Nice Bitjam.

I don't know if this case has made waves in the US but it's been an ongoing"cause celebre" over here for the last 10 years or more:


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What pisses us off most is

McKinnon remained at liberty without restriction for three years until June 2005 (until after the UK enacted the Extradition Act 2003, which implemented the 2003 extradition treaty with the United States wherein the United States did not need to provide contestable evidence),

This was something cooked up between George W. and Tony Blair which meant that the US could extradite people from the UK, basically, because they wanted to. But, if the UK wanted to extradite anyone from the US, the full requirements of US law had to be complied with. Believe it or not, this is hugely unpopular!

dmk

Spreading the emotion of fear. Yes. As far i can observe.
The people i know, illiterate in computing ... I tell them something about what a computer can do. The very first question they ask: But is that legal?
Hence they never do nothing. Hence they never learn nothing.
The system as is produces idiots. We soon will be the third world (at least that's more than fair).

I got no good example in mind. Something like downloading a youtube-video with download-helper. Like that. Rally easy stuff, far from being illegal.

Strange enough no one ever questions if it is legal to spy on the population 24/7/365

regarding the previous post: don't let me start on that. In short:"For most people on this planet we are the terrorists".

Keep on this way and you will be targeted for a U.S. Drone Assassination

That poster is also by Tom the Dancing Bug:

Wow, that's much better than the crappy version I had. Thanks BitJam!

Incidentally, are you now living in a"Constitution Free" Zone? Using data provided by the U.S. Census Bureau, the ACLU has determined that nearly 2/3 of the entire US population (197.4 million people) live within 100 miles of the US land and coastal borders.

The government is assuming extraordinary powers to stop and search individuals within this zone. This is not just about the border: This" Constitution-Free Zone" includes most of the nation's largest metropolitan areas.


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Update on the Above here:


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Americans have no Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable searches and seizures if they happen to be within 100 miles of the border, according to the “Executive Summary” of a still-secret report by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). As the ACLU-created map above shows, nearly 2/3 of Americans (197 million people)—including the entire populations of Florida, Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Washington, DC, and Michigan—live in this “Constitution free” zone, as do the residents of the nation’s five most populous cities: New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston and Philadelphia.

The secret report is DHS’s response (two years late) to critics of its policy, in place since at least 2008, of allowing border control agents, without a warrant or even a suspicion of wrongdoing, to search any travelers’ electronic devices (laptops, cell phones, tablets, cameras, etc.) and seize data they find. According to a Freedom of Information Act request (FOIA) filed three years ago by the ACLU, DHS subjected more than 6,500 travelers—nearly half of them U.S. citizens—to searches under this policy between October 2008 and June 2010.

Still, what else could be expected from the nation that keeps its"Liberty Bell" in a secure building with armed guards and metal detectors?

All around the free world bells sit happily in bell-towers so that the people can ring them, but try ringing the"Liberty Bell" on Planet America and you will be shot/tasered/beaten up and put in jail. Cor Baby, that's really free! __{{emoticon}}__

Living on the border. I know all about Border Patrol Checkpoints.

Like the Drug war. 9/11 was a big boost to the funding of these kinds of checkpoints. It is all about the money when it comes to neo-facism. The cold war
generation who is all for this kind of stuff is dying out slowly from old age. Just look at Obamas election. Obama is not the answer yet though to
change as he promised to enact. More of a old school type mentality on some things but has a hipster aura. Which makes him likable.

We don't get a lot of choice lately with who we get to run things here. Anti can kinda relate to that as well as you European guys suffering austerity.
You got bad or badder to choose from. I'll be dead before things change for the better. So I live in the desert where only 1 or 2 things are a hassle
vs 100 things living in a big city. I live pretty free otherwise. I usually get waved through a check point on my scooters. In the Pick Up truck. Well,
then the paranoia kicks in for the federal employees.

Creative prosecutors have taken advantage of this confusion to bring criminal charges that aren't really about hacking a computer, but instead target other behavior prosecutors dislike.
The CFAA is the federal anti-hacking law. Among other things, this law makes it illegal to intentionally access a computer without authorization or in excess of authorization; however, the law does not explain what"without authorization" actually means.
Under the current wording of the law anyone can be convicted for a crime, that uses a computer online.
Here is a link to the current law.

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This talk about what is happening on the border reminds me of the film
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. It is a low budget independent near-future sci-fi film about the border and barriers between Mexico and the US.

OK, so we've lurched a little further into the Twilight Zone this week:


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A new report from the Department of Defense outlines the military's capability to deter cyber threats with some pretty heavy firepower, including nuclear weapons.

The paper written by the Defense Science Board described the best types of bombs to use on hackers to be"Global selective strike systems e.g. penetrating bomber, submarines with long range cruise missiles, Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS), survivable national and combatant command," while"Nuclear weapons would remain the ultimate response and anchor the deterrence ladder" for cyber threats.

So picture this! Some lonely loser in the next street to you hacks into one of those CIA front companies systems, so they nuke him and the rest of the county, including you, are written off as"collateral damage". __{{emoticon}}__

alanarchy - nice to see John Otway getting a plug (Cor baby that's really free!) I saw him at the Cambridge Corn Exchange in the 70's - Wild Willy Barret was supposed to be there but they'd had"artistic differences" or something & he didn't turn up. The support band were an entirely unknown group called AC-DC! He played the Oak in Sudbury a few years ago & I went along for old time'a sake - bit different from the Corn Exchange.

What can I say, Beware of the Flowers Cause I'm Sure They're Going to Get You. - keeep the faith! __{{emoticon}}__

dmk

PS.

For any of our more benighted readers, unaware of this great British musician & institution, I include this link:

Hey Wild Willy Barrett is from Aylesbury, not that far from me __{{emoticon}}__

Apparently he's been in France but is doing some dates with John Otway right now:


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That really got me in America. Three hours queuing to get into the country, making me two hours late getting to Philadelphia, and you find Vietnam Vets begging on the streets and the Liberty Bell locked up for the night. Welcome to the land of the free!

Let's hope they never find out about that statue of Thomas Paine in Thetford cos they'll be wanting that put into a terrorist-proof building.

Look Yanks, open day or night:


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