This is an amazing story. A Phoenix newspaper has been subpoenaed because of four specific articles it published. The truly amazing part of the subpoena, is that the IP addresses of the readers of those articles is requested. The four articles referred to in the subpoena can be found here: (1, 2, 3, 4).
I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the local politics in Phoenix. But what seems to be the larger issue here, on the side of the local government, is that this newspaper published the address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The address of the sheriff is public record due to his financial disclosure statement when he ran for office. But it is illegal to post the address of a law enforcement officer on the Internet in the state of Arizona and most other states. However, I did a trace route on the IP address of the web site that has the sheriff's Financial Disclosure Statement in PDF, and found it be be recorder.maricopa.gov. So the local government itself has his address posted on the Internet, and this is where the newspaper retrieved the information.
Whether or not these journalists can actually be prosecuted for posting pubic information on the Internet is a matter in itself. When the IP addresses, browser information, and operating systems of individuals accessing the news web site is requested through the court, there is an abuse of power. It is intimidating and threatening to request information on readers of a web site. In countries such as Iran and China, many people justifiably access news web sites using proxy servers so the government cannot censor and/or track what they are reading for fear of legal repercussion.
I am not familiar with the ins and outs of the local politics in Phoenix. But what seems to be the larger issue here, on the side of the local government, is that this newspaper published the address of Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The address of the sheriff is public record due to his financial disclosure statement when he ran for office. But it is illegal to post the address of a law enforcement officer on the Internet in the state of Arizona and most other states. However, I did a trace route on the IP address of the web site that has the sheriff's Financial Disclosure Statement in PDF, and found it be be recorder.maricopa.gov. So the local government itself has his address posted on the Internet, and this is where the newspaper retrieved the information.
Whether or not these journalists can actually be prosecuted for posting pubic information on the Internet is a matter in itself. When the IP addresses, browser information, and operating systems of individuals accessing the news web site is requested through the court, there is an abuse of power. It is intimidating and threatening to request information on readers of a web site. In countries such as Iran and China, many people justifiably access news web sites using proxy servers so the government cannot censor and/or track what they are reading for fear of legal repercussion.
No comments:
Post a Comment