Copying as Search and Seizure: Via CYB3RCRIM3 blog.

In other posts, I’ve argued that copying data is a “seizure” under the 4th Amendment.

As I explained in those posts, if copying is a 4th Amendment seizure, law enforcement officers must either get a warrant authorizing the seizure or be able to use one of the exceptions to the warrant requirement to justify copying the data. As I noted, if copying data is neither a search nor a seizure, law enforcement officers can copy data without satisfying any of the 4th Amendment’s requirements. [ Read more ... ]

VIDEO: Washington Legal Foundation: Via CDT - PolicyBeta.

Recently, CDT Policy Analyst, Andrew McDiarmid spoke at the Washington Legal Foundation about privacy issues in the Google Books Settlement. The video of Andrew’s discussion, as well as several other videos from the event, are available here.

Read Original Article:(Via CDT - PolicyBeta.)

Obama appointee previews the imminent preventive detention debate: Via Salon: Glenn Greenwald.

By all accounts, the White House is going to unveil its proposal for indefinite detention within the next four to eight weeks, and it has begun dispatching proponents of that scheme to lay the rhetorical groundwork.  In The Washington Post today, one of the proposal's architects -- Law Professor Robert Chesney, a member of Obama's Detention Policy Task Force -- showcased the trite and manipulative tactics that will be used by advocates of indefinite detention to win support for their radical program [anyone doubting that detention without trials is radical should recall that Obama's own White House counsel Greg Craig told Jane Mayer back in February that it's "hard to imagine Barack Obama as the first President of the United States to introduce a preventive-detention law"; New York Times reporter William Glaberson wrote that "Obama's detention policy "would be a departure from the way this country sees itself"; Sen. Russ Feingold warned that it "violates basic American values," "is likely unconstitutional," and "is a hallmark of abusive systems that we have historically criticized around the world"; The New York Times' Bob Herbert said that "Americans should recoil as one against the idea of preventive detention"; and the Obama policy's most vigorous Congressional proponents are Tom Coburn and Lindsey Graham]. 

According to Chesney, though, the real extremists are those "on the left" who oppose preventive detention; those who believe that radical liberties such as criminal charges, trials and due process are necessary before the state can put someone in a cage for life; those who agree with Thomas Jefferson that trial by jury is "the only anchor ever yet imagined by man, by which a government can be held to the principles of its constitution." [ Read more ... ]

Hackers on a plane: "(InfoWorld) - WASHINGTON -- White hat hackers unite!

The Hacker Foundation, a nonprofit organization of ethical security researchers, is trying to extend its reach and encourage more people to join its ranks to help further codify the United States hacking community.

Many people working on important security research programs need financial help to allow them to pay their bills and maintain their efforts to improve IT systems defenses, Hacker Foundation leaders explain. In addition to giving seed money and grants to researchers, the group also raises funds for any legal defense fees incurred by white hats as they bend rules to help test the concepts they build. [ Read more ... ]