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A federal judge has approved a warrant for web hosting company DreamHost's records for DisruptJ20.org, a site that was used to plan anti-Trump protests on Inauguration Day. However, the scope of the warrant has been significantly narrowed:
"[W]hile the government has the right to execute its Warrant," D.C. Superior Court Judge Robert Morin wrote in his order, "it does not have the right to rummage through the information contained on DreamHost's website and discover the identity of, or access communications by, individuals not participating in alleged criminal activity, particularly those persons who were engaging in protected First Amendment activities."
The government sought the warrant as it gathers evidence for its cases against nearly 200 people charged with rioting on Jan. 20.
The judge's new order instructs DreamHost to redact identifying information of "innocent persons" who visited the website before providing the records to the government. It also dictates a protocol for incorporating procedural safeguards to comply with "First Amendment and Fourth Amendment considerations." Among other stipulations, the government must submit to the court its plan for permanently deleting from its possession all information not within the scope of the warrant.
DreamHost considered the judge's ruling a significant victory. "The new order is a far cry from the original warrant we received in July," DreamHost General Counsel Christopher Ghazarian wrote in a statement to NPR. "Absent a finding by the Court that probable cause of criminal activity exists, the government will not be able to uncover the identities of these users. There are also quite a few modifications that further reduce the government's ability to review unrelated data. This is another huge win not just for DreamHost, but for internet users around the world."
Also at Reason, The Register, Engadget, and Infosecurity Magazine.
(Score: 2, Informative) by frojack on Sunday October 15 2017, @09:50PM (3 children)
Meh, I suspect they got exactly what they were after, and lost exactly the chaff cloud they threw into the fan to allow the judge to save face.
They were always after distruptj20. The judge gave them all of that. See the order beginning on page 2.
Ya know, playing the Godwin card early and often really doesn't make it true.
The same far reaching "asks" were routinely approved for the Obama administration. This Obama appointed judge could hardly deny what was routine for the last 8 years.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday October 15 2017, @11:10PM
I mean GEORGE FUCKING WASHINGTON was the first president (and so far only) standing president to march at the head of an army against America's citizens (the Whiskey Rebellion), and the majority of people arrested and put into debtor's prison were Revolutionary soldiers who ended up back at home with years of added interest on unpaid debts from before the war, and a bunch of merchants chomping at the bit to get their money back after the war, despite the country being in a relative economic slump, in part thanks to those same merchants playing fast and loose with their credit amongst foreign nations in order to help fund the Revolutionary War.
The more America claims to change, the more it stays the same.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday October 16 2017, @10:15AM (1 child)
I disagree. This administration has shown zero capacity for planning or strategy. They simply expect their demands to be met and if there is any resistance it is due to unamerican, unpatriotic people who unjustly oppose the demands this administration feels entitled to.
(Score: 2) by DannyB on Monday October 16 2017, @02:48PM
Agree. It is only good at throwing grenades into the room. Undermining its own staffers. Tweeting about breaking treaties America has entered into with other nations.
Yes, but consider:
1. an orange jackass clown1 says I want such and so's head on a pike because he said bad things about me on the intarweb tubes! Whaaaa! (sniff) Whhhhhaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
2. The stormtrooper in charge of getting his head on a pike ask the court for the sun, the moon and the stars. All they really want is the moon. And the court gives them only the moon. They go away happy. They got exactly what they wanted.
Just because an orange jackass1 is inept doesn't mean everyone working for it is equally inept.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
1Not referring to any orange jackass in particular. Merely a reference to any hypothetical orange jackass clown from the entire set of all orange jackass clowns.
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