Salon.com > U.S. Government

Megaupload: U.S. government lied to get search warrants

Thu, 03 Jan 2013 17:25:00 +0000

Shuttered file-sharing site Megaupload is attempting to have search warrants executed by the U.S. government deemed invalid. According to Bloomberg News, Megaupload have filed a complaint alleging that the government lied to a court to get warrants to search computer servers in Virginia that belonged to Megaupload.

TorrentFreak detailed the substance of Megaupload's complaint:

When the U.S. Government applied for the search warrants against Megaupload last year, it told the court that they had warned Megaupload in 2010 that it was hosting infringing files.

Through its hosting company, Megaupload was informed about a criminal search warrant in an unrelated case where the Government requested information on 39 infringing files stored by the file-hosting service.

At the time Megaupload cooperated with this request and handed over details on the uploaders. The files were kept online as Megaupload was instructed not to touch any of the evidence. However, a year later this inaction is being used by the U.S. Government to claim that Megaupload was negligent, leaving out much of the context.

Google reveals government surveillance on the rise

Tue, 13 Nov 2012 20:52:00 +0000

Since 2010, Google has periodically published statistics on the number of government requests the tech giant receives. Its most recent Transparency Report -- the sixth in two years -- was released Tuesday and, according to Google's official blog, "one trend has become clear: Government surveillance is on the rise."

"In the first half of 2012, there were 20,938 inquiries from government entities around the world. Those requests were for information about 34,614 accounts," wrote Google senior policy analyst Dorothy Chou. In the first half of 2011, by comparison, there were fewer than 16,000 such requests.

Do Americans secretly hate their government?

Thu, 27 Sep 2012 19:41:00 +0000

In this electoral season, the role of government in the United States has become an important issue. Surveys reveal that most Americans don’t like government, especially the federal government. (State and local governments seem more acceptable.) And yet they want the things that government provides, such as defense, law and order, safe food and drugs, clean air, pure water, education, flood relief, health care, etc.

Candidates, especially Republican ones, therefore have a hard time clarifying their own positions. Romney promises “strong leadership,” but leaves us in doubt about where he would take us or how he would get there. He shies away from his Massachusetts health care law mandating insurance for all, even though he seems to feel it was a good idea. One is reminded of the Tea Party supporter who said, “Don’t let big government take away my Medicare.”