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Submission + - NSA Officers Sometimes Spy on Love Interests (wsj.com)

Submitted by Jah-Wren Ryel
Jah-Wren Ryel writes: The latest twist in the NSA coverage sounds like something out of a dime-store romance novel — NSA agents eavesdropping on their current and former girlfriends. Official categories of spying have included SIGINT (signals intelligence) and HUMINT (human intelligence) and now the NSA has added a new category to the lexicon LOVEINT which is surely destined to be a popular hashtag now.

Submission + - The financial relationship between the NSA and Silicon Valley (theregister.co.uk)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: 'New documents from Edward Snowden published in The Guardian have shown for the first time the financial relationship between the NSA and some of the largest names in the tech business over the PRISM data-collection scheme ..`

"Last year's problems resulted in multiple extensions to the certifications' expiration dates which cost millions of dollars for Prism providers to implement each successive extension – costs covered by Special Source Operations" the document reads.

Submission + - EFF Victory: Release of Secret Court Opinion: NSA Surveillance Unconstitutional

Submitted by mspohr
mspohr writes: For over a year, EFF has been fighting the government in federal court to force the public release of an 86-page opinion of the secret Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (FISC). Issued in October 2011, the secret court's opinion found that surveillance conducted by the NSA under the FISA Amendments Act was unconstitutional and violated "the spirit of" federal law.
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/08/eff-victory-results-expected-release-secret-court-opinion-finding-nsa-surveillance
Further coverage at the NYTimes: http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/22/us/2011-ruling-found-an-nsa-program-unconstitutional.html
Judge Bates: “The Court is troubled that the government’s revelations regarding N.S.A.’s acquisition of Internet transactions mark the third instance in less than three years in which the government has disclosed a substantial misrepresentation regarding the scope of a major collection program,”

Comment Re:Disappointing and Puzzling (Score 1) 986

The reasons given by pj for closing down are totally unconvincing. Does she communicate day by day? Does she use the phone? Does she write letters? With the same logic she is offering for Groklaw's closure she would have to stop talking, phoning and writing. And breathing.

I'm afraid I have to agree with you. It just doesn't make sense to me. Something doesn't compute.

Submission + - Groklaw closes

Submitted by NewYorkCountryLawyer
NewYorkCountryLawyer writes: I can't actually believe what I'm reading but I'm reading a post by PJ — the brilliant lady behind Groklaw — which says that she's folding her tents and shutting Groklaw down, due to the government's surveillance of email, and lack of privacy online.

Comment Re:The Case for Copyright Reform (Score 1) 183

They should just read The Case for Copyright Reform by Christian EngstrÃm (Member of the European Parliament for the Pirate Party) & Rick Falkvinge (founder of the original Pirate Party), and implement it. You can, of course, download the book for free on that website. I highly recommend reading it.

Thanks for the recommendation. You deserve to be modded up for that.

Comment Re:So, what are you prepared to give away for no p (Score 1) 183

I'm not hostile to copyright. I have been working in copyright law since 1974.

The problem is that due to influence peddling, copyright law has lost its mooring.

It is supposed to ensure
-to the author,
-reasonable compensation,
and it is supposed to ensure that
-the work is turned over to the public after a reasonable time.

It is also supposed to permit fair uses of copyrighted works.

What we have now is:

-money which flows mostly to large corporations who are not authors

-a flow of money for vastly unreasonable periods of time

-the virtual abolition of fair use.

I am in favor of copyright law. What we have now is not copyright law.

Comment Re:Big money owns and runs govt. (Score 1) 183

Right then, send in your arguments, so they can all be shot down more effectively, and precisely, by the likes of the copyright lobby and other big money interests with crack legal teams. Big money owns, and runs govt., including the chit-chat at the water cooler.

Unfortunately, I have to agree with you.

Even this 'call for comments' by the government (a) comes from an agency that doesn't administer copyright law, and (b) has no return address for the actual 'comments'.

Fortunately, we have Slashdot, though. The government can come here and see what people think.

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