

US prosecutors drop link-related charges from Barrett Brown case? - choult
http://www.scribd.com/doc/210801336/17717995604

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guelo
So a US prosecutor gets to throw a man in jail for two years on trumped up
charges and before any trial say "oopsies!" and suffer no consequences.

Giving prosecutors enormous power and absolute immunity is a recipe for abuse,
our justice system is fundamentally broken.

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hnisnotreddit
In Canada, this would be grounds for "Malicious Prosecution", which is pretty
much the only way to oust a prosecutor.

I've seen it done only once with my own eyes; Lawyer was disbarred, and the
now-former lawyer "settled" the criminal charges as a pro-se litigant (which I
didn't know was possible) by paying a fine (literally, writing a cheque in
court), and walking out the door a free man.

I'd say giving people the ability to settle criminal charges as a civil matter
is a much larger recipe for abuse, leading to Prosecutors not caring about the
damage they do, even if their feet are held to the fire.

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thatthatis
Good news for him. But I kinda wanted this to make it to the supreme court so
the question of linking could be more summarily decided.

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ageisp0lis
I agree. I wanted to see the EFF's amicus brief, and for the Court to decide
on the issue so that we could have good case law with hyperlinks as protected
speech.

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fiatmoney
There's no reason the EFF can't release their amicus brief, even if there's no
longer a reason for them to file it. Good arguments should be shared.

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vaadu
... used a particular hacking method called a sequel injection to exploit ...

Are the legal docs not proofread?

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AnimalMuppet
A sequel injection? Isn't that patented by Hollywood?

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aspensmonster
Yes. They have patents pending for prequel injection too.

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fiatmoney
What charges does that leave remaining?

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vonmoltke
From the main indictment, its the charge of possessing account information and
credit card numbers from Stratfor subscribers with intent to defraud. The two
smaller indictments with a total of 5 more charges are still intact, but I
don't remember what those charges are.

~~~
lost_name
[http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/feds-indict-self-
pro...](http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/feds-indict-self-proclaimed-
anonymous-spokesman-on-retaliation-conspiracy-charges.html/)

 _... Barrett Brown ... has been indicted on three federal charges: making an
online threat, retaliating against a federal officer and conspiring to release
the personal information of a U.S. government employee._

The other 12 (11 of which were dropped as described in the main article):
[http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/new-federal-
indictme...](http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/new-federal-indictment-
lists-12-more-charges-against-barrett-brown-once-the-self-proclaimed-
spokesman-for-anonymous.html/?nclick_check=1)

