FBI Backs Off From Secret Order for Data After Lawsuit

[MountainLaurel]

The FBI has withdrawn a secret administrative order seeking the name, address and online activity of a patron of the Internet Archive after the San Francisco-based digital library filed suit to block the action.

It is one of only three known instances in which the FBI has backed off from such a data demand, known as a "national security letter," or NSL, which is not subject to judicial approval and whose recipient is barred from disclosing the order's existence.

NSLs are served on phone companies, Internet service providers and other electronic communications service providers, but because of the gag order provision, the public has little way to know about them. Their use soared after the September 2001 terrorist attacks, when Congress relaxed the standard for their issuance. FBI officials now issue about 50,000 such orders a year.

The order against the Internet Archive was served Nov. 26, and the nonprofit challenged it based on a provision of the reauthorized USA Patriot Act, which protects libraries from such requests. The privacy advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation represented the archive in the suit, which was joined by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The archive also alleged that the gag order that accompanied the data demand violated the Constitution.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/05/07/AR2008050703808.html?hpid=topnews

Kudos to EFF, ACLU, and Brewster Kahle for standing up for our rights. :applause:

[Selatius]

1. Patriot Act still needs to be repealed, that and the Military Commissions Act.

Get rid of those both. There are other laws that need to be junked as well.