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The Telecom Digest for September 24, 2011
Volume 30 : Issue 240 : "text" Format
====== 30 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Date: Thu, 22 Sep 2011 22:40:00 -0700
From: Thad Floryan <thad@thadlabs.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Stingray Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash
Message-ID: <4E7C1BB0.6000608@thadlabs.com>
" For more than a year, federal authorities pursued a man they
" called simply "the Hacker." Only after using a little known
" cellphone-tracking device -- a stingray -- were they able to
" zero in on a California home and make the arrest.
"
" Stingrays are designed to locate a mobile phone even when it's
" not being used to make a call. The Federal Bureau of
" Investigation considers the devices to be so critical that it has
" a policy of deleting the data gathered in their use, mainly to
" keep suspects in the dark about their capabilities, an FBI
" official told The Wall Street Journal in response to inquiries.
"
" A stingray's role in nabbing the alleged "Hacker" - Daniel David
" Rigmaiden - is shaping up as a possible test of the legal standards
" for using these devices in investigations. The FBI says it
" obtains appropriate court approval to use the device.
"
" Stingrays are one of several new technologies used by law
" enforcement to track people's locations, often without a search
" warrant. These techniques are driving a constitutional debate
" about whether the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable
" searches and seizures, but which was written before the digital
" age, is keeping pace with the times.
"
" On Nov. 8, the Supreme Court will hear arguments over whether or
" not police need a warrant before secretly installing a GPS device
" on a suspect's car and tracking him for an extended period. In
" both the Senate and House, new bills would require a warrant
" before tracking a cellphone's location.
article continues here:
<
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904194604576583112723197574.html>
***** Moderator's Note *****
In both the Senate and House, new bills are (to be charitable)
pointless. Either the right exists or it does not, and only the
Supremes get to decide that.
The Founding Fathers of the United States could not have imagined a
world where the government is so afraid of its citizens that it feels
the need to listen in to their most mundane conversations and to know
where they are at every moment. The elites of the United States have
become more afraid of ideas than of those who have them, but as has
been said down through the ages, the pen is mightier than the sword -
at least in the long term.
Of course, "hackers" are bad: after all, they do something that is
"illegal". Of course, seditious libel is bad: after all, it is
"illegal". Thomas Paine would have seen this for what it is.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 17:32:14 +0000 (UTC)
From: wollman@bimajority.org (Garrett Wollman)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Stingray Phone Tracker Fuels Constitutional Clash
Message-ID: <j5ifqu$bnn$1@grapevine.csail.mit.edu>
Our Esteemed Moderator appended to article <4E7C1BB0.6000608@thadlabs.com>:
>In both the Senate and House, new bills are (to be charitable)
>pointless. Either the right exists or it does not, and only the
>Supremes get to decide that.
Nonsense.
The right is to be free from "unreasonable" search and seizure. The
legislature can change the meaning of "reasonable" by enacting a new
law -- as, for example, they did with the Wiretap Act in 1967.
-GAWollman
--
Garrett A. Wollman | What intellectual phenomenon can be older, or more oft
wollman@bimajority.org| repeated, than the story of a large research program
Opinions not shared by| that impaled itself upon a false central assumption
my employers. | accepted by all practitioners? - S.J. Gould, 1993
***** Moderator's Note *****
IANALB -
Laws can be revoked, watered down, ignored, selectively enforced, or
misinterpreted, and sometimes they are just plain wrong. While it may
be appropriate for the Congress to consider a bill that limits the
ability of companies or individuals to gather and use electronic data,
it is not, IMNSHO, a good idea to depend on it to define which of the
actions of the government are constitutional.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 02:42:17 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Apple cuts French App Store's 'Jew Or Not Jew' App
Message-ID: <p062408dfcaa1da88d36e@[10.0.1.8]>
Apple cuts French App Store's 'Jew Or Not Jew' App
September 14, 2011
SAN FRANCISCO-Apple Inc. has removed a mobile app, called "Jew or Not
Jew?", from its online App Store in France.
The app let users consult a database of celebrities and public
figures to determine if they are Jewish or not. Its removal follows a
complaint from a French anti-racism group that threatened to sue the
iPhone and iPad maker.
The app, "Juif ou pas Juif?" in French, was selling for 0.79 euro
cents ($1.08) in France until it was cut on Wednesday. SOS Racisme
had argued that the app violated France's strict laws banning the
compiling of people's personal details without their consent.
Apple spokesman Tom Neumayr said the app did violate local law, so it
was removed from the French App Store. It is still available outside
France, however, and currently sells for $1.99 through Apple's U.S.
App Store.
Under the French penal code, stocking personal details including
race, sexuality, political leanings or religious affiliation is
punishable by five-year prison sentences and fines of up to
euro300,000 ($411,870).
...
http://www.boston.com/business/technology/articles/2011/09/14/apple_cuts_french_app_stores_jew_or_not_jew_app/?page=full
***** Moderator's Note *****
First they came for the communists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jew.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left to speak out for me.
- Martin Niemöller
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: 22 Sep 2011 23:58:25 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: mobile wifi hotspots, was Strange new at&t rumors
Message-ID: <20110922235825.54278.qmail@joyce.lan>
>>Interesting -- care to divulge (i) its cost and (ii) the cost of the
>>data service? I could well be an interested fellow-buyer. TIA!
I got a Virgin Mobile mifi for $150 at Best Buy with a $50 rebate card
for a net cost of $100 last month. It's a mobile hotspot. Your
computer connects to it like to any other wifi hotspot, no software
installation needed or even possible.
Data service is prepaid, no contract. $10 for 100MB/10 days, $20 for
500 MB/month, $50 for unlimited MB/month. Carrier is Sprint; it works
quite well if you can get a Sprint signal. It's about the size of a
credit card and 1/4" thick, with a battery adequate for several hours
of use between recharges.
I'm definitely taking it with me on trips rather than pay for hotel wifi.
R's,
John
***** Moderator's Note *****
Hotels charge for WiFi?
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 15:05:27 -0400
From: "Gary" <bogus-email@hotmail.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: mobile wifi hotspots, was Strange new at&t rumors
Message-ID: <j5il9t$t6h$1@dont-email.me>
***** Moderator's Note *****
>
> Hotels charge for WiFi?
Some do, some don't. It's a lot like local calls used to be - inexpensive
hotels provide it free as a selling point while higher end hotels in big
markets charge for it assuming their clients can pay for it.
Thanks,
-Gary
Date: 23 Sep 2011 18:00:22 -0000
From: "John Levine" <johnl@iecc.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: mobile wifi hotspots, was Strange new at&t rumors
Message-ID: <20110923180022.50857.qmail@joyce.lan>
>Hotels charge for WiFi?
The expensive ones do, the cheap ones don't. Go figure.
R's,
John
Date: Fri, 23 Sep 2011 10:02:36 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Cell phone service to NYC subways
Message-ID: <c9ec5d9f-fd2a-4477-bb15-6dec5f5b93ec@v18g2000yqj.googlegroups.com>
As a subway rider, I am not thrilled with this. When a train comes in
the station is very noisy, but between trains subway stations are
actually rather peaceful and relaxing.
"After years of promises (or threats?), officials are expected to
bring cellphone service to a handful of subway stations next week as
part of a pilot program that someday will extend to all of the
system's 250-plus platforms."
For full article please see:
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/nationnow/2011/09/cellphone-service-coming-to-new-york-subways.html
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