Posted on 03/18/2006 4:36:56 AM PST by libstripper
Google had its day in court this week in its battle with the Justice Department over a subpoena for data about Web searches and the sites available through Google's search engine. The judge indicated that he was inclined to give both sides something, and Justice later agreed to limit its request to "just" 5,000 sample searches and 50,000 Web addresses.
This outcome may seem Solomonic, but the precedent is still troubling. The subpoena that started it all emerged from a separate case being tried in Pennsylvania. In that case, the ACLU is challenging the constitutionality of the 1998 Child Online Protection Act, or COPA.
(Excerpt) Read more at opinionjournal.com ...
Of course when the Chinese government asks Google for help in finding dissidents or wants Google to censor its own search engine, the people at Google are eager to help. Interesting priorities some people have.
BS! This brings to mind the punchline "now we're just haggling over price". Either requesting records is supportable by the law or it isn't.
The difference between 5K and 50K is really a lot less, "trade secret" wise, than the difference between 5K and 0.
Next time, if the government wants 50,000 records, they should ask for 500,000 and "settle" for 50,000.
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