politech

[Politech] Judge rules defendant can't be forced to divulge PGP passphrase [priv]

Declan McCullagh — Fri, 14 Dec 2007 18:42:41 -0800

I haven't been very prolific with Politech recently, in part because I'm
trying to send out only more important items rather than routine news
stories. This one meets the importance test.

Text of article:
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9834495-38.html

First three grafs:

A federal judge in Vermont has ruled that prosecutors can't force a
criminal defendant accused of having illegal images on his hard drive
to divulge his PGP (Pretty Good Privacy) passphrase.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Jerome Niedermeier ruled that a man charged with
transporting child pornography on his laptop across the Canadian
border has a Fifth Amendment right not to turn over the
passphrase to prosecutors. The Fifth Amendment protects the right
to avoid self-incrimination.

Niedermeier tossed out a grand jury's subpoena that directed Sebastien
Boucher to provide "any passwords" used with the Alienware
laptop. "Compelling Boucher to enter the password forces him to
produce evidence that could be used to incriminate him," the judge
wrote in an order dated November 29 that went unnoticed until this
week. "Producing the password, as if it were a key to a locked
container, forces Boucher to produce the contents of his laptop."

Link to court opinion:
http://www.volokh.com/files/Boucher.pdf

Orin Kerr's this-ruling-is-wrong post:
http://volokh.com/posts/1197670606.shtml

Link to Michael Froomkin's old law review article touching on this:
http://osaka.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/seminar/papers/anon/intlaw_paper.html

-Declan
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[Politech] Politicians push for mandatory data retention laws, bipartisanly [priv]

Declan McCullagh — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 14:21:16 -0700

[Did everyone really think this was over? If nothing else, data
retention proponents have taken a long-term view; here's something I
wrote in 2005 about the beginnings of the DR push:
http://www.news.com/2100-1028_3-5748649.html --Declan]

http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9926803-38.html

FBI, politicos renew push for ISP data retention laws
By Declan McCullagh (declan@private)

WASHINGTON--The FBI and multiple members of Congress said on Wednesday
that Internet service providers must be legally required to keep records
of their users' activities for later review by police.

Their suggestions for mandatory data retention revive a push for
potentially sweeping federal laws--which civil libertarians oppose--that
flagged last year after the resignation of Attorney General Alberto
Gonzales, the idea's most prominent proponent.

FBI Director Robert Mueller told a House of Representatives committee
that Internet service providers should be required to keep records of
users' activities for two years.

Also lending their support for data retention were Rep. Ric Keller,
R-Fla., who said that Internet chat rooms were crammed with sexual
predators, and Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the
House Judiciary committee and a previous data retention enthusiast. Rep.
John Conyers, the senior Democrat and chairman, added that any proposed
data retention legislation submitted by the FBI "would be most welcome."

[...remainder snipped...]
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[Politech] ITU botnet paper published in draft form, comments requested [priv]

Declan McCullagh — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:17:51 -0800

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: ITU botnet mitigation toolkit - draft background paper published
Date: Wed, 21 Nov 2007 17:45:16 -0800
From: suresh@private (Suresh Ramasubramanian)
To: declan@private
CC: dave@private

Dave and Declan

The ITU botnet toolkit is an ITU-D effort to bring together different
groups,
different sets of best practices and different existing efforts in botnet
mitigation and general spam / cybersecurity work that focuses on botnet
mitigation, and create a practical implementation of these focused on
developing countries.

The toolkit website is at
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/projects/botnet.html

A background paper on the toolkit (still draft) is at
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/cyb/cybersecurity/docs/itu-botnet-mitigation-toolkit-background.pdf

The background paper, once published, will form the basis of at least two
nationwide pilot projects over 2008, involving local, regional and
international groups from government, industry, independent researchers,
NGOs
etc. The first is going to be in Malaysia in association with the Malaysian
government, in 1Q2008.

The background paper is structured to provide a short "toolkit" of
approaches,
with three large appendices describing policy, technology and social
initiatives that can be followed. There will, inevitably, be some crossover
between these three appendices, and again inevitably, people familiar
with one
section of the paper may at the most be broadly aware of issues in the other
sections. That's perfectly fine and the paper was structured keeping
that fact
in mind.

I am consulting for ITU on this project over 2008, wrote the background
paper
and will be helping to coordinate the implementation of these pilots.

I have sent earlier draft versions of this to quite a few people (among them
several IP / politech readers) and I guess now, closer to the beginning
of this
project, it is time to reach out to a broader audience. Comments,
suggestions,
offers to help / participate in this are welcome.

thanks
suresh

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[Politech] David Burt and his Filtering Facts Web site are back [fs]

Declan McCullagh — Mon, 26 Nov 2007 02:15:03 -0800

David Burt is a longtime fan (some would say apologist) for filtering
software. See our discussions from 2001:
http://www.politechbot.com/p-01734.html
http://www.politechbot.com/2006/08/01/david-burt-on/

-Declan

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Filtering Facts is back
Date: Sun, 25 Nov 2007 20:25:50 -0800
From: David Burt
To: declan@private

Filtering Facts is back on the web after a too long absence. In keeping
with my long association with filtering software, I have completely
reconstituted www.filteringfacts.org as both a deep reference site of all
things related to filtering software, as well as a daily blog of reporting
on Internet filtering and Internet safety. Among the material in the new
website are:

-- Legal page (http://filteringfacts.org/legal/ )

Extensive information on all U.S. legal cases involving filtering (CIPA,
CDA, COPA, etc.) with hundreds of legal documents, as well as the text and
interpretation of all US state and federal laws involving filtering.

-- Filter Effectiveness Tests page (
http://filteringfacts.org/research/filter-tests/ )

A comprehensive index of nearly 100 individual product tests conducted by
testing labs, organizations, or affiliated researchers.

-- Research and Policy Papers page (
http://filteringfacts.org/research/papers/ )

A comprehensive index of over 100 research, policy, and legal papers on
filtering software created by government entities, filtering companies,
advocacy groups, academic publications, and other organizations.

-- Filter Reviews page (http://filteringfacts.org/research/filter-reviews/ )

A comprehensive index of published filtering product reviews since 1995,
including over 200 individual product reviews.

-- Filtering page (http://filteringfacts.org/filtering/ )

Extensive information about filtering companies, past as well as present,
their products and databases.

-- Library Filtering Policies Page (
http://filteringfacts.org/policy/library-policies/ )

Archive of over 100 Internet Acceptable Use Policies from public libraries
that filter.

----------------------------------
David Burt, Filtering Facts
david_burt@private
http://www.filteringfacts.org
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[Politech] Who'd make the most technology-friendly president? Discuss. [econ]

Declan McCullagh — Thu, 31 Jan 2008 10:46:51 -0800

The February 5 primaries are just a few days away, so it seems timely to
send some links around.

First, I'm doing a live chat at News.com about technology, politics, and
who would make the best president when viewed through that lens. It
starts at 11am PT/2pm ET today, and here's the link:
http://www.news.com/8301-13578_3-9862081-38.html

Second, we've asked the presidential candidates questions about things
like the DMCA, Net neutrality, retroactive liability for telcom
companies, and Real ID. Their responses posted are here:
http://www.news.com/2009-1028_3-6221134.html

And here's a kind of offbeat story about a hardy band of Googlers
(current and former employees) who braved the New Hampshire winter to
gather there and stump for Ron Paul:
http://www.news.com/Googlers-stump-in-N.H.-for-Paul/2100-1028_3-6224935.html

Finally, a link to a tongue-in-cheek survey we did of voters and their
views on Net Neutrality:
http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9843623-7.html

-Declan
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