Facebook To Maryland Teachers: Whatever You Say (Update)

You could have seen “Grace’s Law” coming a mile away, following the sad story of 15-year-old Grace McComas committing suicide after being bullied on twitter.  So Maryland’s attempt to never let another child be bullied went into effect this week in the hope that no child ever feels hurt again.

But what comes as surprise is Facebook’s “response” to the Maryland’s efforts.  Via Walter Olson’s post at Cato:

Maryland attorney general Douglas Gansler unveiled a joint initiative with Facebook and the National Association of Attorneys General (NAAG) in which Facebook will create a new program for school officials, the Educator Escalation Channel Continue reading →

Lavabit’s Levison’s Really Bad Call

Lavabit’s Ladar Levison asked the right question, but he did it in the wrong place and way too late.

“How as a small business do you hire the lawyers to appeal this and change public opinion to get the laws changed when Congress doesn’t even know what is going on?” Mr. Levison said.

Now, he’s no longer a bit player in the secure e-mail industry, but a privacy hero, a government target and a guy without a job.  Before Edward Snowden became a public enemy, he used Lavabit, a fledgling company that took years to generate enough revenue to let Levison quit his day job. Continue reading →

Silk Road: Random is the New Normal (Update)

The arrest of Ross William Ulbricht sent shockwaves through the underground internet, even though most of us wouldn’t have the slightest clue that the crimes with which he’s charged ever happened.  He’s alleged to be the mastermind of Silk Road, an online drug marketplace that existed in the deep web.

The what?  Accessible only via the onion network of Tor, payable only with Bitcoin, covered with multiple layers of encryption, false transactions and bouncing from computer to computer around the world so that no IP address can be traced, Silk Road enabled people to buy and sell things without regulation or accountability, except within its own community. It was as wild as the web gets, and what was sold there was drugs.  That wasn’t exactly a secret. Continue reading →

How The Government Explains The Internet

The government has submitted a lengthy brief to the Third Circuit in response to the appeal of Andrew “Weev” Auernheimer following his conviction under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act for embrassing AT&T by revealing a huge hole in its handling of iToys.  And it’s making computer guys, like my pal Rob Graham, nuts.

The start of the brief goes to great lengths to describe how Andrew’s company, Goatse Security…

is not, to put it mildly, a traditional security research company. Continue reading →

What Lesson Will The Reaper Learn?

“I was horrified. I’m frightened for my cops,” Chief Thomas Nestel said reacts to surveillance video.

As well Chief Nestel should be, given what was reported by MyFoxPhilly.  A SEPTA Transit cop tried to stop a fare-beater, who didn’t go quietly.

Police said the suspect, Ernest Hays, was avoiding arrest and threw SEPTA police officer Samuel Washington on the ground and then pinned him under a bench.

No, it wasn’t that Hays fought Washington that horrified Nestel, but what happened next.  Or, to be more precise, what didn’t happen next. Continue reading →

The Whitewash of Burton Third (Video Update)

Had it been a mural of happy unicorns, it would have still been there when the students returned from their summer of excellent experiments. But then, it was painted at a time when the Institute was more concerned with giving students the freedom to express themselves rather than never hurting anyone’s feelings.

When the residents of third floor of MIT’s Burton-Conner dorm left at the end of the spring semester, there was an old mural of a bar scene on the wall, and a real bar in front of it.  This was the personality of the floor, an aspect of dorm life that characterizes MIT.  Unlike other schools, each dorm has developed a persona, and attracts like-minded students who prefer the lifestyle it reflects. But that’s history, and this is a school of science. Continue reading →

Wanted: Robed Executioner

The words would be harsh in a Reddit comment:

The best way to think about it is to ask yourself this question: “Am I a willing judicial executioner, a person who consciously does great harm to other human beings by faithfully executing the extraordinarily harsh national criminal laws?”

The job to which these words apply is United States District Judge.  The author of these words is a United States District Judge.  Not just any judge, mind you, but Richard Kopf of the District of Nebraska, now on senior status having been appointed by President Bush in 1992. Continue reading →

The Strawman Defense

Over at Nancy Grace’s favorite blog, Crime & Consequences, my old pal Bill Otis is busy inventing the “future of law” defenses for us.  While it’s very thoughtful of Otis to put in so much time and effort on our behalf, it’s like the judge interrupting cross to question the prosecution’s main witness; if you’ve going to do it, at least do a decent job of it.

In a post cutely entitled “Criminal Defense, The Bracket Game,” Otis writes:

No, I did not say, “Criminal Defense, the Racket Game.” That wouldn’t be very nice. Continue reading →