Wednesday, January 30, 2013

You will recall my post Sunday about the actions of the group Anonymous in hacking into a government website in revenge for the (in)Justice Department's prosecution of Aaron Swartz, driving him to suicide.

Now it appears a bit of pressure is coming (in)Justice's way from Congress.


  "Questions are now being raised on the dot-gov side of the 'operation.'
Monday, a House panel issued a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder with seven specific questions, and demanding answers regarding the Swartz prosecution.
With the letter to Holder, the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee requests a briefing with the Justice Department. CNET writes,
"Many questions have been raised about the appropriate level of punishment sought by prosecutors for Mr. Swartz's alleged offenses, and how the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, cited in 11 of 13 counts against Mr. Swartz, should apply under similar circumstances," [Reps. Issa and Cummings] say in the letter, which requests a briefing no later than February 4.
The letter is another voice from the Federal side of the discussion, joining a chorus led by Democratic congresswoman Rep. Zoe Lofgren who has authored a bill called "Aaron's Law" that aims to change the 1984 Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (with which Swartz was being prosecuted).
It remains to be seen whether the actions of Anonymous have influenced federal action.
Wednesday: ussc.gov, miep.uscourts.gov still offline
Tuesday, both .gov websites remained offline - while fbi.gov was briefly knocked offline and claimed by Anonymous.
On Wednesday, six days after Anonymous took ussc.gov, the website remains offline.
At the same time, the encrypted files distributed in the Friday ussc.gov hack are still out there, with Anonymous holding the keys - to whatever they are (or are not)."

I can only hope that Anonymous really has some scandalous goods on the government, and that they release their files soon.  I am beginning to see these people as allies against the power of big government, and indeed they are beginning to get tangible results.  I wish them even greater success in the future!

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