Law
- EFF on Privacy
- Wikipedia, particularly good for the history of privacy law in the U.S.
- Prof. Daniel Solove: The Chaos of U.S. Privacy Law
- Michael McFarland, SJ: Privacy and the Law
FBI asks DOJ to investigate source of Calderon leak to Al Jazeera
FBI asks DOJ to investigate source of Calderon leak to Al Jazeera
It could be that I’m new to the journalism industry and only recently interested in its developments. But it seems to me as if journalism and law are converging like never before, and on an international stage.
While Al Jazeera America is unlikely to face direct legal action, the American arm of the Qatari news network only launched in August 2013. It’s new, and if its current sources face investigation and potential federal charges, prospective sources may decide not to become sources at all.
States cite lack of federal progress in pursuit of privacy reform
States cite lack of federal progress in pursuit of privacy reform
Special interest groups oppose federal privacy reform to prevent onerous new regulations.
But this effort must, at some point, become counterproductive.
A multitude of state-specific privacy frameworks that, by (federal) law, can’t operate between states, must, at some point, become at least as onerous as new federal regulations.
On being a female lawyer
Worth a read whether you’re a male or a female.
Hat-tip to Sheryl Axelrod, immediate past president of the Temple Law Alumni Association and a preeminent Philadelphia-area lawyer, for sharing this on LinkedIn.
(Yes, I visit LinkedIn, even when not looking for jobs.)
Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reform
Poetic copyright troll illustrates need for reform
Linda Ellis, copyright troll:
If protecting my rights in your eyes makes me a “troll,” then I’ll wear the badge proudly and keep fulfilling my role.
Current law does allow hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for sharing drivel like the Ellis train wreck above. Real reform is needed, but it’s unlikely to get the requisite congressional attention any time soon.
Advocacy group Public Knowledge has a good start, called the Copyright Reform Act. It’s model legislation meant to provide a starting point for practical copyright reforms.
I haven’t read it all yet, but I’m confident it doesn’t allow hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages for having your crappy poetry shared on the internet by strangers with bad taste in literature…
Corporations Have Personhood. Why Not Dogs?
Corporations Have Personhood. Why Not Dogs?
What a good survey of animal law, where it came from, where it is and where it’s going. A pleasant surprise, as I usually write off Huffington Post pretty fast.
The only people that argue against the treatment of dogs, and other animals, as more than property are those who have never experienced the profound bond that develops between a human and a pet.
But the ASPCA efforts are the ones to watch here. Their moderate approach is more palatable to the establishment and therefore more effective in the long-term than the jarring advocacy of more extreme groups like PETA.
One Google, two different privacy rulings
One Google, two different privacy rulings
Stanford researcher Jonathan Mayer, in an email to the Wall Street Journal’s Elizabeth Dwoskin and Rolfe Winkler:
Courts are doing pretzel twists to slot modern electronic privacy issues into antiquated statutory schemes. Congress badly needs to update the nation’s privacy laws; we can’t leave the courts with so little guidance and expect consistent results.
The inconsistent application of the law across states suggests the issue may be ripe for appeal on both fronts, and may be on a long journey to the Supreme Court. The Delaware court saw no harm in Google’s circumvention of browser-based privacy settings and thus no cause of action.
What interests me is that the information you can collect via someone’s browsing behavior with a cookie is probably similar to the information you can collect by scanning their email, the action at issue in the North Carolina case, in which the judge denied Google’s motion to to dismiss the suit.
Thus, it’s the difference in the method of collection, even where the subject of collection is the same, that may be triggering the proliferation of multiple interpretations of privacy law.
Of course, it’s worth noting that the wiretap law refers specifically to communication interception, which applies directly to email. While browsing history can tell a great deal about someone, it’s not, strictly speaking, a mode of communication, so plaintiffs probably need to rely more on the common law.
I wish I had more time to sink my teeth into the issue, but I’ll have to settle for sharing a few useful links on privacy law for those interested in learning more:
Living man declared dead, too late to overturn ruling
Living man declared dead, too late to overturn ruling
Hancock County Probate Court Judge Allan Davis, who declared Donald Eugene Miller Jr. dead in 1994, eight years after he vanished from his rental home in Arcadia, told Miller in court Monday the law only allows death rulings to be overturned within three years of the ruling.
Sometimes the law refuses to be boxed in by little technicalities like reality. This is very much one of those times.
EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers
EFF’s Legal Guide for Bloggers
This is useful. If you have delayed starting your own blog because you’re nervous about the legal issues, give this a read and reconsider.
Some oaths are apparently more oathy than others
Some oaths are apparently more oathy than others
This is a great article, but this bit is particularly rich. Tyler Bass of Vice’s Motherboard reports the now well-known Petraeus affair with an elegant juxtaposition of facts:
“Oaths do matter,” David H. Petraeus, then C.I.A. director, said at the time. “And there are indeed consequences for those who believe they are above the laws that protect our fellow officers and enable American intelligence agencies to operate with the requisite degree of secrecy.”
Just weeks later, Petraeus would fall from grace after FBI agents, conducting a separate investigation, discovered emails that revealed an extramarital affair.
Oaths indeed.
Michael Poulshock’s Hammurabi Project aims to make law and regulations accessible to the masses
Michael Poulshock’s Hammurabi Project aims to make law and regulations accessible to the masses
Terry Carter, writing at the ABA Journal:
Poulshock, 38, is writing source code for each law, which can then be entered into computers and applied to fact patterns. (The project is open source, online at GitHub). Tax and immigration law lend themselves to this approach more easily than some other areas, but in many instances, he says, law can be turned into a mathematical function: If this, then that; if these, then that or those.This is a great idea, and one I’ll definitely keep an eye on. Very cool.
On Law, Policy, and (Not) Bombing Syria
On Law, Policy, and (Not) Bombing Syria
Ian Hurd, an Associate Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University, writing at preeminent international law blog Opinio Juris:
It is well known that the [U.N.] Charter forbids the use of force except as self-defense or as sanctioned by the UN Security Council. Everything else amounts to aggression and is illegal.
The issue of whether and how the U.S. and/or the rest of the world should react to the use of chemical weapons in Syria is open to debate on ethical, moral, political, and practical levels.
But it is not open to any debate from an international law perspective: the U.S. proposal, whether approved and implemented by President Obama or the Congress to which he has deferred on the decision, is prohibited generally by international law and specifically by the United Nations charter.
US government recognizes League of Legends players as pro athletes
US government recognizes League of Legends players as pro athletes
This is fascinating, especially with immigration such a hot topic recently.
Legislative failure to define essential terms
Legislative failure to define essential terms
The definition of terms essential to the application of a law is the most basic requirement for competent lawmaking.
Sometimes one or more terms are appropriately defined in an open way, to provide flexibility in the application of a law. This is not one of one laws. The shield law is meant to protect reporters, so defining what exactly a reporter is should be done wi surgical precision.
I am open to arguing how broad or narrow the definition of journalist should be in a shield law, but that conversation but result in a specific outcome that is codified in the new law.
It is impossible to have that discussion and achieve that specific codification when legislators shirk their fundamental responsibility.
As Morgan Weiland of the Electronic Frontier Foundation explains in the article linked above, Senators Feinstein and Durbin, and all the legislators who contributed to the poorly-drafted law, have failed in their duty to their constituents and the rest of our country. Hopefully a competent legislator will step in to correct their shortcomings as the law progresses.
U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans
U.S. directs agents to cover up program used to investigate Americans
John Shiffman and Kristina Cooke, reporting for Reuters Washington bureau:
The undated documents show that federal agents are trained to “recreate” the investigative trail to effectively cover up where the information originated, a practice that some experts say violates a defendant’s Constitutional right to a fair trial.
This goes well beyond spying. This is, I would argue, exactly why people object to such domestic spying.
The logic is that those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear. However, the “Special Operations Division” probably isn’t infallible, since, well, no one is, and that means that you may have nothing to hide, and think you have nothing to fear, and be completely wrong.
Innocent people may have been convicted as a result of what appear on their face to be unconstitutional, extrajudicial practices.
Those arguing that the price for protection from terrorists and other would-be evil doers is letting the National Security Agency have a peak at our Gmail will have a much more difficult time making the same case for falsifying an evidence trail.
The defense was often held in the dark and, apparently, at least in some cases, investigators misled both the prosecution and judicial evidentiary discretion.
Oh, and as a cherry on top, here’s a gem from near the end of the Reuters story:
A DEA spokesman declined to comment on the unit’s annual budget. A recent LinkedIn posting on the personal page of a senior SOD official estimated it to be $125 million.
The monitoring of internet communications for sensitive information, it would seem, goes both ways.
Twitter user arrested for threatening to rape and murder female activist
Twitter user arrested for threatening to rape and murder female activist
I wrote recently about my disappointment with Twitter’s response to a woman deluged with rape threats. Today, David Edwards of t The Raw Story reports that a man has been arrested in England for threats made against Caroline Criado-Perez.
Twitter said in a statement to Sky News :
[the] ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.
Good idea, let’s make that a priority.
Baton Rouge sheriff trying to enforce unconstitutional anti-sodomy laws
Baton Rouge sheriff trying to enforce unconstitutional anti-sodomy laws
It’s been ten years since Lawrence v Texas saw anti-sodomy laws declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, but I suppose stupidity is eternal. At least the District Attorney is ending the absurdity by refraining from prosecution. There may yet be hope for Baton Rouge.
Christmas in jail
John Futty, reporting for The Columbus Dispatch in Ohio:
Judge Michael J. Holbrook placed Young on probation yesterday for five years and ordered that she spend a minimum of three days in jail each Christmas while on probation.
This made me smile. Now, crime is bad, and Christmas in jail is bad. But what a creative way to punish a fraudster without wasting taxpayer money on a non-violent offender.
Norwegian rape victim Marte Deborah Dalelv "pardoned" by UAE
Norwegian rape victim Marte Deborah Dalelv “pardoned” by UAE
I wrote yesterday about Ms. Dalelv’s 16-month sentence for sex outside marriage, among other absurd charges to levy against a victim of rape, in the city of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. I’m happy to report that, according to Reuters, the 24-year-old has been “pardoned” and will be able to go back to Norway.
The fact that UAE called it a “pardon” is as unconscionable as the sentence itself, but freedom by any name is better than being jailed in the kind of nation that would punish a rape victim.
Dubai: Where rape is only a crime if you're the victim
Dubai: Where rape is only a crime if you’re the victim
Update: she has been “pardoned.”
A Norwegian woman was raped, reported it to police, and was charged and convicted of extramarital sex, drinking alcohol, and perjury. She was sentenced to 16 months in jail.
For being raped.
And that’s three months longer than her attacker.
This is a major problem of international law. What happens when the economic and business relationship between two states places citizens in the crosshairs of antiquated and ignorant laws? What is the remedy when the Western expectations of a visitor are shattered by foreign norms that, well, prompt Western folks to use words like “antiquated” and “ignorant.”
The Norwegian government has the woman safely housed in what sounds like a naval base, but there is a warrant out for her arrest.
We will find out. I’ll be keeping an eye on this story.