Star Chamber America

[Tim May]

On Tuesday, August 7, 2001, at 06:19 AM, <measl at mfn.org> wrote:

> On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, John Young wrote:
>
>> Cryptome has obtained 60 pages of public records filed in
>> USA v. Dmitry Sklyarov: five pages of Court documents and
>> 55 pages of submissions in support of Dmitry's character and
>> achievements. They are offered in compressed TIFF format:
>
> Most of these tiff files do not download: are they still "available"?  I
> was especially interested in the sealing order...


Maybe that was sealed? The warrant was sealed, the evidence was 
sealed...one wonders why it was even announced that Dmitry was arrested? 
Wouldn't it have been more consistent with the various levels of 
Adobe-complicit secrecy and sealings to simply nab him out of his hotel 
room and hold him for the star chamber proceedings next year?

Oh, I know why the "take down" was so loud and public: Adobe and the FBI 
wanted a high-visibility case for the chilling effect. Well, Adobe got 
their chilling effect--on them.

Welcome to Star Chamber America, where court orders are sealed, where 
witnesses have their identities hidden, where Special Intelligence 
Courts handle secret cases, and where some Cypherpunks even narc out 
other list members in the hopes that listening Feds will order a 
pre-dawn raid and trigger a firefight.

--Tim May