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The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

reason.com

21–30 of 170 posts

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The mere fact that you can't say for sure his exact status should raise a giant red flag about the state of our republic. He is certainly targeted and watched. If you send him money, you will likely be watched more carefully as well. Buying his book is a symbol of defiance more than anything else. That said, Snowden is not covered by official sanctions and does not even come up on Dow Jones as PEP or person of intere…

wouldn't it be normal for indictments to be under seal? I agree with all your points though.

Agreed, but it does not make sending him funds illegal by virtue of being enemy of the state ( although I will admit I struggle with parsing that phrase ), which is the question posed by the original poster.

Edit: brackets

edit2: also, the fact that he may be potentially indicted does not mean it is illegal to give him money. Those are two separate issues

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#22

It would be great if there was world peace, happy families and spouses that stayed together forever, and no foreigners targeting your country. People often forget that foreign governments are targeting USA and US persons abroad. There isn't another move left but to have surveillance tools and ingest a lot of data. If the advantage is lost, it will be someone else having it. This also extends to military things. It'd…

> Other things include better social benefits, affordable housing, better representation as consumer (e.g. right to repair)?

Moving to china is a good way to ensure all those, and you get free and pervasive surveilance as a bonus. what's not to love

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#23
post #17

It would be cool to see this go second hand by a fan. A fan that could buy up all the copies at a bulk rate (say $2 for 1M copies) Then re-sell those at the original price. Since it's now a used book, that fan could donate the profit to the original author, whoever that is.

I wouldn’t want to be that other guy. He might get disappeared via extraordinary rendition or rape allegationed into exile in some small embassy suite. No thanks!

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#24

To be fair, Snowden was given access to a lot of stuff because he promised not to reveal them outside of the chain of command. He did, and claimed that the chain was broken and the people needed to know. Fine. The government didn't even try to ban the the book (it would have been impossible anyway.) But, why should he profit ??

I don’t care about Snowden making a profit, but I do care about the first amendment. The government is not allowed to impose a fine on speech they don’t like. That is not “free speech”.

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#25
post #24

To be fair, Snowden was given access to a lot of stuff because he promised not to reveal them outside of the chain of command. He did, and claimed that the chain was broken and the people needed to know. Fine. The government didn't even try to ban the the book (it would have been impossible anyway.) But, why should he profit ??

I don’t care about Snowden making a profit, but I do care about the first amendment. The government is not allowed to impose a fine on speech they don’t like. That is not “free speech”.

Not a free speech case at all. He said all he wanted. The book is out and anyone can buy, just the person that broke the legal agreement (not to share the classified stuff he learned in books without prior clearance) will not make money of that info. Otherwise anyone can do a few years in jail and then make $x million by telling what he saw while working for CIA/NSA etc.

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#27

To be fair, Snowden was given access to a lot of stuff because he promised not to reveal them outside of the chain of command. He did, and claimed that the chain was broken and the people needed to know. Fine. The government didn't even try to ban the the book (it would have been impossible anyway.) But, why should he profit ??

[deleted]

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#28
post #17

It would be cool to see this go second hand by a fan. A fan that could buy up all the copies at a bulk rate (say $2 for 1M copies) Then re-sell those at the original price. Since it's now a used book, that fan could donate the profit to the original author, whoever that is.

or someone from abroad could be buying them and sending copies to the US. kind of funny but would highlight the absurdity of the case

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#29
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

did he? I noticed he wrote: The government may steal a dollar, but it cannot erase the idea that earned it. I wrote this book, Permanent Record, for you, and I hope the government's ruthless desperation to prevent its publication only inspires you read it—and then gift it to another. -- https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1207624251953549312

Does it say somewhere in the article that the government is attempt to prevent its publication? Sounds like they're just stripping his profits.

there's a case that deplatforming of this kind is similar to censorship

Re: The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden's Book Profits

#30

To be fair, Snowden was given access to a lot of stuff because he promised not to reveal them outside of the chain of command. He did, and claimed that the chain was broken and the people needed to know. Fine. The government didn't even try to ban the the book (it would have been impossible anyway.) But, why should he profit ??

Because he had the courage to blow the whistle and now must find other sources of income maybe ?
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