Page 367 - Tim Cushing News Today

Wed, Mar 3rd 2021 1:31pm — Tim Cushing The government says we have no right to access information about its law enforcement "means and methods." To give these secrets away is to instigate a criminal apocalypse. Thats the argument the government has made to protect everything from sketchy confidential informant testimony to Stingray devices. Even when the public has a pretty good idea about whats going on, the government still argues the public cant be trusted. Stingrays arent a big secret any...

Tue, Mar 2nd 2021 3:25am — Tim Cushing Its pretty clearly established you have the right to record public servants as they perform their public duties. There are a few exceptions, but for the most part, if youre not interfering with their work, record away. Public servants hate this, of course, but theres not much they can do about it. Sure, they can try to use local laws to shut down recordings, but those efforts have routinely been rejected by federal courts. Enter the TSA and some agents w...

Mon, Mar 1st 2021 10:59am — Tim Cushing You know whats always ripe for parody? Government agencies. You know whos often outlandishly upset about being parodied? Government officials. Back in 2016, Parma, Ohio resident Anthony Novak created a fake Parma Police Department page on Facebook. It should have been clear to everyone the page was a parody. The fake Parma PD page posted announcements about a roving police van offering free abortions to teenagers, a plan to criminalize helping the homel...

Fri, Feb 26th 2021 12:01pm — Tim Cushing New rules for social media companies and other hosts of third-party content have just gone into effect in India. The proposed changes to Indias 2018 Intermediary Guidelines are now live, allowing the government to insert itself into content moderation efforts and make demands of tech companies some simply wont be able to comply with. Now, under the threat of fines and jail time, platforms like Twitter (itself a recent combatant of the Indian government...

Tue, Feb 23rd 2021 3:58am — Tim Cushing With enough self-delusion, any act of humanity can be considered a criminal act. It works for cops. It also works for the general public. When youre a suspicious busybody with an overactive imagination and too much time on your hands, you can waste everyones tax dollars by panicking. A Walmart employ, who is apparently convinced human trafficking is as common as the common cold, decided to get law enforcement involved, resulting in this message from th...

It's not just a home surveillance system. It's a surveillance system. Documents obtained by the EFF and shared with The...

Thu, Feb 18th 2021 12:07pm — Tim Cushing Our nations preeminent drug warriors rolled the dice on turning less than a half-gram of drugs into a lengthy prison sentence. They lost. The Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals isnt amused by the machinations of DEA agents (and federal prosecutors) who tried to turn a freebie sample into a drug trafficking conspiracy. The opinion [PDF] opens with the Appeals Court showing just how permissive and expansive drug conspiracy statutes are. Our court has long in...

Wed, Feb 17th 2021 10:44am — Tim Cushing The CBP and DHS have released their annual report [PDF] covering trade and travel. It touts the agencies successes in these areas but raises some questions about the use of facial recognition tech to make the nation safer. U.S. Customs and Border Protection scanned more than 23 million people with facial recognition technology at airports, seaports, and pedestrian crossings in 2020, the agency recently revealed in its annual report on trade and travel....

Wed, Feb 17th 2021 1:28pm — Tim Cushing The long saga of Paul Hansmeier -- one of the Prenda Law Firm partners who turned the already-shady business of copyright infringement lawsuits into a rolling debacle composed of fraud, extortion, and catastrophic failures -- has produced another coda. Hansmeier got into the copyright enforcement business thinking it would produce a steady stream of easy cash. He and his associates went after people who allegedly downloaded porn, thinking that people wo...

Tue, Feb 16th 2021 10:44am — Tim Cushing US borders continue to be lawless places. Not because theres more criminal activity there, but because the Constitution that protects us away from borders (and international airports, etc.) barely applies at all within 100 miles of them. The First Circuit Court of Appeals is the latest appeals court to decide borders and constitutional protections dont mix. A lawsuit over warrantless, suspicionless device searches has been rejected, with the court fin...