[At-Large] [lac-discuss-en] GigaOM article : Louis Vuitton asks for SOPA-like seizure of hundreds of websites

[Karl Auerbach]

On 05/14/2012 05:44 PM, Derek Smythe wrote:
> Nobody is saying we should be vigilantes. What I am saying is we have
> to give law enforcement the tools to be able to do their work. At the
> same time we should take cognizance of the international nature of the
> net.

Those tool, at least here in the US, are called a subpoena, or a search 
warrant, an indictment, etc.

There are rules about how those are executed and issued.

Police have always found them inconvenient.

But then again, all rights are inconvenient to those who wish to intrude 
upon them.

Here in the US even those accused of being "terrorists" get the benefit 
of a FISA court.

It strikes me as odd that those accused of internet bad acts are 
deserving of fewer protections than that accused terrorist with the 
ticking bomb.

Having seen official bad acts, including police murder of a naked man, I 
am not one to concede the height of wisdom and unbiased justice to those 
who carry the banner of "law enforcement".

Breaching Whois privacy may seem a small step, a small price.  But as 
Avri points out, it is not hard to see where protection of identity on 
the internet *is* important and of great social value.

	--karl--