Source: http://www.techlawjournal.com/alert/2011/07/20.asp
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 09:51:14+00:00

Document:
TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,264, July 20, 2011.
Wednesday, July 20, 2011, Alert No. 2,264.
7/8. The U.S. District Court (DC) issued a Memorandum Opinion [10 pages in PDF] in EPIC v. NSA, a federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) case regarding the Electronic Privacy Information Center's (EPIC) request for records regarding Google's relationship with the National Security Agency (NSA).
The District Court granted summary judgment to the NSA. The EPIC announced in its web site that it plans to file an appeal.
The EPIC requested "All records concerning an agreement or similar basis for collaboration, final or draft, between the NSA and Google regarding cyber security; ... All records of communication between the NSA and Google concerning Gmail, including but not limited to Google's decision to fail to routinely encrypt Gmail messages prior to January 13, 2010; and ... All records of communications regarding the NSA's role in Google's decision regarding the failure to routinely deploy encryption for cloud-based computing service, such as Google Docs."
The NSA responded that it refused to confirm or deny whether it had a relationship with Google, citing Exemption 3 of FOIA (regarding records "specifically exempted from disclosure by statute") and Section 6 of the National Security Agency Act of 1959 (which prohibits disclose of information about the NSA).
Both the EPIC and NSA filed motions for summary judgment. The District Court held that the records are exempt, and granted summary judgment to the NSA.
This case is Electronic Privacy Information Center v. National Security Agency, U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, D.C. No. 10-1533 (RJL), Judge Richard Leon presiding.
7/19. The U.S. District Court (NDCal) unsealed an indictment [12 pages in PDF] that charges damage to a protected computer in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030, and conspiracy, in connection with retaliatory distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks directed at PayPal servers after PayPal suspended WikiLeaks' accounts for violating its terms of service (TOS) by publishing classified State Department cables in its web site. WikiLeaks had used PayPal to receive contributions.
In this indictment, the grand jury did not charge WikiLeaks or Julian Assange for publishing classified documents in a web site under the Espionage Act. Rather, the grand jury charged individuals who launched cyber attacks on PayPal servers after PayPal suspended WikiLeaks accounts, under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA).
The indictment states that "In late November 2010, WikiLeaks released a large amount of classified United States State Department cables on its website. Citing violations of the PayPal terms of service, and in response to WikiLeaks' release of the classified cables, PayPal suspended WikiLeaks' accounts such that WikiLeaks could no longer receive donations via PayPal. WikiLeaks' website declared that PayPal's action ``tried to economically strangle WikiLeaks.´´"
The indictment further states that "In retribution for PayPal's termination of WikiLeaks' donation account, Anonymous co-ordinated and executed DDoS attacks against PayPal's computer servers" using an open source computer program named "Low Orbit Ion Cannon".
The indictment adds that "Anonymous referred to these co-ordinated attacks on PayPal as ``Operation Avenge Assange.´´"
The persons named in the indictment include Christopher Wayne Cooper, Joshua John Covelli, Keith Wilson Downey, Mercedes Renee Haefer, Donald Husband, Vincent Charles Kershaw, Ethan Miles, James C. Murphy, Drew Alan Phillips, Jeffrey Puglisi, Daniel Sullivan, Tracy Ann Valenzuela, and Christopher Quang Vo. The District Court withheld one name.
The DOJ announced in this release that the FBI also "executed more than 35 search warrants throughout the United States as part of an ongoing investigation into coordinated cyber attacks against major companies and organizations."
This case is CR 11-70785 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Jose Division.
7/19. The U.S. District Court (DMass) unsealed on July 19, 2011, a four count indictment [15 pages in PDF] returned by a grand jury on July 14, 2001, that charges Aaron Schwartz with unauthorized access to a protected computer system in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030, and wire fraud, in connection with his unauthorized accessing of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's (MIT) computer systems to download digital copies of 4.8 million articles from academic journals in the JSTOR system.
Approximately 1.7 million of these articles were made available by independent publishers for purchase through JSTOR's Publisher Sales Service. The indictment further alleges that "Swartz intended to distribute a significant portion of JSTOR's archive of digitized journal articles through one or more file-sharing sites".
The indictment states that "JSTOR generally charges libraries, universities, and publishers a subscription fee for access to JSTOR's digitized journals" and does not permit users "to download or export content from its computer servers with automated computer programs such as web robots, spiders and scrapers".
The indictment details a long running effort by Schwartz, which began on September 24, 2010, and ended on January 6, 2011, to evade repeated countermeasures taken my MIT and JSTOR to block his downloading.
The indictment alleges that Schwartz, among other things, "contrived to ... break into a restricted computer wiring closet at MIT ... access MIT’s network without authorization from a switch within that closet ... connect to JSTOR's archive of digitized journal articles through MIT's computer network ... use this access to download a major portion of JSTOR's archive onto his computers and computer hard drives ... avoid MIT's and JSTOR’s efforts to prevent this massive copying, measures which were directed at users generally and at Swartz’s illicit conduct specifically; and ... elude detection and identification".
The Department of Justice's (DOJ) U.S. Attorneys Office for the District of Massachusetts added in a release that Schwartz operated at various locations on the MIT campus, but was "not affiliated with MIT as a student, faculty member, or employee".
U.S. Attorney Carmen Ortiz stated in this release that "Stealing is stealing whether you use a computer command or a crowbar, and whether you take documents, data or dollars. It is equally harmful to the victim whether you sell what you have stolen or give it away."
7/18. The U.S. District Court (WDMich) sentenced Jeremy R. Sheets to serve 15 months in prison, pay a $12,000 fine, and to pay $115,534 in restitution following his previous plea of guilty to wire fraud in connection with his defrauding the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) waste, fraud and abuse plagued e-rate tax and subsidy program. See, Department of Justice (DOJ) release.
7/13. Lawrence R. Marino pled guilty in the U.S. District Court (DNH) to unauthorized access to a protected computer system in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1030 in connection with his accessing his former employer's computer systems. The Department of Justice (DOJ) stated in a release that after leaving his job at OneSky Jets he went to work for a competitor, Regent Jet, but continued to access OneSky Jets' e-mail accounts from which he "obtained information about OneSky’s existing and prospective customers" and a OneSky Jets database "with tens of thousands of customer names and other information", which he used to "solicit new customers on behalf of Regent Jet".
7/15. The U.S. charged Ricardo Blanco, Karol Blanco, Pedro Rameriz-Alvarez, Carlos Zuniga, and Roberto Arguelles-Femandez by criminal complaint in the U.S. District Court (NDCal) with conspiracy in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 371 and criminal copyright infringement in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 2319, in connection with their "sale of counterfeit movies at a retail store" in San Jose, California. The complaint further states that undercover FBI agents made purchases of counterfeit DVDs and then seized more, including "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows".
6/23. Khalid Shaikh pled guilty in the U.S. District Court (NDCal) to transmission of a code to cause damage to a protected computer, in violation of 18 U.S.C. §§ 1030(a)(5)(A) & (c)(4)(A). The Department of Justice's (DOJ) U.S. Attorneys Office for the Northern District of California stated in a release that Shaikh was a founder and former CEO of YouSendIt, Inc. It further states that he sent "an ApacheBench computer code to YouSendIt's servers. ApacheBench is a benchmarking program used for measuring the performance of computers known as web servers. ApacheBench was designed to determine the number of requests per second a server is capable of serving. By intentionally transmitting the ApacheBench program to YouSendIt’s servers, Mr. Shaikh was able to overwhelm the servers' capabilities and render it unable to handle legitimate network traffic."
6/16. James Clayton Baxter pled guilty in the U.S. District Court (NDTex) to criminal copyright infringement in connection with his copying for financial gain copies of Adobe software, back in 2006 and 2007. See, Department of Justice (DOJ) release.
7/19. President Obama announced his intent to nominate Maureen Ohlhausen to be a Commissioner of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). See, White House news office release.
She has worked at the law firm of Wilkinson Barker & Knauer (WBK) since 2009 as a partner in its privacy, data protection, and cybersecurity practice.
She briefly worked for the Business Software Alliance (BSA) in 2009.
From 1997 to 2008 she held several senior positions at the FTC, including advisor to former Commissioner Orson Swindle, Deputy Director of the FTC's Office of Policy Planning (OPP) starting in 2003, Director of the FTC's OPP from 2004 to 2008, and head of the FTC's Internet Task Force.
7/19. President Obama announced his intent to nominate Roslyn Mazer to be Inspector General (IG) of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). See, White House news office release.
She is currently the IG of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). Before that, she worked in the Office of the IG of the Department of Justice (DOJ), where she worked on investigations that reported Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) abuse of National Security Letter (NSL) authority.
On March 9, 2007, the DOJ/OIG released a report [30 MB in PDF] titled "A Review of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Use of National Security Letters". See also, story titled "DOJ IG Releases Reports on Use of NSLs and Section 215 Authority" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,551, March 13, 2007. On March 13, 2008, the DOJ/OIG released a report [187 pages in PDF] titled "A Review of the FBI’s Use of National Security Letters: Assessment of Corrective Actions and Examination of NSL Usage in 2006". See also, story titled "DOJ Inspector General Releases Second Report on FBI Misuse of National Security Letters" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 1,730, March 12, 2008.
7/18. Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) spoke in the Senate on July 18, 2011, to urge it to promptly pass S 1103 [LOC | WW], an untitled bill to extend the term of Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) Director Robert Mueller by two years.
Mueller's (at left) ten year term expires on August 2, 2011. Sen. Leahy complained that Senate Republicans are delaying consideration of the bill.
President Obama requested an extension on May 12. See, story titled "Obama Wants to Extend Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,240, May 13, 2011. Sen. Leahy and others introduced S 1103 on May 26. See also, story titled "Sen. Leahy Introduces Bill to Extend Mueller's Term" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,246, May 27, 2011.
By statute, FBI Directors are appointed by the President, and confirmed by the Senate for one ten year term, and "may not serve more than one ten-year term". See, 28 U.S.C. § 532 note. S 1103 would extend Mueller's term to twelve years. All subsequent Directors would have ten year terms.
The Senate Judiciary Committee (SJC) held a hearing on June 8, 2011. The SJC amended and approved the bill on June 16, 2011. The full Senate has not passed this bill. Nor is there a bill in the House.
Sen. Leahy stated in the Senate on July 18 that "The bill was reported over one month ago and action has been stymied by Republican objections every since."
"At first it was reportedly Senator Coburn who was holding up consideration of the bill, then Senator DeMint, and now apparently it is an objection by Senator Paul of Kentucky that is preventing the Senate from proceeding." Sen. Leahy conclude, "I urge the Senate to take up this critical legislation and pass it without further delay."
Timothy Murphy is the Deputy Director of the FBI.
7/18. Mera Szendro Bok will join the Media Access Project (MAP) as Communications and Development Director on August 1, 2011 See, MAP release.
7/7. The Software & Information Industry Association (SIIA) announced the election of its Board of Directors for 2011-2012. See, SIIA release.
7/19. The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) disclosed that representatives of the DHS and the India Department of Information Technology signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) regarding cyber security. The DHS stated in a release that this MOU promotes "closer cooperation and the timely exchange of information between the organizations of their respective governments responsible for cybersecurity" and "establishes best practices for the exchange of critical cybersecurity information".
7/19. The U.S. District Court (SDNY) held a status conference in Authors Guild v. Google, the Google books case. On March 22, 2011, the District Court, Judge Denny Chin presiding, issued its opinion [48 pages in PDF] denying, without prejudice, the motion for approval of the proposed class action settlement. At the July 19 conference the parties informed the District Court that they have not reached a revised settlement. The District Court set another status conference for September 15, 2011, at 11:00 AM. See also, story titled "District Court Rejects Google Books Class Action Settlement" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,206, March 22, 2011, and story titled "Orphan Works and the Court's Rejection of the Google Book Deal" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,207, March 23, 2011.
7/19. The Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF) released a paper [16 [pages in PDF] titled "U.S. Corporate Tax Reform: Groupthink or Rational Debate?" It recommends that the "Congress should enact an American Innovation and Competitiveness Tax credit that provides a credit of 30 percent on expenditures on R&D and workforce training and a credit of 15 percent on machinery and equipment (including software) in excess of 50 percent of base period expenditures." The author is Rob Atkinson, head of the ITIF. See also, ITIF release.
The House will meet at 10:00 AM for morning hour, and at 12:00 NOON for legislative business. It will consider non-technology related bills. See, Rep. Cantor's schedule for week of July 18.
TIME CHANGE. 10:00 AM. 11:00 AM. The House Commerce Committee (HCC) will meet to mark up HR 2577 [LOC | WW], the "Secure and Fortify Electronic (SAFE) Data Act of 2011". See, HCC notice and stories titled "Rep. Mack Introduces SAFE Data Act" and "House Commerce Committee to Mark Up SAFE Data Act" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,263, July 19, 2011. Location: Room 2123, Rayburn Building.
10:15 AM. Day one of a two day meeting of the House Judiciary Committee (HJC) to mark up bills. The sixth of seven items on the agenda is HR 2552 [LOC | WW], the "Identity Theft Improvement Act of 2011". See, story titled "Rep. Goodlatte and Rep. Schiff Introduce Bill Regarding ID Theft and Computer Intrusion" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,260, July 16, 2011. The seventh of seven items is HR 1981 [LOC | WW], the "Protecting Children From Internet Pornographers Act of 2011", a bill to mandate data retention. See, stories titled "House Crime Subcommittee Holds Hearing on Data Retention Bill", "Summary of HR 1981, Data Retention Bill", and "Summary of Existing Data Retention Mandates" in TLJ Daily E-Mail Alert No. 2,257, July 13, 2011. See, notice. Location: Room 2141, Rayburn Building.
12:00 NOON. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-MS) will host a news conference on "computer software gift for 13 Appalachian states". Location: Room 253, Russell Building.
12:00 NOON. The Cato Institute will host a panel discussion titled "Immigration Reform, Yes; E-Verify, No". The speakers will be Dan Griswold (Cato), Jim Harper (Cato), and Laura Renz (Cato). See, notice. Lunch will be served. This event is free and open to the public. Location: Room B-339, Rayburn Building.
1:00 PM. Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV), Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), and Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) will host a news conference on "upgrading public safety communications systems post 9/11". Location: Room SVC-201, Capitol Visitor Center.
7/19. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) released a tentative agenda for its event scheduled for August 9, 2011, titled "open meeting". The FCC is scheduled to take up an item pertaining to use of spectrum for wireless backhaul, and several items regarding foreign ownership.
First, the FCC is scheduled to adopt a Report and Order (R&O), Further Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (FNPRM), and Memorandum Opinion and Order (MOO) regarding use of spectrum bands for wireless backhaul.
Second, the FCC is scheduled to adopt a NPRM regarding foreign ownership of wireless phone companies and certain aeronautical licensees, but not foreign ownership of broadcast licensees.
Third, the FCC is scheduled to adopt an Order and Declaratory Ruling regarding the International Bureau's (IB) Foreign Ownership Guidelines and the application of 47 U.S.C. § 310(b)(3) to certain foreign ownership of common carrier and aeronautical licensees, but not foreign ownership of broadcast licensees.
Fourth, the FCC is scheduled to adopt an Order on Reconsideration "addressing two section 310(b)(4) foreign ownership rulings granted to Verizon Wireless in two proceedings approving its acquisitions of Rural Cellular Corporation (RCC) and Alltel Corporation (Alltel)."
This meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday, August 9, 2011, at 10:30 AM, in the FCC's Commission Meeting Room., TW-C305, 445 12th St., SW.

References: v. 
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