Land Of The Flea

Feds Threaten To Arrest Lavabit Founder For Shutting Down His Service

"The saga of Lavabit founder Ladar Levison is getting even more ridiculous, as he explains that the government has threatened him with criminal charges for his decision to shut down the business, rather than agree to some mysterious court order. The feds are apparently arguing that the act of shutting down the business, itself, was a violation of the order. That same article suggests that the decision to shut down Lavabit was over something much bigger than just looking at one individual's information -- since it appears that Lavabit has cooperated in the past on such cases. Instead, the suggestion now is that the government was seeking a tap on all accounts." Continue reading →

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Glenn Greenwald’s partner detained at Heathrow airport for nine hours

"The partner of the Guardian journalist who has written a series of stories revealing mass surveillance programmes by the US National Security Agency was held for almost nine hours on Sunday by UK authorities as he passed through London's Heathrow airport on his way home to Rio de Janeiro. The 28-year-old was held for nine hours, the maximum the law allows before officers must release or formally arrest the individual. Miranda was released, but officials confiscated electronics equipment including his mobile phone, laptop, camera, memory sticks, DVDs and games consoles." Continue reading →

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Who Gave Hollywood’s Representatives the Same Exact DMCA Question?

"The Subcommittee on Courts, Intellectual Property, and the Internet (a part of the House Judiciary Committee) held hearings on the role of technology as it relates to content creation and copyright. In the span of less than 15 minutes, two separate representatives -- both representing parts of Los Angeles, asking questions one after the other asked THE IDENTICAL question to a panelist. Sure looks like someone is feeding them their questions, but next time they might want to keep track of who they told to ask their misleading question...." Continue reading →

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Administration Can’t Let Go: Felony Streaming Provisions Of SOPA Are Back

"We've been working our way through a paper released last week by the Commerce Department, concerning copyright reform, and will have a much more detailed post about it soon (there's a lot in there), but over at the Washington Post, they're highlighting the silly recommendation to bring back the plan to make unauthorized streaming a felony. This was a part of SOPA and was widely discussed. This got a fair amount of attention when Justin Bieber was asked about the law, and said that Senator Klobuchar should be locked up. It's no surprise that this is coming back. It's one of the points that's been raised a few times since the death of SOPA." Continue reading →

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Bloomberg’s Public Housing Fingerprinting Idea Stuns, Infuriates Residents

"Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s latest crime-fighting idea had a lot of people riled up on Friday. The mayor wants to fingerprint more than 600,000 people who live in public housing. He said it would be done to make the projects safer. 'The people that live there, most of them, want more police protection. They want more people. If you have strangers walking in the halls of your apartment building, don’t you want somebody to stop and say, ‘Who are you, why are you here?'' But residents who live within the confines of NYCHA buildings said the mayor’s fingerprinting idea goes too far." Continue reading →

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The FBI’s Privileged Partners in Crime

"According to legal scholar Harvey Silverglate, each day the typical American commits three acts that could be treated as felonies by a sufficiently creative federal prosecutor. On a typical day the FBI formally authorizes informants and provocateurs on its payroll to commit fifteen unambiguous crimes. The ATF and DEA also run huge networks of informants, but those agencies will not disclose any information about the number of undercover operatives they employ or the criminal activities in which they may be involved. In his book 'Our Enemy, the State,' Albert Nock observed that government doesn’t seek to abolish crime, but rather to monopolize it." Continue reading →

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Overseas Americans: Time to Say ‘Bye’ to Uncle Sam?

"Here is a sign that life is getting complicated for U.S. taxpayers with assets abroad: More of them are deciding they are better off cutting official ties with America. Daniel Kuettel, a Colorado native who lives near Zurich, says he gave up his U.S. citizenship in October because he feared he wouldn't be able to get a mortgage now that some Swiss banks are cutting ties with American clients. 'It was a really difficult decision. I had to think about what was best for me and my family, to reduce the risk,' says Mr. Kuettel, a 41-year-old software developer. He says his income was below the limit the U.S. allows overseas taxpayers to exempt and he owed no U.S. taxes." Continue reading →

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No Banker Left Behind

"The Detroit bankruptcy case has been cast as a contest between bondholders and pensioners that can be resolved only by shared sacrifice. What we do have a problem with is shared sacrifice that does not seem to apply to the big banks that abetted Detroit’s descent into bankruptcy. Last month, just days before its bankruptcy filing, Detroit reached its first settlement with creditors. The settlement was with UBS and Bank of America, and though the precise terms will not be nailed down until the bankruptcy judge weighs in, Detroit is set to pay an estimated $250 million to terminate a soured derivatives transaction from 2005." Continue reading →

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Justice seeking to block Bernanke testimony

"The government is trying to block questioning of Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke in a lawsuit by the former head of American International Group Inc. The Justice Department told a federal appeals court Friday that high-ranking officials should not have to testify except in extraordinary circumstances. Former AIG CEO Hank Greenberg sued the government over the $182 billion bailout of the insurance giant that has since been repaid. It is rare for a Fed chairman to be questioned in a lawsuit, but Judge Thomas Wheeler ruled that Bernanke has firsthand knowledge of the bailout and should undergo questioning." Continue reading →

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