National security and free speech By Harvey Silverglate | August 16, 2008 The Boston Globe
WHY DID the federal district court gag three MIT undergraduates who apparently discovered a flaw in the MBTA's electronic fare-collection system? The reason one judge imposed the unconstitutional gag order prohibiting the students from presenting their paper Aug. 10 at the DEFCON computer "hackers" conference, and another judge refused on Aug. 14 to vacate that order even after the conference ended, is the current excuse du jour for an epidemic of censorship: national security. The students, as a project for their class in computer security, discussed how the CharlieCard could be decoded and used to obtain free T rides. When the MBTA learned that they were going to present their paper at DEFCON, it sought a temporary restraining order. Judge Douglas Woodlock, sitting as emergency "duty judge," granted the T's request and prohibited the presentation -- a clearly unconstitutional decision -- citing a violation of the federal Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. Even after a follow-up Aug. 14 hearing before Judge George O'Toole, the order stands. The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act almost certainly does not apply to mere speech; rather, it covers someone who "knowingly causes the transmission of a program, information, code, or command to a computer or computer system." In other words, the statute outlaws hacking, not a scholarly (or even unscholarly) presentation. And even if the statute could be twisted to cover the DEFCON presentation, the First Amendment's free speech guarantee would render this use unconstitutional. Yet Woodlock issued a patently unconstitutional order. Why? This bizarre court intervention is rooted, as are many other recent civil liberties violations, in the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The MBTA's court complaint highlights "the role of the MBTA in Homeland Security efforts" and claims that the hacking threat "affects a computer system used by a government entity for national security purposes." A supporting affidavit of MBTA personnel adds that "in 2007 the MBTA received $4 million from the Department of Homeland Security . . . for use in emergency communications initiatives." Thus the T, in reality just another local transit system struggling under crushing debt and long-term mismanagement, transmogrified a temporary threat to its fare collection system into something so urgent as to override the First Amendment. ... http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/08/16/national_security_and_free_speech/ ******************************* * POST TO [EMAIL PROTECTED] * ******************************* Medianews mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://lists.etskywarn.net/mailman/listinfo/medianews
