subpoenas aimed at unmasking anonymous commenters; for more
details on that protection, see this EFF
analysis. But last week, Doe
v. United States (N.D. Cal. Oct. 4, 2011) held that such
rules generally do not apply
to government investigations, here by the SEC, as opposed
to investigations by private litigants. I just thought this was
worth noting for readers who follow such matters.
(Related) Even California is getting
all “Big Brother” on us, dude.
California
Governor Vetoes Bill Requiring Warrant to Search Mobile Phones
October 10, 2011 by Dissent
David Kravets reports:
California Gov.
Jerry Brown is vetoing legislation requiring police to obtain a court
warrant to search the mobile phones of suspects at the time of any
arrest.
The Sunday veto,
announced Monday, means that when police arrest anybody in the Golden
State, they may search that person’s mobile phone — which in the
digital age likely means the contents of persons’ e-mail, call
records, text messages, photos, banking activity, cloud-storage
services, and even where the phone has traveled.
Read more on Threat
Level.
I’m not only disappointed, but
surprised by this veto. The legislature came up with a law that
protected citizens’ rights and made law enforcement’s obligations
clear. Rather than having courts decide cases, it makes more sense
for the legislature to enact laws that make their intentions and
expectations clear.
“We don't want to tell you what we're
doing because then you'll whine and complain.” Ignorance of the
law is no excuse, but is ignorance of a secret (don't tell the
citizens) interpretation of a law an excuse?
FOIA
and the Question of Secret Law
October 10, 2011 by Dissent
Robert Chesney writes:
Charlie Savage of
the New York Times has filed this
FOIA suit in an effort to acquire a classified report issued by
DOJ and ODNI to Congress “pertaining to intelligence collection
authorities” under section 215 of the USA PATRIOT Act (permitting
the government to obtain from the FISC an order for the production of
“any tangible things” upon a showing of “reasonable grounds”
in relation to an international terrorism or counterintelligence
investigation).
Read more on Lawfare.
I hope the court does order disclosure.
Our government should not be permitted to have secret analyses of
how they are interpreting a law that is used to surveill citizens.
This is truly a matter of public interest and urgent concern.
Not only are there threats to Privacy,
but now Public is also in danger, from unpublished “policies” and
unique (secret?) interpretation of laws.
"A man was questioned
by security guards and then police after taking a photo of his
own child in a UK shopping center. The center apparently has a 'no
photography' policy 'to protect the privacy of staff and shoppers and
to have a legitimate opportunity to challenge suspicious behavior.'
He was told by a security guard that taking a photo was illegal. He
also said that a police officer claimed, 'he was within in his rights
to confiscate the mobile phone on which the photos were taken.'"
(Related) Even if you aren't arrested
for taking a photo, what makes you think you have any ownership
rights? Here are a few “Terms of Service” that show how wrong
headed that is.
4
More Ways You’ve Sold Your Soul To The Internet
You may remember my article from a
while back, 3
Ways You’ve Sold Your Soul to the Internet. As it turns out,
there seems to be a variety of ways that one can make it happen, and
as a matter of fact, I’ve found four more ways that you can do so!
For my Ethical Hackers: Develop a hack
for a similar service for non-Apple phones.
iMessage
Coming This Week: A Wake-Up Call for Wireless Carriers
Wireless carriers in the U.S., who are
earning as much as 20 cents for sending and another 20 cents for
receiving a text message, are worried that this profitable source of
revenue will no longer be available to them, once Apple's new instant
messaging application, iMessage, is released on Wednesday.
With iMessage in place, any user of an
iPhone, iPad or even iPod touch can send an unlimited
number of messages from their iOS 5 device to any other iOS 5 device,
for free.
… According to a Topnews
report, Craig Moffett, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, estimated
that the wireless industry pockets more than $20 billion in revenue
from text messaging.
Interesting speculation or keen
observation? Or perhaps a conspiracy by IP lawyers?
"Sam Ramji thinks the days
where Microsoft's, (and Apple's, and Oracle's) love-hate
relationship with open source are numbered, thanks to the cloud.
Whereas some open source advocates say the cloud may kill open
source, because users won't have access to the source, Ramji says the
cloud will be its salvation. Ramji, Microsoft's original internal
open source dude, thinks companies building clouds won't be able to
keep up if they don't participate in open source communities because
that's where the developers building new cloud infrastructure are
doing most of their work. The main concerns
standing in the way for both cloud builders and users of free
software are legal fears, he
contends. These include fears of the GPL's
copyleft provision and fears of being sued by downstream users.
Is he right ... or full of FUD?"
Make your old clunky desktop PC work
just like that spiffy new smartphone! NOTE: It's only in Alpha so
far!
BlueStacks
Releases App Player And Cloud Connect Service To Let You Run Android
Apps On Your PC
Back in May, BlueStacks
raised $7.5 million in series A financing from Andreessen Horowitz,
Ignition Ventures, Radar Partners, Redpoint Ventures, and more. This
was all pre-launch. Why that kind of money for a startup that hasn’t
launched a product yet? Because approximately 630
million new Windows PCs will be shipped by the end of this year,
and because BlueStacks has designed downloadable software that will
enable Android apps to run on (hopefully) all of them.
And today, to put that money where its
mouth is, BlueStacks is announcing the release of the first products
that will be a part of its ongoing quest to do just that. For
starters, the company is making available the alpha
version of its app player for Windows that is basically a free
software download that will give users one-click access to Android
apps on any Windows PC, tablet, or laptop. (And the ability to view
these apps in full-screen.)
[So, you're gonna need:
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