FC: Peeved judges protest electronic monitoring of their PCs

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Wed Aug 08 2001 - 14:54:25 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Gary Condit reportedly backs down, lets eBay auction proceed"

    [Also thanks to Kris Singleton and Peter Trei who sent this along too. 
    --Declan]
    
    **********
    
    Date: 8 Aug 2001 20:15:19 -0000
    From: "pulsar pulsar" <pulsarat_private>
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: Judges stage "insurrection" against surveillance
    
    Declan,
    Thought the readers of politech might enjoy this.
    
    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/08/technology/08COUR.html
    
    
    "[W]ASHINGTON, Aug. 7 ? A group of federal employees who
    believed that the monitoring of their office computers was
    a major violation of their privacy recently staged an
    insurrection, disabling the software used to check on them
    and suggesting that the monitoring was illegal and unethical.
    
    This was not just a random bunch of bureaucrats but a
    group of federal judges who are still engaged in a dispute
    with the office in Washington that administers the
    judicial branch and that had installed the software to
    detect downloading of music, streaming video and
    pornography."
    
    The rest of the story is at the link.
    http://www.nytimes.com/2001/08/08/technology/08COUR.html
    
    ********
    
    Date: Wed, 08 Aug 2001 13:44:41 -0700
    From: Josh Duberman <pivotalinfoat_private>
    Organization: Pivotalinfo LLC
    To: declanat_private
    Subject: Judges Protest Computer Monitoring
    
    Hi - Thought you might be interested in this AP story
    by Gina Holland, at:
    http://news.excite.com/news/ap/010808/12/judges-privacy
    
    Some excerpts:
    
    ....Chief Judge Mary Schroeder of the 9th Circuit said
    court employees had been disciplined for unauthorized
    computer use even though they were not fully aware of
    the court's policy on the matter.
    
    "We are concerned about the propriety and even the
    legality of monitoring Internet usage," she wrote in a
    June 29 memorandum obtained by The New York Times.
    
    Schroeder said the court administrators may have
    violated a federal communications privacy act...
    
    Take care - Josh
    
    ********
    
    
    
    
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
    You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
    To subscribe, visit http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
    This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
    -------------------------------------------------------------------------
    



    This archive was generated by hypermail 2b30 : Wed Aug 08 2001 - 15:17:12 PDT