The Fourth Amendment was nice while it lasted. Via Hot Air, on a tip from J…….

Screw him. I buy what I want, I don’t steal copies, however, if he intends to have everyone treated like a suspect I suggest we all take a 1 year break from buying anything at all. See how they all feel about THAT.

Mommypundit on March 27, 2009 at 10:44 am

I’m a firm believer in warrants in every case other than customs ones. In the case of data crossing our border, the gloves come off. This is consistent with how we treat tangibles crossing the border in every other case.

It’s also consistent with how we treat citizen privacy when police raid a domicile — in that case, warrants are the rule.

What is already happening in the realm of file sharing is the rise of stateful routers which can figure out what protocol you are using and whether it is permitted or not. companies use these to prevent (or, perhaps worse, monitor) file sharing using corporate computers; they could just as easily be used by law enforcement (such as the Chinese political police). When the data are in transit, they are no longer yours, and therefore are ripe for the picking, so to speak.

wv619 on March 27, 2009 at 10:55 AM

There is no “plausible deniability” when you have the Truecrypt program on your hard drive and all your empty space has a normal “random” distribution of data. The forensic guys love that kind of challenge. It’s obvious something’s encrypted, and it’s equally obvious how — now the task is “merely” to find the keys.

The courts have established that the authorities cannot force you to give them a encryption key (violation of the 5th Amendment if they do or try).

If you’ll notice, I’ve mentioned to apparently unrelated things — routers and hard drives. But they are related in the cases of both child pornography and other forms of file sharing where the data arrives over the internet. Often, the fact that a disk is encrypted is merely frosting on the cake which can be offered as evidence of evasion.

tom on March 27, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Discussed a G8 and being pushed by EUROPE! Where all the freaking socialists and liberals reside. But then again, both Bush presidents were more liberals than conservatives and were more interested in NWO than in conservative ideology. It’s that new RINOism Compassionate Conservative stuff that moderates love talking about. But let’s not make a mistake, just because you call yourself a Republican doesn’t mean your on the RIGHT which is usually reserved for those who profess a belief in conservative ideology. That’s why they’re call RINOs. Get it?

Sultry Beauty on March 27, 2009 at 2:45 PM

That’s what makes the Bush-screeching over the years so ironic. He was a fairly moderate guy politically. He only looked conservative on national security issues, and some social issues.

But he’s been treated like he was a wild-eyed radical.

tom on March 27, 2009 at 2:25 PM

Discussed a G8 and being pushed by EUROPE! Where all the freaking socialists and liberals reside. But then again, both Bush presidents were more liberals than conservatives and were more interested in NWO than in conservative ideology. It’s that new RINOism Compassionate Conservative stuff that moderates love talking about. But let’s not make a mistake, just because you call yourself a Republican doesn’t mean your on the RIGHT which is usually reserved for those who profess a belief in conservative ideology. That’s why they’re call RINOs. Get it?

orange on March 27, 2009 at 2:11 PM

You’re kidding right? You know someone searched without a warrant by someone on the right?

I know a Joe the Plumber, but I’m certain no one on the right started looking into legal documents and handing them over to the media because he asked a question of a public official. I’m fairly certain that those docs probably weren’t handed over to the likes of NRO for dissemination. Heck, I didn’t see a liberal yuck-yuck like Rick Sanchez going on and on about Joe the Plumber’s civil liberties. He was more than happy to tell you about circumstances revolving around child support and that he wasn’t using his ‘real’ name and wasn’t a ‘real’ plumber.

Sultry Beauty on March 27, 2009 at 2:34 PM

And that is why no one pays attention to liberal screeching on this subject. We already know the only ones being snooped on were known terrorists, not American citizens. No warrant was required.

orange on March 27, 2009 at 2:11 PM

You’re kidding right? You know someone searched without a warrant by someone on the right?

I know a Joe the Plumber, but I’m certain no one on the right started looking into legal documents and handing them over to the media because he asked a question of a public official. I’m fairly certain that those docs probably weren’t handed over to the likes of NRO for dissemination. Heck, I didn’t see a liberal yuck-yuck like Rick Sanchez going on and on about Joe the Plumber’s civil liberties. He was more than happy to tell you about circumstances revolving around child support and that he wasn’t using his ‘real’ name and wasn’t a ‘real’ plumber.

I desperately want to dislike Richard Stallman, but I can’t. *** Stallman may be a fringe hippie, but anyone who has ever [used or benefitted from open-source software] *** owes the Free Software Foundation a huge debt of gratitude.
gryphon202 on March 27, 2009 at 9:59 AM

A few comments:
1. The FSF has not played a major role in the development of the open source world. That fight was principally led by Linus Torvalds and the Linux people and the BSD folks. I will give credit where credit is due, however, and say that the FSF’s open source license was the first license of its kind and was popular for many years.

The FSF has had a huge role in open source software. Without the GNU C compiler, autoconf, automake, and related development tools, there wouldn’t be much open source software available.

Stallman in fact tries to insist any reporter interviewing him refer to Linux as GNU/Linux, and he’s got a point. I find the term too cumbersome to agree with him, but GNU (FSF) software is a big part of Linux.

2. I know I’ll get creamed for saying this, but, what advances have come from true open-source software (i.e. products developed by volunteers and marketed for free)? It strikes me that open source’s main contribution is rather taking concepts and ideas developed in the commercial software world and creating functionally similar free versions.

Outlander on March 27, 2009 at 11:03 AM

All software is based primarily on earlier software, either through direct copying or imitation. That said, there is a significant level of innovation in open source software.

But I thought BOOOOOSH was the tyrant? What about that nasty Patriot Act…

Whoa….reality bites!

katy on March 27, 2009 at 10:11 AM

Hate to tell ya… but Booo00sh started this… its been in negotiation for years.

But now that Bambi is in charge, it will be interesting to see how far they will push the Constitution on this… what comes out of the negotiations now…

Romeo13 on March 27, 2009 at 10:24 AM

It started in the Bush administration, but I doubt the Bush administration would have denied a FOIA request on phony “national security” grounds.

Obama is far more secretive than Bush ever considered.

IPods, mobile phones and laptops could be examined by airport customs officials for illegal downloads under strict new counterfeiting measures being considered by G8 governments this week, it is claimed.

Thirty years ago no one would have thought they could be subjected to a full body cavity search. Comparatively, this would be a walk in the park.

…the government snooping into the personal lives of American citizens without a search warrant.

orange on March 27, 2009 at 2:11 PM

Got multiple proofs [American citizens] of that, or are you just another delusional BDS sufferer who thinks DaBama is da bomb?

A leak to a technology website revealed that the focus of Acta was “border measures, particularly how to deal with large-scale intellectual property infringements, which can frequently involve criminal elements”.

However, a footnote saying that those signing up to Acta should put in place “provisions related to criminal enforcement and border measures to be applied at least in cases of trademark counterfeiting and copyright piracy”, has generated intense speculation about what it could mean for the individual.

I don’t like the sounds of this…

Hey, I’m glad you’ve joined the party. About time.

A group called the Electronic Frontier Foundation

New to Richard Stallman? Never heard of Gnu?

Time for some required reading.

In the article businesses were advising their employees NOT to take laptops, Blackberry’s etc that had company info on them when they were going to Asia because of 2 things:
1) They were being downloaded remotely and sensitive business info was being taken by the Chinese etc 2) Airport security was confiscating laptops, Blackberry’s, Ipods, etc – not just while you were there at the airport but were taking them for 2 weeks. More than enough time to run a decryption program if they felt it necessary. I believe the article stated they were confiscating these items only if they thought National Security was involved.

Electronic Frontier Foundation…the Obama administration rebuffed their FOIA request

Whoa ho, bet that big glass of irony kinda burns going down, huh EFF? I can guarantee you that the overwhelming majority (99 percent? 100?) of these EFF “information-wants-to-be-free” geeks voted Obama-Biden.

husker3000 on March 27, 2009 at 11:59 AM

Thanks for that. I had wondered if laws would be used on a wide basis to demand keys. After all, the existence of an encrypted drive might give rise to probable cause.

That’s when they take it away, and do it the hard way.

OldEnglish on March 27, 2009 at 11:48 AM

In 2003, an incident involving seized Psion PDAs belonging to members of the Red Brigade indicated that neither the Italian police nor the FBI were able to decode PGP-encrypted files stored on them.”

“A more recent incident in December 2006 (see United States v. Boucher) involving US customs agents and a seized laptop PC which allegedly contained child pornography indicates that US Government agencies find it “nearly impossible” to access PGP-encrypted files.”

“Evidence suggests that as of 2007, British police investigators are unable to break PGP, so instead have resorted to using RIPA legislation to demand the passwords/keys.”

I’m sure that given the time and effort at some place like the NSA, eventually they would break the password, but depending how random it is could mean that it’s years down the road.

There’s obviously a down side to having such powerfull encryption devices out there though, the above cases being a case in point.

wv619 on March 27, 2009 at 11:53 AM

Now all I need is something worth hiding. I can’t even get my relos to look at my holiday pics. :)