

US stops jailed activist Barrett Brown from discussing hacking prosecution - eulerphi
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/sep/04/barrett-brown-gag-order-us-government

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ballard
This type of prosecution is having the opposite effect as intended: it gives
Barrett a larger platform and more credibility because the unusual unfairness
is itself newsworthy. It shows just how abusive and insecure USG has become.

Moreover, for USG going after journalists is a naked abandonment of any sense
of first amendment protections.

It is wrong and the leadership should be ashamed. Period.

If this trend continues, I will turn in my SAR membership and my citizenship.

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smsm42
They should be but they won't. They just do it because they can, and because
courts routinely defer to most outrageous claims and requests by government -
like recent decision that TSA is free to lie in responses to FOIA requests.
These guys have absolutely no shame and the only way they can be stopped is
for US public to expose them and to vote out anybody who helps this happen. If
they fail to do so, it will only get worse.

Somehow in many excessively publicized cases we've seen over the years it
never was a problem for the government that everybody is talking about it. But
when it comes to the surveillance case, suddenly there's an urgent need of
protecting jury from being tainted. It smells as fishy as it gets. A complete
and open abuse of power.

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ballard
Manufacture consent of decision makers... get articles into CFR and the like
to show the house of cards is crumbling down. Respect by fear does not endure
and there is nowhere to hide with Twitter in every pocket.

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kevingadd
Perfect! Make sure nobody knows you exist or that you're on trial, make sure
you can't run a legal defense fund, etc - that way when the government
railroads you, nobody will care and they'll get away with it.

The system works!

The implication that a 'fair trial' is only possible when the public is
ignorant is kind of insane in this scenario, where the government is obviously
trying to silence detractors.

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cliffu
Well it is true that a fair trial is only possible with an unbiased jury, and
having a lot of media coverage can create a bias. But doesn't that only apply
to bias for the prosecution? And anyway they manage to find juries for high-
profile cases (like OJ even after the car chase).

But no, let's throw out the First Amendment instead.

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derefr
This seems less like a reason to prevent free speech, and more like a reason
to sequester juries _in advance_ of a trial, so that they never see the news
in the first place. Maybe even have pre-built juries sitting around
sequestered and ready to go for whatever case happens to come up. But, you
know, that'd cost money.

~~~
cliffu
If it were me, I'd say if the prosecution really has enough evidence to prove
beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant did a crime, an initially
positive bias isn't an actual problem. In fact that's how the justice system
is supposed to operate (innocent until proven guilty).

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SilliMon
What did he do that is worthy of 100 years in jail?

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davekinkead
"In 2012, Brown similarly pored over millions of emails hacked by Anonymous
from the private intelligence company Stratfor. It was during his work on the
Stratfor hack that Brown committed his most serious offence, according to US
prosecutors – he posted a link in a chat room that connected users to Stratfor
documents that had been released online.

The released documents included a list of email addresses and credit card
numbers belonging to Stratfor subscribers. For posting that link, Brown is
accused of disseminating stolen information – a charge with media commentators
have warned criminalises the very act of linking."

~~~
junto
In summary: "he posted a link in a chat room"

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aspensmonster
>the government argued that the gag order was needed in order to protect Brown
from prejudicing his right to a fair trial by making comments to reporters.

You know. For your safety.

Meanwhile, it appears Project PM is limping along. The domain project-pm.org
seems to be the new site, though it is down at the moment. It's a shame that
the account creation page is disabled right now. There's plenty of work to be
done cross referencing the NSA files with other releases. I think the most
frustrating aspect of this whole debacle is how one-sided the entire scenario
is. If you or I decided to develop some zero days for popular software and
sell it to interested entities for millions of dollars per year in
subscription fees, we'd be thrown in prison for years for violating numerous
computer crime and copyright laws. Stick an LLC on the end of the organization
and voila! Now you can break laws with impunity and even blessings from the
military industrial complex. No trials for DMCA or CFAA violations. No prison
time. Just lots and lots of money.

It sounds like the hackers of the world are doing it wrong.

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frank_boyd
First, the 100 years of jail time and now this. It's like a parody inside a
parody.

Except this is now US reality.

