In purported efforts to help the public “understand the privacy risks of carrying a mobile phone,” the ACLU and the EFF are suing the Justice Dept. for “documents, memos, and guides” about procedures used to track individuals through cell phones.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation aren’t looking for money — except to cover their own costs — in their most recent lawsuit against the US Department of Justice. Instead, the two civil liberty advocacy groups want information about whether and how the government might be using the location capabilities in cell phones to find out where people are.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans — over 200 million people — carry mobile phones. This large number is steadily increasing. The information the ACLU seeks therefore bears on the privacy of a vast segment of the United States population,” according to the complaint, which was submitted this week under the Freedom of Information Act.

“Recent court decisions and media reports reveal that US Attorneys Offices (USAOs) are assisting law enforcement officers in obtaining information from mobile carriers that enables officers to track the location of individuals’ mobile phones,” the document says.

“Court decisions indicate that USAOs claim not to need probable cause to obtain real-time tracking information. News reports further suggest that some field offices are violating a Department of Justice ‘internal recomendation’ that ‘federal procecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas.’”

Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit asks the DOJ to search several specific federal offices within the agency — including US Attorneys’ Offices in six states and the District of Columbia — for records related to cell phone tracking.

The types of records sought in the suit pertain to policies, procedures, and practices used for obtaining mobile phone location information; the DOJ’s “internal recommendation” and any violations of that recommendation; and the number of times the government has applied for a court order, based on less than probable cause, using that court order as authority to obtain mobile phone location information, “and whether such applications were successful.”

In an appendix to the court document, the plaintiffs have attached a news article that mentions a couple of location-based services already offered by mobile providers for tracking people outside the realm of criminal justice. The two examples include Verizon Wireless’ Chaperone service, aimed at helping parents to track their kids, and Sprint Nextel’s “loopt” service, for “sending an alert when a friend is near.”

It’s important to note, though, that if carriers are enabling cellular tracking — whether for parents, friends or law enforcement officials — any location data they’re obtaining really refers to the phone itself, as opposed to the mobile subscriber.

Many cell phone owners don’t carry their phones with them at all times. People also lose and temporarily misplace their phones, and loan them to family members and even casual acquaintances. Consequently, a cell phone’s location isn’t exactly a solid indicator of the actual current location of the owner of that phone. So beyond any privacy risks, there could be risks, too, of mistaken identity.

Posted in Cell Phones, Privacy, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

A Russian blogger who referred to local police as “scum” in a post received a suspended jail sentence on Monday for extremism, leading other bloggers to express concern over online free speech.

Savva Terentiev, a 28-year-old musician from Syktyvkar, 940 miles north of Moscow, wrote a post that suggested the police should be dealt with by burning officers two times a day in a town square.

He was convicted for “inciting hatred or enmity,” and given a one-year suspended sentence. Free speech advocates fear the ruling could set a bad precedent for free speech online.

“This was an absolutely unjustified verdict,” Alexander Verkhovsky, director of the SOVA centre in Moscow, a non-governmental group that monitors extremism, told Reuters. “Savva for sure wrote a rude comment … but this verdict means it will be impossible to make rude comments about anybody.”

The blog post that led to his prosecution has been taken down. A Russian newspaper quoted him as writing in the post,”Those who become cops are scum,” and said police officers should be put on a bonfire.

During his prosecution Terentiev wrote an open letter to Russian President Dimitry Medvedev proclaiming his innocence.

“It is our duty to take responsibility for words on the Internet but … I did not call for the inflaming of social hatred towards the employees of the police department,” he wrote in the letter posted on his blog.

Posted in Blogging, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

As we reported 2 weeks ago, Universal Music Group (UMG) wants to dismiss a long-running file sharing lawsuit against Marie Lindor. UMG’s lawyers are trying to get the lawsuit dismissed without prejudice, which would mean they make no admission of being wrong, and are therefore not liable for Ms. Lindor’s legal expenses. This is based largely on the claim of “false statements and misdirection” by the defendant and her lawyer, Ray Beckerman. They’ve even gone so far as to request that Ms. Lindor pay their legal costs.

Mr. Beckerman is well known for his blog detailing lawsuits filed in the RIAA’s war against their customers. Not surprisingly he’s written a response to the judge hearing the case in which he rebuts UMG’s claims of victimization at the hands of the defendant.

He denies their assertion that he’s attempted to block legitimate discovery attempts, saying his client made it clear to the plaintiffs from the beginning that she was available to be deposed at any time, and also that they instructed her children to cooperate as well.

There are a number of problems with UMG’s claims about Ms. Lindor’s supposed attempts to impede their investigation. The most important is simply that early on in the case it was established that the defendant hadn’t engaged in any file sharing, and probably wasn’t capable of doing so even if she wanted to. Given that knowledge they surely had a responsibility to drop their case against her unless they already had proof she was somehow responsible for helping the responsible party.

Instead they decided to continue pursuing the case in order to get access to information about other people who might have been responsible for the alleged copyright infringement. Had they dismissed instead there would have been no legal claim for them to depose her children or request that they turn over their own computers to be inspected by RIAA investigators.

Essentially the RIAA’s position seems to be that once a defendant has shown the case against them to be without merit its that person’s responsibility to assist investigators in figuring out who’s really to blame. The law or legal principle that such a theory would be based on has yet to be identified.

If you don’t have evidence that the defendant did what you claim it’s generally accepted your case is done. It’s your own responsibility to develop a different case against a different defendant.

Posted in Copyright, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

In purported efforts to help the public “understand the privacy risks of carrying a mobile phone,” the ACLU and the EFF are suing the Justice Dept. for “documents, memos, and guides” about procedures used to track individuals through cell phones.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation aren’t looking for money — except to cover their own costs — in their most recent lawsuit against the US Department of Justice. Instead, the two civil liberty advocacy groups want information about whether and how the government might be using the location capabilities in cell phones to find out where people are.

“The overwhelming majority of Americans — over 200 million people — carry mobile phones. This large number is steadily increasing. The information the ACLU seeks therefore bears on the privacy of a vast segment of the United States population,” according to the complaint, which was submitted this week under the Freedom of Information Act.”Recent court decisions and media reports reveal that US Attorneys Offices (USAOs) are assisting law enforcement officers in obtaining information from mobile carriers that enables officers to track the location of individuals’ mobile phones,” the document says.

“Court decisions indicate that USAOs claim not to need probable cause to obtain real-time tracking information. News reports further suggest that some field offices are violating a Department of Justice ‘internal recomendation’ that ‘federal procecutors seek warrants based on probable cause to obtain precise location data in private areas.’”

Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit asks the DOJ to search several specific federal offices within the agency — including US Attorneys’ Offices in six states and the District of Columbia — for records related to cell phone tracking.

The types of records sought in the suit pertain to policies, procedures, and practices used for obtaining mobile phone location information; the DOJ’s “internal recommendation” and any violations of that recommendation; and the number of times the government has applied for a court order, based on less than probable cause, using that court order as authority to obtain mobile phone location information, “and whether such applications were successful.”

In an appendix to the court document, the plaintiffs have attached a news article that mentions a couple of location-based services already offered by mobile providers for tracking people outside the realm of criminal justice. The two examples include Verizon Wireless’ Chaperone service, aimed at helping parents to track their kids, and Sprint Nextel’s “loopt” service, for “sending an alert when a friend is near.”

It’s important to note, though, that if carriers are enabling cellular tracking — whether for parents, friends or law enforcement officials — any location data they’re obtaining really refers to the phone itself, as opposed to the mobile subscriber.

Many cell phone owners don’t carry their phones with them at all times. People also lose and temporarily misplace their phones, and loan them to family members and even casual acquaintances. Consequently, a cell phone’s location isn’t exactly a solid indicator of the actual current location of the owner of that phone. So beyond any privacy risks, there could be risks, too, of mistaken identity.

Posted in Cell Phones, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

the MPAA is arguing in legal brief that plaintiffs should be allowed to collect hundreds of thousands of dollars in damages with no proof that anyone has actually downloaded from a defendant’s shared folder. The brief was filed by MPAA lawyers threw in in Jammie Thomas’ appeal of the $222,000 judgement against her for copyright infringement. Judge Michael Davis asked for public comments on whether simply making files available is a violation of The Copyright Act and the MPAA took the opportunity to put in their 2 cents worth. Actually 2 cents may be a little generous for the MPAA’s contribution. Their argument basically goes something like this, it’s difficult, or maybe impossible, to prove that people are actually downloading files from someone’s shared folder so the courts should just assume files are shared with the intention of distributing them illegally and rule in favor of the plaintiff. The real problem with the MPAA’s position isn’t necessarily the idea that sharing files is infringement. Even some legal scholars who disagree with the “making available” as infringement argument have pointed out that copying a song to your computer for the purpose of sharing it illegally might be infringement. But that’s not the same thing as no proof. It would still require the RIAA to show a defendant’s intent. Their lawyers don’t stop there either. They also make the claim that because of a judicial principle that US laws be interpretted in a way that conforms to international treaties “making available” automatically became infringement with the signing of 2 WIPO copyright treaties in the 1990s. As is typical for the entertainment industry, the MPAA filed their brief on the last day arguments were to be accepted. This effectively presents any counter-arguments to be entered into the record to point out the flaws in their reasoning.

Posted in Copyright, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

The Carl Icahn side of the Yahoo chess match suffered a set back after a Delaware judge refused to grant an expedited trial to decide whether CEO Jerry Yang and board chairman Roy Bostock should be held financially responsible for blocking a Microsoft acquisition and for designing a so-called “poison pill” to jack up the cost of an acquisition.

Hostile investors led by Icahn pushed for an early court date to decide the case in advance of the annual shareholders meeting on August 1. Along with a declaration that Yang and Bostock had ignored their fiduciary responsibility to shareholders, the suit seeks to invalidate Yahoo’s employee retention plan, which detractors called a severance plan or poison pill upping the cost of acquisition by as much as $2.4 billion.

The plan takes effect irrevocably in the event of a new board, a proxy fight which Icahn has begun and is likely to win, and/or in the event of a Microsoft acquisition. The retention plan offers generous severance and benefits if an employee loses his job or resigns for “good reason,” a caveat Icahn thought much too vague.

All of these matters, what won’t be settled at the meeting anyway, will be settled afterward in court, it seems.

Posted in Yahoo, eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

A Missouri woman who prosecutors say caused a 13-year-old neighbor girl to commit suicide by harassing her through MySpace pleaded not guilty to federal charges.

Lori Drew, who created a phony MySpace profile and posed as a 16-year-old boy to flirt with and then later reject neighbor Megan Meier, entered a not guilty plea to charges of conspiracy of accessing a protected computer to get information.

A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Drew in May after law enforcement officials in Missouri, decided not to prosecute her, because there was no law under which she could be charged.

The Los Angeles indictment is the first time that a social networking user has faced federal charges for accessing protected computers for harassment.

Prosecutors said Drew posed as a boy named Josh Evans and pretended to have a romantic interest in Meier before cruelly telling her “the world would be a better place” without her.

“This adult woman allegedly used the Internet to target a young teenage girl, with horrendous ramifications,” U.S. Attorney Thomas P. O’Brien said while announcing the indictment last month.

“After a thorough investigation, we have charged Ms. Drew with criminally accessing MySpace and violating rules established to protect young, vulnerable people.”

If convicted Drew faces up to 20 years in prison.

Posted in Social Networking, eLaw | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

A Westminster, Colorado Internet marketing company has been ordered to pay MySpace $6 million in damages and legal fees for spamming its users.

An arbitrator ruled that Scott Richter and his online marketing company, Media Breakaway LLC, must pay MySpace $4.8 million in damages and $1.2 million in legal fees for spamming MySpace members.

MySpace charged that some of the messages were sent from phished MySpace accounts. Media Breakaway argued that the spam was sent by rogue business affiliates who sent messages for Media Breakaway.

This is not the first time Richter has been involved in a spam case. Microsoft won a $7 million settlement against him in a spam lawsuit in 2005, and the state of New York was awarded $50,000 from Richter the year before.

“We respect the Arbitrator’s findings regarding violations of MySpace’s Terms of Use by certain rogue affiliates, particularly during 2006 when the concept of social networks was still developing,” said Steven Richter, president and general counsel of Media Breakaway and father of Scott Richter.

“We acknowledged early on in this process that our company should not profit from the sending of unsolicited commercial bulletins to MySpace users.”

MySpace said the ruling was part of a series of steps it has taken to fight spam and other abuse on the site. In May, the social networking site was awarded $230 million anitspam judgment against Sanford Wallace and Walter Rines.

“This award reflects MySpace’s continued momentum and holistic approach to ridding the site of spammers and phishers,” MySpace said in a statement. “We will continue to do our part in cleansing the Internet of this invasive onslaught of spam.”

Posted in Social Networking, eLaw | 1 Comment | 1 Comment »

A Department of Industrial Accidents investigator has been cleared of child porn possession charges after a forensic investigation revealed that malware was to blame for depraved smut on his company laptop.

Michael Fiola, 53, of Rhode Island, went through a massive ordeal after images of child abuse were discovered on a replacement machine he received in November 2006, following a laptop theft. He lost his job in March 2007 after an internal investigation, prompted by a Verizon wireless bill four times higher than his colleague, unearthed the suspicious content. Fiola had worked for the agency investigating workers’ compensation fraud for seven years prior to his dismissal.

The case was forwarded onto the authorities who filed a criminal complaint in August 2007.

But subsequent forensic investigation discovered that malware was responsible for silently downloading images of pre-pubescent kids onto the machine. Computer experts hired by both the defence and prosecution agreed with this analysis.

Computer forensic analyst Tami Loehrs said that malware surreptitiously served up pre-teen pornographic images onto the machine without the awareness of its user. Loehrs described the case as “one of the most horrific” she’d ever dealt with.

In her report to the court, Loehrs said “the laptop was compromised by numerous viruses and trojans, and may have been hacked by outside sources.”

All the offending images were loaded into locations reserved for cached web pages. Crucially there was no sign that any user had viewed or attempted to access this content.

“There is no evidence to support the claim that Michael Fiola was responsible for any of the pornographic activity,” Loehrs wrote.

Two computer forensic experts hired by the prosecution came back with the same conclusion.

“The overall forensics of the laptop suggest that it had been compromised by a virus,” said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley.

The case against Fiola has been dropped, but he still wants his day in court following months of hell when friends turned against him, leaving his faithful wife Robin as his only supporter. Fiola, described by his wife as “computer-illiterate”, intends to sue his former employers over their actions in the case, the Boston Herald reports.

DIA spokeswoman Linnea Walsh said that the agency stood by its handling of the case.

Fiola’s lawyer Timothy Bradl criticised this stance: “Imagine this scenario: Your employer gives you a ticking time bomb full of child porn, and then you get fired, and then you get prosecuted as some kind of freak,” he said.

Posted in eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »

SAN DIEGO — A disgruntled worker is paying the price for deleting medical records, 10News reported.

Jon Paul Oson, of Chula Vista, was sentenced to more than 5 years in prison for hacking into the database of a local health clinic.

It was the very person trusted to protect the Council of Community Health Clinics who went on a hacking rampage.
Click here to find out more!

“The doctors did not have available … knowledge of the other drugs the patients needed and there were treatment complications in the records in the computer that weren’t available to the doctors,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Mitch Dembin.

Oson worked as the clinic’s technical services manager. He resigned after an unfavorable job evaluation.

That is when investigators said Oson started deleting patient files.

“About a week before the most devastating of his attacks, he broke into the system and deleted the program that would have caused the data to be backed up,” said Dembin.

Dembin said Oson’s actions affected thousands of patients’ records. That is because the organization provides various services to 17 regional health clinics in Southern California, including the North County Health Services Clinic in San Marcos.

Oson’s crime caught up with him, and he has been sentenced to more than 5 years in prison.

“This case, as best as we can tell, was one of the longest, if not the longest, sentence imposed involving straight computer hacking,” said Pam Dixon of the World Privacy Forum.

Dixon said the case was a perfect example of why patients should keep track of their medical records.

“In this electronic world, sometimes paper is the best backup, and it’s really great to have a copy of your records in paper form,” said Dixon.

Dixon said requesting your patient records every year is ideal.

Oson has also been ordered to pay more than $409,000 in restitution.

Posted in eLaw | Leave a Comment | No Comments »