Free Republic

Cloud storage and computing is an emerging technology increasingly in use worldwide. Documents and email discussions can be stored in the Cloud, and then be accessed by collaborators from anywhere to work on joint projects together. That is an American led business, with market leaders such as Microsoft, Apple, Google, Amazon, and Facebook, among others. But U.S. law has not yet caught up with the technology, though that is being resolved now, in the courts and in Congress. In the currently leading case, United States of America v. Microsoft, the U.S. government issued a warrant to Microsoft, an internet service...

In a brief filed late Wednesday, Microsoft said the federal government’s legal argument for seizing user emails stored overseas “rewrites” an almost 30-year-old law to “reinterpret” it in a way it was never meant to be used.At the heart of the issue is a government warrant for Microsoft user emails stored on a server in Dublin, Ireland, which the government claims are relevant to an ongoing drug trafficking investigation. To justify the seizure of the data outside of U.S. territory, the government is basing its argument on legislation born out of the Reagan era.“The statute in this case, the Electronics...

The U.S. Justice Department today offered what amounts to a frontal attack on proposals to amend federal law to better protect Americans' privacy. James Baker, the associate deputy attorney general, warned that rewriting a 1986 privacy law to grant cloud computing users more privacy protections and to require court approval before tracking Americans' cell phones would hinder police investigations. This appears the first time that the Justice Department has publicly responded to a set of digital privacy proposals unveiled last year by a coalition of businesses and advocacy groups including AT&T, Google, Microsoft, eBay, the American Civil Liberties Union, and...

Did the Washington Post Violate the Electronic Communications Privacy Act? 11/10 05:24 PM For those of you who have been following the MD4Bush story (if not, click on the links at the bottom of this post to catch up), here's a little breaking news: Free Republic is looking into whether the Washington Post violated the Electronic Communications Privacy Act when Post reporter Matthew Mosk accessed the Free Republic account of MD4Bush. According to the Post's statement on the matter, Mosk was given MD4Bush's sign-on information by "someone acting on MD4Bush’s behalf." He then used that screen name and password to...

BALTIMORE -- There is a new effort to unravel Maryland's political mystery -- who is MD4BUSH, the Internet name of whoever communicated with Gov Ehrlich's aide Joe Steffen about Mayor Martin O'Malley's personal life. I-Team lead investigative reporter Jayne Miller said Steffen is behind the new push to find the answer. *snip* In his letter, Steffen's lawyer specifically seeks MD4BUSH's account information at Free Republic.com, which would include an e-mail address and server records that could reveal clues about the locations from which MD4BUSH logged in. *snip* Miller said Free Republic.com's operator has suggested he'd like to reveal information about...

The Web site began as a sort of Internet boutique for like-minded conservatives and libertarians, suspicious of federal power and angry at President Bill Clinton. Started in 1997 by a reclusive California conservative, freerepublic.com saw its membership blossom with Clinton's impeachment and the election of George W. Bush. Attention to the site reached a zenith last fall, when a "freeper" -- the group's moniker for its bloggers -- first discussed flaws in documents CBS News used in a report critical of Bush's National Guard service. ---Snip--- One participant working under the handle MD4BUSH, whose identity is unknown, drew Steffen into...