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Submitted via IRC for TheMightyBuzzard
After the US Department of Justice demanded from DreamHost data that could identify visitors of anti-Trump website Disruptj20.org and the web host refused to comply with such an unreasonably broad request for data, the DOJ narrowed the scope of its demand by excluding unpublished media and HTTP access and error logs from it.
On Thursday, District of Columbia Superior Court Judge Robert Morin ruled that DreamHost must comply with the narrowed warrant, but has further limited the government's access to the asked-for data, in order to limit exposure of sensitive user information.
He has asked the federal prosecutors to present a list of investigators who will have access to the data and list of methods they will be using to go through it to find information pertinent to their investigation. The investigation aims to find out who's responsible for property damage in downtown Washington during the Inauguration Day protests.
"The production of evidence from this trove of data will be overseen by the court. The DOJ is not permitted to perform this search in a bubble. It is, in fact, now required to make its case with the court to justify why they believe information acquired is or is not responsive to (aka: 'covered by') the warrant," DreamHost explained.
Good. It's about time the judiciary started saying no to executive overreach.
Source: https://www.helpnetsecurity.com/2017/08/25/judge-limits-dojs-search-anti-trump-website-data/
(Score: 4, Informative) by AthanasiusKircher on Saturday August 26 2017, @11:58AM (6 children)
Let's be clear on what the problem with the original request was here. As Dreamhost noted [dreamhost.com] concerning the original request:
Sorry, Mr. Buzzard, but I don't think "probable cause" could be construed to encompass millions of people who merely viewed information. Hence the court ruling here. As the EFF lawyer noted:
Part of the entire point of the Fourth Amendment was to eliminate so-called "general warrants" which had been used occasionally by overzealous governments before -- simply searching just about anyone who might have some vague association with something bad. "Probable cause" is a higher standard. I'd think a big pro-free speech advocate like yourself might be concerned about this... not to protect those who might have legitimately planned to commit crimes (as the EFF lawyer said: a limited sorting of records by a special master or some other 3rd party could be used to make a determination of what legally should be handed over to law enforcement), but to avoid harassment of over a million people who merely visited a website.
To make this point more clear, some posts here occasionally go "over the top" in implying that bad acts could/should be committed. If, by chance, some random person acts on them, are you seriously suggesting that the personal details of EVERYONE who has ever visited this site should be turned over the to the DOJ??
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Saturday August 26 2017, @01:31PM
"to avoid harassment of over a million people"
We might ask how many of them are Windows users. Those people are all into bondage and disciplie, sado and masochism. They probably want to be harassed, and here you are standing in the way of some good legitimate harassment. Don't you feel guilty now?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday August 26 2017, @03:49PM (1 child)
Yep, TMB's ideals are strictly limited by the group in question. It is sad to see the partisan divide get to that point, but it sure as hell shows how we might slip down into full blown Nazi mode. I would have said fascism but we're already there.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by HiThere on Saturday August 26 2017, @05:51PM
We've been a fascist state, in Mussolini's definition, since before Mussolini was born. The government has been working hand-in-glove with the major companies since before the TransContinental Railroad was built. For something just a bit later, check out the history of SP. (I've no reason to think the other major companies didn't get similar benefits, but I'm less sure.) For that matter the Civil War was largely over which major companies should get the most support. The South wanted support for "King Cotton" and the North for the manufacturing industries.
We tend to use fascist as a term of abuse in the same way we use terrorist...i.e., by ignoring that we're doing the same thing, possibly more effectively.
Javascript is what you use to allow unknown third parties to run software you have no idea about on your computer.
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Saturday August 26 2017, @07:30PM (2 children)
And what part of me saying I was glad the judiciary slapped it down in the summary did you miss?
My rights don't end where your fear begins.
(Score: 2) by AthanasiusKircher on Sunday August 27 2017, @12:49AM (1 child)
Sorry, I can't really parse the way submissions are listed. There are at least three different usernames associated with the submission (MrPlow, you, and Fnord666). I'd generally assume added editorial commentary (by Fnord666, I assume) would come with a disclaimer for editorial intervention, but that's not always the case.
Anyhow, the summary explicitly says "MrPlow writes:" I don't know who MrPlow is, but I just assumed he was the one who wrote the comment, given how aggressively you seemed to be arguing the other direction in comments.
Apologies, but really -- I do wish summaries were clearer when there's multiple contributions. (Though I know this is all a thankless job, and I'm happy people are bothering to try to edit.)
(Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Sunday August 27 2017, @01:14AM
Yeah, I forget not everyone knows that MrPlow is my bot that does submissions from IRC when given a line like "#submit https://url/ [url] Comment from me here".
My rights don't end where your fear begins.