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Submission + - Imminent server seizure tests Brazil's new internet bill of rights (sarava.org) 1

sunbird writes: Less than one week after passing the Marco Civil da Internet, Article 3 of which purports to protect free expression and privacy of personal data from government intrusion, a Public Prosecutor in Brazil is seeking to seize a server hosting research groups, social movements, discussion lists and other tools. The server is hosted by the Saravá Group, which has adopted a policy of not storing connection logs to protect the privacy of users. The Public Prosecutor is seeking to identify individuals involved in Rádio Mudo, a project hosted by Saravá, but as Saravá does not store logs, there is no information on the server that is responsive to the investigation. This action comes as Brazil seeks to place itself in the forefront of protecting internet privacy after it hosted the Net Mundial conference. Saravá has called for a protest action today at 1PM local time (9AM PT/12noonET) to protest against the seizure.

Submission + - Snowden joins Daniel Ellsberg on board of Freedom of the Press Foundation (pressfreedomfoundation.org)

sunbird writes: Edward Snowden is joining the board of the Freedom of the Press Foundation, a nonprofit committed to defending public-interest journalism which exposes law-breaking in government. The foundation is presently raising money and awareness for a variety of open-source encryption tools. Please consider donating to my favorite: the LEAP Encryption Access Project.
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - EFF challenges National Security Letter (eff.org)

sunbird writes: "The Electronic Frontier Foundation filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court in San Francisco on behalf of an anonymous petitioner seeking to challenge a National Security Letter (NSL) the petitioner had received. NSLs are issued by law enforcement with neither judicial oversight nor probable cause, and have been discussed on Slashdot before. In response to the lawsuit, the U.S. Department of Justice filed a separate lawsuit against the individual who had received the NSL, requesting that the court order the receipient to comply with the NSL and asking the court to find that the "failure to comply with a lawfully issued National Security Letter interferes with the United States' vindication of its sovereign interests in law enforcement, counterintelligence, and protecting national security." Both cases are filed under seal, but heavily-redacted filings are available. The cases remain pending."
Your Rights Online

Submission + - FBI caught on camera returning seized server (mayfirst.org)

sunbird writes: "As previously covered on Slashdot, on April 18th the FBI seized a server located in a New York colocation facility shared by May First / People Link and Riseup.net. The server, which was operated by the European Counter Network ("ECN"), the oldest independent internet service provider in Europe, was seized in relation to bomb threats sent to the University of Pittsburgh using a Mixmaster anonymous remailer hosted on the server (search warrant). The FBI's action has been criticized by the EFF. Predictably, the threats continued even after the server seizure. On April 24th, the FBI quietly returned the server, without notifying either Mayfirst / People Link or riseup, and were caught on video doing it."

Submission + - FBI seizes server providing anonymous remailer (riseup.net)

sunbird writes: At 16:00 ET on April 18, federal agents seized a server located in a New York colocation facility shared by May First / People Link and Riseup.net. The server was operated by the European Counter Network ("ECN"), the oldest independent internet service provider in Europe. The server was seized as a part of the investigation into bomb threats sent via the Mixmaster anonymous remailer received by the University of Pittsburgh that were previously discussed on Slashdot. As a result of the seizure, hundreds of unrelated people and organizations have been disrupted.
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - Warrantless wiretaping decisions issued by Ninth C (eff.org)

sunbird writes: "The Ninth Circuit yesterday issued two decisions in the Electronic Frontier Foundation's lawsuits against the National Security Agency (Jewel v. NSA) and the telecommunications companies (Hepting v. AT&T). EFF had argued in Hepting that the retroactive immunity passed by Congress was unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit decision (.pdf) upholds the immunity and the district court's dismissal of the case. Short of an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, this effectively ends the suit against the telecoms. In much better news, the same panel issued a decision (.pdf) reversing the dismissal of the lawsuit against the N.S.A. and remanded the case back to the lower court for more proceedings. These cases have been previously discussed here ."
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Submission + - Warrantless wiretapping cases at the 9th Circuit (eff.org)

sunbird writes: The Electronic Frontier Foundation argued several critical cases yesterday before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Both Hepting v. AT&T and Jewel v. National Security Agency raise important questions regarding whether the NSA's warrantless wiretapping program (pdf summary of evidence) disclosed by whistleblower Mark Klein and implemented by AT&T and other telecoms, violates the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. The full text of the Klein declaration and redacted exhibits are publicly available (pdf). This issue has been previously discussed here (1 2 3 4). The Klein evidence establishes that AT&T cut into the fiber optic cables in San Francisco to route a complete copy of internet and phone traffic to the "SG3" secure room operated by the NSA. The trial court dismissed the Hepting lawsuit (pdf order) based on the 2008 Congressional grant of immunity to telecoms. Similarly, the trial court in Jewel dismissed (pdf order) the lawsuit against the government agencies and officials based on the state secrets privilege. Both cases were argued together before the same panel of judges. The audio of the oral argument will be available after 12noon PT today.

Comment Re:no more shopping in pakistan for me (Score 1) 351

Not so fast. Recall that India has implemented a similar regulation. Remember the whole dispute with RIM a while back? From the linked article:

the ISP license also bans internet providers from deploying 'bulk encryption' and further restricts the level of encryption for individuals, groups or organisations to a key length of only 40 bits in symmetric key algorithms or equivalents. Such weak encryption is easily broken, highly insecure and not suitable for e-commerce or any other sensitive applications. For the use of encryption equipment stronger than 40 bits, individuals, groups or organisations are required to obtain prior written permission and to deposit the decryption key, split into two parts, with the Department of Telecommunications.

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