US prosecutors drop link-related charges from Barrett Brown case?

http://www.scribd.com/doc/210801336/17717995604

by choult • 12 years ago

56 32 12 years ago

fiatmoney2• 12 years ago

What charges does that leave remaining?

vonmoltke• 12 years ago

From the main indictment, its the charge of possessing account information and credit card numbers from Stratfor subscribers with intent to defraud. The two smaller indictments with a total of 5 more charges are still intact, but I don't remember what those charges are.

lost_name• 12 years ago

http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/10/feds-indict-self-pro...

... Barrett Brown ... has been indicted on three federal charges: making an online threat, retaliating against a federal officer and conspiring to release the personal information of a U.S. government employee.

The other 12 (11 of which were dropped as described in the main article): http://crimeblog.dallasnews.com/2012/12/new-federal-indictme...

thatthatis4• 12 years ago

Good news for him. But I kinda wanted this to make it to the supreme court so the question of linking could be more summarily decided.

ageisp0lis• 12 years ago

I agree. I wanted to see the EFF's amicus brief, and for the Court to decide on the issue so that we could have good case law with hyperlinks as protected speech.

rhizome5• 12 years ago

Do you want that outcome enough to get yourself charged for activities that would bring it about? After all, without a SCOTUS decision the fruit is still hanging on the vine for any of us to snatch.

fiatmoney2• 12 years ago

There's no reason the EFF can't release their amicus brief, even if there's no longer a reason for them to file it. Good arguments should be shared.

thisiswrong• 12 years ago

Are you serious? Why would you even say that?

People like you are the problem. Linking to something, just like talking about something, is protected in most countries by free speech. The simple fact that this journalist was arrested is disgustingly totalitarian and should be of great concern. To everyone.

Why would you want this to go all the way up the rotten vines of a corrupted court system that only gives favorable rulings to those with ties to the rulers?

dublinben• 12 years ago

A Supreme Court ruling upholding linking as free speech would be incredibly important.

thatthatis4• 12 years ago

Those protections you say other countries have, I want them too. Case law created by the supreme court is how we get them.

rhizome5• 12 years ago

You wanted to turn him into a martyr? That doesn't seem very nice.

thatthatis4• 12 years ago

No, I wanted him to ultimately be vindicated by the highest court so as to protect us all in the future.

Martyrs die, I wanted him to set a precident without getting harmed. Like Brown when he fought the board of education, or Johnson when he fought the state of Texas.

guelo• 12 years ago

So a US prosecutor gets to throw a man in jail for two years on trumped up charges and before any trial say "oopsies!" and suffer no consequences.

Giving prosecutors enormous power and absolute immunity is a recipe for abuse, our justice system is fundamentally broken.

hnisnotreddit• 12 years ago

In Canada, this would be grounds for "Malicious Prosecution", which is pretty much the only way to oust a prosecutor.

I've seen it done only once with my own eyes; Lawyer was disbarred, and the now-former lawyer "settled" the criminal charges as a pro-se litigant (which I didn't know was possible) by paying a fine (literally, writing a cheque in court), and walking out the door a free man.

I'd say giving people the ability to settle criminal charges as a civil matter is a much larger recipe for abuse, leading to Prosecutors not caring about the damage they do, even if their feet are held to the fire.

vaadu• 12 years ago

... used a particular hacking method called a sequel injection to exploit ...

Are the legal docs not proofread?

MPetitt• 12 years ago

Not by anyone who has any idea what SQL is let alone how or why it might be injected.

AnimalMuppet• 12 years ago

A sequel injection? Isn't that patented by Hollywood?

aspensmonster• 12 years ago

Yes. They have patents pending for prequel injection too.

US prosecutors drop link-related charges from Barrett Brown case?

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