[ale] Linux apparently illegal in MA

[Robert Reese~]

> On Sat, Apr 18, 2009 at 02:09, Robert Reese~ <ale at sixit.com> wrote:
>
>> Are you suggesting he's in the top 10 people in the entire Boston
>> area, including those enrolled in CS majors?
>
> No.  Apparently they had an interest in him in order to discover
> him with all his equipment (yes, I'm aware that in itself sounds
> gay however that wasn't my intention).

That isn't what you said earlier about him being a Top 10 suspect due to his 
skills. ;c)

But you bring up the interesting question as to WHY they had an interest in him.  
According to the affidavit signed by the detective, it boils down to he 
allegedly does technologically advanced things with his, and others', computers.

And more, part of it really boils down to a very old and incorrect believe: if 
someone is using encryption, they must have something illegal to hide.  However, 
if mystically that were somehow true, the Fourth Amendment gives protection even 
in that event.


>> Yes, I was paying attention, perhaps more than the average person
>> (but for different reasons).  And it was absolutely moronic back
>> then; as if a terrorist would plant a brightly-lit,
>
> Apparently you weren't paying attention back then.  The devices
> weren't brightly lit.  The devices were wired with timers to light
> at a later point in time.

One focuses on trees, another on the forest.  Doesn't mean that one or the other 
wasn't paying attention.  My focus is and was on the impact of civil liberties; 
I don't give a rat's ass about protecting the people whilst violating the 
Constitution as that is NOT the role of government despite its claims.

As for the devices, it was obvious to all non-paranoids that the devices were 
harmless.  Furthermore, no laws except perhaps trespassing on private property, 
were actually broken.  Well, no Constitutionally valid laws, this is.  It was 
reminiscent of moronic schools administrations with their No Tolerance stances 
which lead to such things as expulsions for plastic cutlery and Tweety Bird 
wallets with a small chain for clipping onto crystal-clear backpacks by 
11-year-olds.

http://tinyurl.com/c4hn4h
<http://tinyurl.com/c4hn4h>

http://preview.tinyurl.com/c4hn4h
<http://preview.tinyurl.com/c4hn4h>

http://books.google.com/books?id=80rKWMTNTpMC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=&source=bl&o
ts=XSzNGC-qoT&sig=bwlDLPL3Yd8uN3redqjjszDc0oI&hl=en&ei=BUbqSfSHItKJtgen6ISbBg&sa
=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6

<http://books.google.com/books?id=80rKWMTNTpMC&pg=PA101&lpg=PA101&dq=&source=bl&
ots=XSzNGC-qoT&sig=bwlDLPL3Yd8uN3redqjjszDc0oI&hl=en&ei=BUbqSfSHItKJtgen6ISbBg&s
a=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=6>


These incidents indicate an increasing banality of our government in regards to 
both civil liberties and technology these past few decades and it is only 
getting worse regardless of which party is in control.  Time to start watching 
our collective technologically-sophisticated backs as government gets more 
technologically and common-sensically stupid, or to start running for office 
ourselves.

And in Massachusetts, it seems that Witch Hunting is once again a favorite 
past-time....

Cheers,
R~