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Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

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Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#11
post #10

This is nothing compared to what allegedly happened to QWest. When the US Government was forcing telecom by telecom to install taps into their business's core routing hubs Joseph Nacchio, the CEO at the time, dug his heels in demanding legal avenues to avoid turning his back on QWest's customers. The US threatened to pull out large contracts that made up a large part of QWest's business. Furthermore, having been serv…

I hasn't look it much recently, but I remember that the only sources for this claim was from Nacchio himself. I wonder what Snowden actually thinks of this claim.

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#12

Weren't these requests, which Yahoo objected to, intended to stay secret, by the wishes of the government? Consider if Yahoo refused to honor the requests, and began accruing the fines. Presumably, if they didn't pay the huge bill for their fines, what would happen? Surely, $250k/day would rack up fast... As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the f…

I have a question: Can the NSA/the coercing party be reverse fined at $500k/day by Yahoo (i.e by an organization) for some reasons in similar vein?

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#13
post #4

Weren't these requests, which Yahoo objected to, intended to stay secret, by the wishes of the government? Consider if Yahoo refused to honor the requests, and began accruing the fines. Presumably, if they didn't pay the huge bill for their fines, what would happen? Surely, $250k/day would rack up fast... As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the f…

"As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the fee by the government would force Yahoo to close its doors." Yahoo is about to get $20bn+ in cash in about 2 weeks, so they can hold out these fines for about 80,000 days.

Fair enough. But it still stands, couldn't Yahoo ignore it?

What's the worst thing the government could do to Yahoo that would go unnoticed by the public, if Yahoo didn't comply?

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#14
post #11
post #10

This is nothing compared to what allegedly happened to QWest. When the US Government was forcing telecom by telecom to install taps into their business's core routing hubs Joseph Nacchio, the CEO at the time, dug his heels in demanding legal avenues to avoid turning his back on QWest's customers. The US threatened to pull out large contracts that made up a large part of QWest's business. Furthermore, having been serv…

I hasn't look it much recently, but I remember that the only sources for this claim was from Nacchio himself. I wonder what Snowden actually thinks of this claim.

Yes, this is a good caveat. This is what Nacchio claims. I do not have much in the way of a third party source.

It's likely that Snowden doesn't know anything about it.

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#16
"But today’s [document] release only underscores the need for basic structural reforms to bring transparency to the NSA’s surveillance activities" and how would those reforms come when majority of population and hence politicians are okay with such surveillance? that's a dream. makes good hacker news debate and nothing beyond that.

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#17
post #10

This is nothing compared to what allegedly happened to QWest. When the US Government was forcing telecom by telecom to install taps into their business's core routing hubs Joseph Nacchio, the CEO at the time, dug his heels in demanding legal avenues to avoid turning his back on QWest's customers. The US threatened to pull out large contracts that made up a large part of QWest's business. Furthermore, having been serv…

Was he actually guilty of insider trading?

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#18
post #10

This is nothing compared to what allegedly happened to QWest. When the US Government was forcing telecom by telecom to install taps into their business's core routing hubs Joseph Nacchio, the CEO at the time, dug his heels in demanding legal avenues to avoid turning his back on QWest's customers. The US threatened to pull out large contracts that made up a large part of QWest's business. Furthermore, having been serv…

Was he actually guilty of insider trading?

I'm not a lawyer so nothing I say below means anything.

From what I can tell - yes - he was guilty of insider trading by the letter of the law. Sharing insider information as CEO about the future of the company with shareholders is by definition insider trading. Despite circumstances, warning that contracts were being gutted is still illegal.

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#19
post #10

This is nothing compared to what allegedly happened to QWest. When the US Government was forcing telecom by telecom to install taps into their business's core routing hubs Joseph Nacchio, the CEO at the time, dug his heels in demanding legal avenues to avoid turning his back on QWest's customers. The US threatened to pull out large contracts that made up a large part of QWest's business. Furthermore, having been serv…

Was he actually guilty of insider trading?

My understanding is that since he told major stakeholders what was about to happen, he gave them inside information to trade on and went to jail for that instead of making trades himself.

Re: Feds Threatened to Fine Yahoo $250K Daily for Not Complying with NSA's PRISM

#20

Weren't these requests, which Yahoo objected to, intended to stay secret, by the wishes of the government? Consider if Yahoo refused to honor the requests, and began accruing the fines. Presumably, if they didn't pay the huge bill for their fines, what would happen? Surely, $250k/day would rack up fast... As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the f…

> Presumably, if they didn't pay the huge bill for their fines, what would happen?

It's easy to think of shady secret things the government could do to coerce Yahoo! in to either complying or paying. But at the end of the day, there's always people with guns.

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