Live data from Hacker News

EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

eff.org

21–30 of 80 posts

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#21

Was the warrant excessively broad? I'd say! What exactly is the point of the police seizing someones mice and display screens in a case like this other than to ensure that Mr Chen now has an even bigger bill to pay if he wants to get back to work any time soon?

Mice, Keyboards and monitors yield fingerprints which show the person in questions physically used and accessed the machine.

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#22
post #11

It bothers the heck out of me that there is a corporate sponsored, multi-state police force out there (REACT) that jumps at their whim. Apple is a high level advisor to REACT, serving on their steering committee. There is no coincidence here. Just try getting that kind of personal law enforcement reaction if your cellphone was lost and then sold on craigslist.

Is your cellphone a next-gen prototype of a high profile phone expected to make billions of dollars in revenue? If your cellphone's details were leaked would it cause you millions of dollars of potential losses because it gives your competitors an advantage (not to mention lost marketing hype)?

I'm not a fan of Apple, but selling proprietary information that was for all intents and purposes stolen is not comparable to an average Joe losing their cell phone.

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#23
post #19
post #11

It bothers the heck out of me that there is a corporate sponsored, multi-state police force out there (REACT) that jumps at their whim. Apple is a high level advisor to REACT, serving on their steering committee. There is no coincidence here. Just try getting that kind of personal law enforcement reaction if your cellphone was lost and then sold on craigslist.

Maybe I misunderstand you, but that's an enormous accusation you're wielding - that Apple could influence a police force to execute an illegal warrant at their bidding? Do you have any sources backing up that REACT is "corporate sponsored"? While I saw that Apple was on "a steering committee", where did you hear that they were a "high level advisor"? While "steering committee" sure sounds impressive, that doesn't tel…

Well, it depends on if the allegation is that Apple could influence a police force to execute an illegal warrant at their bidding, or that Apple could influence a police force to execute a warrant at their bidding.

I don't find the second one particularly objectionable.

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that is correct with the caveat that the article assumes that Chen would be considered a journalist. The article says that "Federal and California law both protect reporters against police searches aimed at uncovering confidential sources or seizing other information developed during newsgathering activities." The commentary discusses the author's opinion that Chen's equipment should not have been taken under…

Do you have any sort of specific criteria for what is considered a journalist? It seems like the discussion here tends to equate journalists with reporters and then speculate to what extent Chen should be considered a reporter. The problem is that reporters are actually a proper subset of journalists.

I believe the Gawker CEO has said publicly something to the order of: Our employees are not journalists. Journalists have to do it right, we just have to do it first.

However I can't find a link to back it up so..

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#26
post #11

It bothers the heck out of me that there is a corporate sponsored, multi-state police force out there (REACT) that jumps at their whim. Apple is a high level advisor to REACT, serving on their steering committee. There is no coincidence here. Just try getting that kind of personal law enforcement reaction if your cellphone was lost and then sold on craigslist.

You don't gain credibility for your argument by equating the loss of a top secret research prototype for a multi-billion dollar product with your $400 personal phone.

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#27
post #17

This analysis hinges on some large assumptions. First, Chen must be considered a professional journalist, and securing journalist protections for bloggers seems to be actively pursued by the EFF (a conflict of interest to keep in mind). Second, he must not have directly committed a crime himself, and receiving stolen goods is a crime. The claim that this was "lost" property may be the argument of the defense, but any…

How's that a conflict of interest? It's valid context, but in what ways are EFF obligations in conflict?

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#28
post #18
post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's not predicated on that, though, the broadness of the warrant seems to be a problem regardless of whether Jason Chen is suspected of anything.

I read the article twice and don't see the evidence to support that argument. Can you be more specific?

>Furthermore, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals (the federal appellate court for California and the surrounding states) in its 2009 opinion in United States v. Comprehensive Drug Testing Inc., 579 F.3d 989 (9th Cir. 2009), identified a series of guildelines meant to ensure that even otherwise lawful warrants authorizing the search and seizure of computers do not give officers too much access to private data that might be intermingled with evidence of a crime.

They seized what probably amounts to all of the personal and professional records stored in his home, which seems excessive given the nature of this investigation.

Also:

>First, California Penal Code Section 1524(g) provides that "[n]o warrant shall issue for any item or items described in Section 1070 of the Evidence Code." Section 1070 is California's reporter's shield provision (which has since been elevated to Article I, § 2(b) of the California Constitution). The items covered by the reporter's shield protections include unpublished information, such as "all notes, outtakes, photographs, tapes or other data of whatever sort," if that information was "obtained or prepared in gathering, receiving or processing of information for communication to the public."

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#29
post #26
post #11

It bothers the heck out of me that there is a corporate sponsored, multi-state police force out there (REACT) that jumps at their whim. Apple is a high level advisor to REACT, serving on their steering committee. There is no coincidence here. Just try getting that kind of personal law enforcement reaction if your cellphone was lost and then sold on craigslist.

You don't gain credibility for your argument by equating the loss of a top secret research prototype for a multi-billion dollar product with your $400 personal phone.

Trade secret and top secret are two very different things.

In any case, while it is possible that the loss of such a prototype could have devastating implications for a company, it seems pretty clear that this publication was not a serious problem for Apple.

Re: EFF: Dissecting the Gizmodo Warrant

#30
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't gain credibility for your argument by equating the loss of a top secret research prototype for a multi-billion dollar product with your $400 personal phone.

Trade secret and top secret are two very different things. In any case, while it is possible that the loss of such a prototype could have devastating implications for a company, it seems pretty clear that this publication was not a serious problem for Apple.

Why, exactly, is it "clear" to you that this publication isn't an ongoing serious problem for Apple? As you can tell, I'm a bit baffled by how blase people are about what's happened here. Just because it happened on the Internet, and the sky didn't immediately erupt with lightning and fireballs, doesn't mean that something momentously bad didn't happen.
Post reply on HN