Mike Masnick comments: I have to admit that I’ve been a bit in shock over Congress’s decision to simply renew the Patriot Act, recently, without a single safeguard to protect against abuse. That’s because just before all this happened, we wrote about how a report from the government found (not for the first time) that…
Category: U.S.
FL: Schenck said 911 bill is for privacy rights
Tony Holt reports: Proponents of a House bill think it provides long-overdue protection to the privacy of crime victims. First Amendment advocates think it goes too far and would remove accountability for 911 operators and rescue responders. Crime victims themselves seem split on the issue. On Wednesday, a House panel approved Florida Bill PCB GAP…
Satellite Surveillance: Domestic Issues
Speaking of domestic surveillance, the Congressional Research Service’s February 1 report, Satellite Surveillance: Domestic Issues, by Richard A. Best Jr., Specialist in National Defense, and Jennifer K. Elsea, Legislative Attorney, is available on the Web. The summary: Reconnaissance satellites, first deployed in the early 1960s to peer into denied regions of the Soviet Union and…
Teen’s Suit Puts Mug-Shot Publisher Against the Wall
Matthew Heller describes a lawsuit that he seems to think should fail on First Amendment grounds. What do you think? A new publication in Lincoln, Neb., milks mug shots for humor. But a teenager whose arrest photo appeared in Cuffed doesn’t see the funny side of it and has sued the publisher for misappropriating his…