The California Assembly took a crucial first step yesterday towards closing a significant gap in protection for anonymous speech online. One of the most pernicious threats to anonymity is the filing of bogus lawsuits as an excuse to force ISPs to reveal speakers’ identities. Once such a lawsuit is filed,...

On April 21st, the Ninth Circuit held in United States v. Arnold that the Fourth Amendment does not require government agents to have reasonable suspicion before searching laptops or other digital devices at the border, including international airports. Customs and Border Patrol are likely to use the opinion to...

EU Intends to Criminalize Terrorist "Provocations"Online speech will be included.

The Creep of Overbroad Surveillance LawsRIPA, a UK bill intended to be used in serious crimes, was used to spy on a couple suspected of forging school application forms.

French Assembly Seek to Ban Anorexia SpeechBill which...

The San Francisco Chronicle reports that lawmakers are still looking for answers about Attorney General Michael Mukasey's strange tale of an unmonitored terrorist phone call. Mukasey gave the account at a speech in San Francisco last month as part of an emotional plea to legalize warrantless wiretapping....

Today, EFF published a report on the misuse of a National Security Letter to seek educational records from North Carolina State University at Raleigh in 2005. The NSL authority does not allow the government to seek educational records.
The detailed report stems from EFF's Freedom...

FISA has been missing from the front pages of the nation's newspapers for a while, but behind the scenes and on the editorial pages, the story is still very much alive. The Hill recently reported that Congressional Republicans are changing focus away from FISA and towards economic issues:
...

DoD Collaborating with FBI to Gain Access to Individuals' DataThe ACLU says the US Military is using the FBI to skirt
legal restrictions on domestic surveillance.
"Fusion Centers" Compile Data on IndividualsStates are operating their own intelligence centers to
track citizens and analyze data. (Log-in...