SoylentNews is people
SoylentNews
A US judge overseeing an FBI "Playpen case" has told agents to reveal whether or not their investigative hacking was approved by the White House.
The case is one of several the Feds are pursuing against more than 100 alleged users of the child sex abuse material exchange network called the Playpen. The prosecutions have become test grounds over investigators' use of hacking tools to unmask Tor users – Playpen was hidden in the Tor network and agents injected tracking software into Playpen visitors' browsers to identify users.
In June, a judge hearing one of the Playpen cases in Virginia ruled that the FBI can hack any computer in any country, if it wants.
During its investigation, the FBI compromised Playpen's Tor-protected distribution servers, leaving them in operation to keep users visiting the service. The Feds then hacked the targets' computers to identify the owners.
It's not a crime if the President orders it.
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 27 2016, @06:15PM
Universal jurisdiction is part of international law. If a crime against humanity occurs, every nation has the right to intervene and prosecute. The ICC is meant to alleviate the need to create a new tribunal every time there is some new nastiness, such as was done with the Balkan conflict, and Rwanda. In some cases, notably the The Convention on Genocide [ohchr.org], there is not just a right, but a positive duty to intervene and prosecute. This is why the Clinton administration tried so mightily to not call what was happening in Rwanda a "genocide", because once they did, the United States would have been obligated under international law to stop it.
And denying universal jurisdiction over your own nation and personnel is kind of the opposite of taking up the responsibility of enforcing international law. If you are an American, I can see who this subtle and obscure difference may be too much for you to fathom.
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Thursday October 27 2016, @07:27PM
There is no such thing as international law.
Tips for better submissions to help our site grow. [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by aristarchus on Thursday October 27 2016, @08:38PM
Oooh! You outlaw, you! Must be good, to be soooo bad! But don't come crying to us when you end up in front of the ICC after your "vacation" to some "conflict zone". Mercs, the only thing dumber than Republicans.
(Score: 2) by HiThere on Thursday October 27 2016, @11:06PM
Depends on what you mean. There's a general, but not unanimous, agreement on some things. You can argue that those are only international treaties, of course, but when 90% of the force is on one side, then there's effectively a law, even if enforcement is extremely sloppy.
And if you argue that if it isn't enforced honestly it's not a law, there are a large number of cities and states that don't have any internal law.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.