October 2007 - cypherpunks-legacy

Engine Turnoff
by R.A. Hettinga 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

<http://www.spectator.org/util/print.asp?art_id=12170> Spectator.org Engine Turnoff By Eric Peters Published 10/16/2007 12:07:44 AM Big Brother may be about to get just a bit bigger. General Motors just announced a new and improved version of its OnStar telematics system that could be used to shut your car's engine off (or at least, cut back the power) remotely. Touted as a "safety" feature (of course), the upgraded version of OnStar would give external authorities (law enforcement -- and, of course, GM) the ability to send out a signal keyed to the car's on board computer, which in turn would ease off the gas -- no matter how hard you're putting foot down. GPS-equipped cars already can be located in real time at any time, whether moving or stationary. The "enhanced" version of OnStar would, however, be the first use of satellite technology to physically control the vehicle and supersede the driver. The system goes live in 2009, when GM will begin offering it on more than 1.7 million new cars and trucks. Chevrolet will lead the way -- with up to 60 percent of '09 models fitted with "enhanced" OnStar. So what's wrong with the idea? Is it cabin-in-the-woods paranoia to be concerned about what, after all, could be a valuable tool for law enforcement? The answer depends to a great extent on how much you trust the government. Certainly, the use of "enhanced" OnStar to stop high-speed car chases and retrieve stolen cars is hard to argue with. But will that be all the technology is used for? Consider this: The insurance industry is at this very moment lobbying Congress to impose electronic speed governors on heavy trucks -- limiting them to no faster than 68 mph. Surprisingly, the trucking industry isn't completely opposed to the idea -- provided electronic speed limiters are also fitted to ordinary passenger vehicles, too. Fair's fair, right? Now add a dash of "enhanced" OnStar to the brew. Come 2009, it will be technically feasible to make speeding impossible. A modern car is controlled by computers; the computers are now tied into GPS systems such as OnStar -- which have the ability to send and receive electronic transmissions, including instructions that tell the computer how to run the car. "Smart" speed limit signs can now be fitted with transmitters; when a car with "enhanced" OnStar comes into range, the transmitter tells the car's computer what the maximum allowable speed shall be -- and ye shall drive no faster. Welcome to the future. "Technology should not just entertain us or make us more comfortable," croons NHTSA Administrator Nicole R. Nason. "It should make us safer." Of course. And what could be safer than making speeding an impossibility? If you haven't heard this argument voiced openly, just wait. It's coming as sure as Lindsay Lohan's next DWI. The safety nags have been patiently waiting for years for technology to catch up to their agenda. Courtesy of GM, that day has arrived. Our friends in the insurance and safety lobbies will soon be urging that this "optional" technology become a mandatory feature on every new car. Speeding is illegal, right? Who is going to argue in favor of allowing the automakers to continue building and selling cars capable of being driven 30, 40, 50 mph faster than the highest lawfully allowable maximum? What about the children, after all? And if that's not alarming enough, consider the likely follow-up. Once all new cars are fitted with in-car speed nannies, the glassy eye of government will very likely turn its gaze upon older cars -- especially older pre-computer cars, which can't be electronically controlled because there is no on-board electronic controller. The old car hobby is already (justly) alarmed by recent changes in antique/classic car licensing and registration laws -- which are making it harder and more expensive to keep an older car on the road. In Virginia, for example, changes to the laws governing antique vehicle registration now empower police to conduct what amount to "roadside safety checks." If the cop decides your antique vehicle doesn't meet this or that jot or tittle of the law, he can seize your plates on the spot and have your antique vehicle towed to the impound lot -- notwithstanding that most cops don't have any specific knowledge of what is or isn't "right" about decades-old vehicles. Now the authorities have a new tool in their kit. A cudgel by which they cannot only beat speeders into submission -- but which could very well be used to take older cars off the road forever. Consider yourself warned. And remember to say "thanks, GM." Eric Peters is an automotive columnist and author of Automotive Atrocities (MBI). -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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16 Oct '07

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16 Oct '07

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16 Oct '07

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16 Oct '07

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16 Oct '07

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16 Oct '07

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Justices to Hear Challenge to Money-Laundering Law
by R.A. Hettinga 16 Oct '07

16 Oct '07

<http://www.nytimes.com/2007/10/16/washington/16scotus.html?_r=1&oref=slogin…> The New York Times October 16, 2007 SUPREME COURT ROUNDUP Justices to Hear Challenge to Money-Laundering Law By LINDA GREENHOUSE WASHINGTON, Oct. 15 - The Supreme Court agreed on Monday to decide whether hiding the proceeds of an illegal activity, like a drug transaction, can be prosecuted as money laundering under federal law. This straightforward statutory question has roiled the lower federal courts, prompting a complaint by two conservative members of the federal appeals court in New Orleans earlier this year that the government's expansive interpretation of the most commonly used money-laundering statute amounted to "prosecution run amok." That complaint, which came in a dissenting opinion, was perhaps what led the Supreme Court to decide, over the Justice Department's opposition, to review the decision that had prompted it. The case is an appeal by a man who was stopped on a Texas highway on his way to the Mexican border and found to be carrying $83,000 in cash hidden under the floorboards of his car. The government's theory was that the driver's behavior in concealing the cash met the description of international money laundering, defined in a 1986 statute as transportation or transmission designed to "conceal or disguise the nature, the location, the source, the ownership, or the control" of the proceeds of illegal activity. The lower federal courts are split over whether "conceal" should be understood in the literal sense as simply being hidden, or whether Congress meant to criminalize only the hiding or disguising of cash with the intent to create the false appearance that it was obtained legitimately. The money-laundering statute at issue is a powerful prosecutorial tool because of the heavy penalties it imposes: up to 20 years' imprisonment and a fine of either $500,000 or twice the value of the transaction, whichever is greater. While there are several money-laundering laws on the books, the one involved in this case, the Money Laundering Control Act, accounted for 62 percent of convictions for all related crimes last year, nearly 1,000 convictions. The case, Cuellar v. United States, No. 06-1456, concerns a section of the law that applies to transportation of "the proceeds of some form of unlawful activity" into or out of the United States. The driver, Humberto Regalado Cuellar, was convicted under that section and sentenced to six and one-half years in prison. He was not charged under another law that applied to his conduct, a statute that makes it a crime to carry more than $10,000 in cash across the border without reporting it. That law carries a much lighter sentence. Supported by a friend of the court brief by the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, Mr. Cuellar is arguing that federal prosecutors are aggressively stretching the meaning of the money-laundering law far beyond the traditional context and definition of money laundering. Money laundering was long understood to mean investing proceeds in a legitimate enterprise, so their origins would be obscured and the money would appear to be clean when recovered. At the least, Mr. Cuellar's lawyers argue, the money needs to be used in a manner that creates the appearance of legitimate wealth, not hidden under the floorboards of a car. A three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit initially accepted that argument and overturned Mr. Cuellar's conviction. The full 16-member court then reheard the case and reinstated the conviction, 13 to 3. The majority said that because "Congress had chosen the broad, unqualified word 'conceal,'" there was no reason to apply a narrower definition. "Simply taking steps to hide illicit funds is sufficient to prove concealment," the Fifth Circuit said. In a dissenting opinion, Judge Jerry E. Smith accused the government of "making a mockery of the concept of money laundering." Judge Smith said that under the majority's definition, a "young petty thief" who stole a small sum and carried it across the border in his shoe to enjoy a night "at the bars of Nuevo Laredo" would be guilty of international money laundering and face up to 20 years in prison. These were among the other developments at the court. Special Education For the second time in a week, the court bypassed the chance to clarify the obligation of public school systems to reimburse parents who choose to send children with disabilities to private school without trying an available public school program first. A recusal by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy left the court in a 4-to-4 deadlock last week in a case from New York City. On Monday, Justice Kennedy recused himself again, this time in a case from Long Island, Board of Education of Hyde Park v. Frank G., No. 06-580, leading the court to turn the case down. This raised the prospect that a personal involvement with the issue might preclude Justice Kennedy from ever hearing a case presenting it, with the result that the current nine justices could never decide the question. Justice Kennedy declined to comment on his recusal. Long Wait The court turned down an appeal from an Arizona inmate, Joe C. Smith, who argued that his 30 years on death row made his death sentence "cruel and unusual" and therefore unconstitutional. His sentence was overturned twice on appeal. Only Justice Stephen G. Breyer noted a dissent from the denial of the appeal, Smith v. Arizona, No. 07-5847, observing that execution "at this late date" would certainly be unusual and, after decades on death row, perhaps cruel. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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