Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

reason.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 170 posts

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

#61

Post by jstanley »

snapetom wrote: post #58

Playing Devil's Advocate, the Feds are going after Snowden not on the premise of censoring him. Instead, they are arguing that as part of his employment agreement, they have the right to vet anything IP related he publicly discloses. It's similar to many employer-employee relationships. I've had to pass my slide deck to my manager to screen before speaking at conferences and many companies have an officially sanction…

Have you read the book? It's more like an autobiography than a spilling of secrets.

There's nothing in the book about CIA or NSA operations that isn't already public knowledge.

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

#62

Post by ne0flex »

rhacker wrote: 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.

Unfortunately, there was an Executive Order[1] signed by Obama in 2015 that "Blocks the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities".

Section 2 states: "I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blocked pursuant to section 1 of this order would seriously impair my ability to deal with the national emergency declared in this order, and I hereby prohibit such donations as provided by section 1 of this order."

Where Snowden, or people similar to him, fall within the category of persons described within Section 1.

[1]:https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/0...

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

#63

Post by SkyBelow »

snapetom wrote: post #58

Playing Devil's Advocate, the Feds are going after Snowden not on the premise of censoring him. Instead, they are arguing that as part of his employment agreement, they have the right to vet anything IP related he publicly discloses. It's similar to many employer-employee relationships. I've had to pass my slide deck to my manager to screen before speaking at conferences and many companies have an officially sanction…

Double Devil's Advocate:

Is not the enforcement of an NDA action done by the government that limits the speech of a person? Is that it is being done on behalf of a private entity enough to clear up the First Amendment implications of this? If so, how far can this be abused?

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

#64

Post by bigwavedave »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #51
logfromblammo wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Despite the Citizens United ruling, money is not equivalent to speech. When it comes to selling published work, we do have a right, not made explicit in the amendments to the Constitution, to earn a livelihood. But that right is not absolute, such that it is not permissible to earn one's livelihood by committing property crimes, violent crimes, or crimes of deception. The agreement he signed before gaining access to…

> It's counterproductive from a security standpoint. From what kind of twisted security standpoint is it counterproductive to allow someone to reveal mass security violations? I don't think it is useful to participate in the newspeak that authoritarians use to pretend that you are somehow more secure when your human rights are constantly being violated.

This has nothing to do with preventing the reveal of mass security violations and everything to do with laws put in place to disincentivize bad actors who are in a position of trust from profiting from the leaking of state secrets. However you try to spin things, this is exactly what happened. Snowden was in a position of trust, leaked all kinds of state secrets, and then tried to profit from that leak.

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

#66

Post by rahuldottech »

choward wrote: post #35
ur-whale wrote: post #32

Looks like the gov't hasn't heard of the Streisand effect. Which in is case, is a very good thing.

I know. I had forgotten about the book until I saw this article. I think I'll buy it now and more importantly I'll read it.

No point in buying it, now. You're better off just downloading it now.

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

#67

Post by AndrewBissell »

post_break wrote: post #49

Just remember Obama signed an executive order that prohibits you from donating to Snowden. https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2015/0...

Worth noting that Snowden requests donations to the families in Hong Kong who sheltered him while he was fleeing U.S. authorities: https://twitter.com/Snowden/status/1207629293230137344

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

#68

Post by rhacker »

ne0flex wrote: post #62
rhacker wrote: 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.

Unfortunately, there was an Executive Order[1] signed by Obama in 2015 that "Blocks the Property of Certain Persons Engaging in Significant Malicious Cyber-Enabled Activities". Section 2 states: "I hereby determine that the making of donations of the type of articles specified in section 203(b)(2) of IEEPA (50 U.S.C. 1702(b)(2)) by, to, or for the benefit of any person whose property and interests in property are blo…

EOs shouldn't be able affect that.

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

#69

Post by snowedin »

I posted this in another thread, but it didn't get much traction. It's a serious question.

Isn't Snowden's book an auto-biographical memoir? Given this, is there really classified information contained in the book? Can someone who has read it give an example?

I've watched Snowden's Rogan interview, where he covers the material in the book, and I don't remember anything that was classified.

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

#70

Post by disintegore »

zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC wrote: post #57
onetimemanytime wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

> 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. Why do you think that the only two alternatives is to allow people to sell secrets to foreign governments and sell revelations about illegal actions of the state or to punish both in the same way? Why do you think it is impossible to distinguish those two cases?

I think his point is that the law is being applied consistently.

If Snowden received a pardon (and he absolutely unarguably should) this would not be problem.

Post reply on HN