[6728] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: White House report says government wants to trace Net users
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Declan McCullagh)
Mon Mar 6 12:12:42 2000
Message-Id: <4.3.0.20000306120356.02056880@mail.well.com>
Date: Mon, 06 Mar 2000 12:04:57 -0500
To: David Honig <honig@sprynet.com>, cryptography@c2.net
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Cc: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
In-Reply-To: <3.0.6.32.20000306084725.007e0c10@pop.sprynet.com>
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Right-o! You guessed it at the first try. Read on.
-Declan
At 08:47 3/6/2000 -0800, David Honig wrote:
>When everyone is a publisher, publishers lose rights?
http://www.politechbot.com/docs/unlawfulconduct.html
3. Privacy Protection Act
The Privacy Protection Act of 1980 ("PPA"), 42 U.S.C. =A7 2000aa, et seq.,=
=20
makes it unlawful for local,
state, or federal law enforcement authorities to "search for or seize any=20
work product materials" or
any "documentary materials . . . possessed by a person in connection with a=
=20
purpose to disseminate
to the public a newspaper, book, broadcast, or other similar form of public=
=20
communication," 42
U.S.C. =A7 2000aa(a), (b) (emphasis added). The statute defines "work=
product=20
materials" as
materials prepared or possessed in anticipation of communicating such=20
materials to the public,
except if the materials constitute contraband or the fruits or=20
instrumentalities of crime. Id. =A7
2000aa-7(b). "Documentary materials," on the other hand, consist of=20
materials upon which
information is recorded, once again with the exception of contraband and=20
the fruits or
instrumentalities of crime. Id. =A7 2000aa-7(a).
In enacting the PPA, Congress restricted searches for evidence of crime=20
held by innocent
third-parties who were engaged in First Amendment-protected activities. The=
=20
PPA thus protects the
confidentiality of non-evidentiary files held by this special group of=20
innocent third-parties =96 such as
drafts of articles not yet published and the research and other supporting=
=20
information (e.g., notes and
interviews) that are never intended to be published. To preserve the=20
confidentiality of these
designated materials, the PPA instructs investigators not to search for the=
=20
evidence at all, but to
compel the innocent third-parties to find and produce it themselves. Thus,=
=20
subject to certain
exceptions, the PPA generally limits searches for work product and=20
documentary materials held by
third-parties who plan to use them to communicate to the public.
New issues arise with the PPA due to the exponential growth in computer use=
=20
over the last decade.
With the advent of the Internet and widespread computer use, almost any=20
computer can be used to
"publish" material. As a result, the PPA may now apply to almost any search=
=20
of any computer.
Because computers now commonly contain enormous data storage devices,=20
wrongdoers can use
them to store material for publication =96 material that the PPA protects =
=96=20
while simultaneously storing
(in a commingled fashion) child pornography, stolen classified documents,=20
or other contraband or
evidence of crime.
