THIS IS MAJOR

[guardians_song]

Senate bill rewrite lets feds read your e-mail without warrants

A Senate proposal touted as protecting Americans' e-mail privacy has been quietly rewritten, giving government agencies more surveillance power than they possess under current law.

CNET has learned that Patrick Leahy, the influential Democratic chairman of the Senate Judiciary committee, has dramatically reshaped his legislation in response to law enforcement concerns. A vote on his bill, which now authorizes warrantless access to Americans' e-mail, is scheduled for next week.

GET THE WORD OUT. LET'S MAKE THIS GO VIRAL.

If you think non-e-mail means of communication are safe -

Leahy's rewritten bill would allow more than 22 agencies -- including the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Communications Commission -- to access Americans' e-mail, Google Docs files, Facebook wall posts, and Twitter direct messages without a search warrant.

Revised bill highlights

 

 

✭ Grants warrantless access to Americans' electronic correspondence to over 22 federal agencies. Only a subpoena is required, not a search warrant signed by a judge based on probable cause.

✭ Permits state and local law enforcement to warrantlessly access Americans' correspondence stored on systems not offered "to the public," including university networks.

✭ Authorizes any law enforcement agency to access accounts without a warrant -- or subsequent court review -- if they claim "emergency" situations exist.

✭ Says providers "shall notify" law enforcement in advance of any plans to tell their customers that they've been the target of a warrant, order, or subpoena.

✭ Delays notification of customers whose accounts have been accessed from 3 days to "10 business days." This notification can be postponed by up to 360 days.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD.
 

Comments

[sarajayechan]

...what the HELL.

No, just...what the fuck is wrong with these people?

[guardians_song]

I... truly do not know.

Well, I have my suspicions - we've been sliding steadily towards a police state for the last decade, big corps are hellbent on controlling teh internetz to get rid of piracy by any means necessary, and that sort of thing. But... jeez, I just don't know...

[sarajayechan]

There needs to be a serious about-face. I know piracy's not a good thing, but policing the whole fucking internet is just disgusting.

[guardians_song]

AGREED.

In this case, I think it's a 'police state' thing, since several tech companies have come out against it. But SOPA and ACTA were definitely anti-piracy powergrabs.

*sigh* The thing about even the 'moderate' piracy legislation is... where is the line? I don't pirate games, videos, or books/manga/whatnot, but I DO have several game soundtracks from Zophar's Domain downloaded to my computer. That might count as 'piracy' - even though I OWN all the games involved, and only use the music because I don't want to have to use my GBA/DS/whatnot solely as a music player. (And I used to do that, with certain games with open Sound Rooms. Fire Emblem and Chrono Trigger come to mind.) And that is ridiculous.

[sarajayechan]

I have a buttload of mp3s, but I also own the CDs those songs are on. Most of my iPod? Made up of songs I imported from CDs. I own ROMS, but only of the harder to get games. I still want FE7 on an actual cart, I already own FE8 and FE6, Chrono Trigger (BOTH versions, too). If someone already owns the thing they're downloading it's...not that big of a deal. They just want to have it on and off the computer.

[guardians_song]

If someone already owns the thing they're downloading it's...not that big of a deal. They just want to have it on and off the computer.
Yeah, that's my thought. And I would really - really - like to be able to have that be legal. If I could buy Nintendo games on the computer, I'd do it in a flash. I'd like to screw around with glitches without worrying about wiping out my PHYSICAL cartridge. I'd like to see what ROM hacks are like. I'd like... well, a lot of things that are ROM exclusive. Hell, I'd pay a ton just for a speed-up feature - which would make Golden Sun: Dark Dawn's endless chattering ENDURABLE. Why is it so evil to want that much?!