Olives @olives@qoto.org

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/safe-act-two-steps-forward-one-step-back
"The Security and Freedom Enhancement (SAFE) Act would make some much-needed and long fought-for reforms, but it also does not go nearly far enough to rein in a surveillance law that the federal government has abused time and time again."

"The first and most important reform the bill would make is to require the government to obtain a warrant before accessing the content of communications for people in the United States."

"this does not stop the IC or law enforcement from querying to see if the government has collected communications from specific individuals under Section 702—it merely stops them from reading those communications without a warrant"

"The second major reform the SAFE Act provides is to close the “data brooker loophole,” which EFF has been calling attention to for years. As one example, mobile apps often collect user data to sell it to advertisers on the open market. The problem is law enforcement and intelligence agencies increasingly buy this private user data, rather than obtain a warrant for it."

"This provision does include a potentially significant exception for situations where the government cannot exclude Americans’ data from larger “compilations” that include foreigners’ data."

"Unfortunately, the SAFE Act contains at least one truly nasty addition to current law: an entirely new crime that makes it a felony to disclose “the existence of an application” for foreign intelligence surveillance or any of the application’s contents. In addition to explicitly adding to the existing penalties in the Espionage Act—itself highly controversial— this new provision seems aimed at discouraging leaks by increasing the potential sentence to eight years in prison."
#privacy

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/san-diego-city-council-breaks-trust
"In a stunning reversal against the popular Transparent & Responsible Use of Surveillance Technology (TRUST) ordinance, the San Diego city council voted earlier this year to cut many of the provisions that sought to ensure public transparency for law enforcement surveillance technologies."

"The city kept the ordinance unapplied and untested, and then in the late summer of 2023, a little over a year after passage, the mayor proposed a package of changes that would gut the ordinance. This included exemption of a long list of technologies, including ARJIS databases and record management system data storage. These changes were later approved this past January.

But use of these databases should require, for example, auditing to protect data security for city residents."

"are vowing to introduce even more amendments to further erode the gains of this ordinance so that San Diegans won’t have a chance to know how their local law enforcement surveils them, and no democratic body will be required to consent to the technologies, new or old"
#privacy

https://reclaimthenet.org/uk-appeal-quashes-conviction-of-man-found-guilty-of-sending-a-grossly-offensive-email-to-local-politician
"In the UK, the Court of Appeal has taken a stance on what constitutes “malicious communications” – and when speech should not be construed as such, because it is part of a political debate.

The appellate court ruling in R (Crown) v. Thomas Casserly overturned the first instance judgment that found a man guilty of violating the 1988 Malicious Communications Act."

https://reason.com/2024/03/06/your-local-dmv-may-have-no-sense-of-humor/
"Pennsylvania is far from the only state that has banned acronyms from vanity plates. New York doesn't allow NOTPOLCE or, for whatever reason, AY000000. Tennessee banned ILVTOFU back in 2014 for a vegan application. In 2017, Georgia banned Donald Trump's infamous COVFEFE gaffe. Kentucky said no to KARMA."
#FirstAmendment

Frankly, freaking out about minors possibly seeing porn is also fairly stupid.

https://www.heise.de/news/EU-Kommission-untersucht-AliExpress-wegen-moeglicher-Verkaeufe-illegaler-Waren-9655579.html
Come on, there are easier ways for minors to acquire "pornography" than ordering it off some site like Amazon. This is ridiculous.

https://www.ftc.gov/news-events/news/press-releases/2024/03/ftc-doj-file-comment-us-copyright-office-supporting-renewal-expansion-exemptions-facilitating
"The Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Antitrust Division (DOJ) have submitted a comment to the U.S. Copyright Office to advocate for regulations that would facilitate consumers’ and businesses’ right to repair their own products.

The FTC-DOJ submitted the comment as the Copyright Office considers whether to recommend that the Librarian of Congress renew and expand temporary exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s (DMCA) prohibition against the circumvention of technology protection measures that control access to copyrighted content."
#copyright #dmca #RightToRepair

https://nichegamer.com/japan-courts-rule-same-sex-marriage-ban-unconstitutional/
"Several Japanese high courts have rules the country’s ban on same-sex marriages to be unconstitutional.

Courts in both Tokyo and Sapporo have ruled that Japan’s current rules regarding same-sex marriage."

"Public opinion has warmed to same-sex relationships in Japan with approximately 64% of Japanese citizens supporting same-sex marriage according to a Kyodo News survey. Only 25% of respondents said that they were not in favor."

I don't think that laws should be hidden behind a paywall where no one / few can see it. That is even worse than academic paywalls, which can also be problematic for their own reasons.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2024/03/making-law-accessible-europe-and-usa
"Earlier this month, the European Union Court of Justice ruled that harmonized standards are a part of EU law, and thus must be accessible to EU citizens and residents free of charge.

While it might seem like common sense that the laws that govern us should be freely accessible, this question has been in dispute in the EU for the past five years, and in the U.S. for over a decade. At the center of this debate are technical standards, developed by private organizations and later incorporated into law. Before they were challenged in court, standards-development organizations were able to limit access to these incorporated standards through assertions of copyright. Regulated parties or concerned citizens checking compliance with technical or safety standards had to do so by purchasing these standards, often at significant expense, from private organizations."
#copyright

https://techfreedom.org/coppa-rule-amendments-must-be-grounded-in-coppas-text/
"“Alone among regulations aimed at protecting kids online, COPPA has dodged First Amendment challenge because Congress was careful to avoid burdening sites that serve adults, but now the FTC proposes blurring that line in ways that invite litigation on both constitutional and textual grounds,” warned Berin Szóka, President of TechFreedom."

It appears that other than one court (a lower district court), every other court has come to the conclusion that it is unconstitutional.

https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/japan-high-court-says-not-allowing-same-sex-marriage-is-unconstitutional-media-2024-03-14/
"A high court in Japan on Thursday said the country's ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional"

"polls show 70% public support for same-sex unions"

"The plaintiffs are considering appealing to the Supreme Court to clarify the unconstitutionality of existing law, lawyer Fumiyasu Tsunamori told a news briefing."

https://reason.com/2024/03/13/expanding-the-drug-war-to-include-tobacco-would-be-a-big-mistake/
""Policies that amount to prohibition for adults will have serious racial justice implications," the organization warned in a 2021 letter to Secretary of Health and Human Services Xavier Becerra. "Such a ban will trigger criminal penalties, which will disproportionately impact people of color, as well as prioritize criminalization over public health and harm reduction. A ban will also lead to unconstitutional policing and other negative interactions with local law enforcement."

Progressives commonly recognize such problems in the context of the war on drugs. Expanding that war to include tobacco is bound to magnify them."