Subpoena this : As part of a probe into access to porn websites by minors, the Bush Justice Dept. has subpoenaed Google for the records of all searches made in its databases between June 1 and July 31 of last year:
The Justice Department includes a request for Google to produce a random sample of one million Web addresses, known as URLs.
The data request is part of a broader government effort to track the effectiveness of a 1998 law, the Child Online Protection Act, or COPA, which penalizes Web site operators who allow children to view pornography, the filing said.
A 2004 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Ashcroft vs ACLU, upheld an injunction that blocked the government from enforcing the law and the Justice Department is seeking evidence from Google and others as part of an appeal of this injunction.
The motion by U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez vs. Google details the negotiations between the government and Google’s lawyers, who have resisted the request as overreaching, burdensome and a violation of trade secrets.
“Google is not a party to this lawsuit and their demand for information overreaches,” Nicole Wong, Google’s associate general counsel, said in a statement. “We had lengthy discussions with them to try to resolve this, but were not able to and we intend to resist their motion vigorously.”
Children looking at porn is bad, but letting President Bush sift through everybody’s online searches is a precedent for government intrusion that could only have dire ramifications in the future.
I must be losing my mind, but I find this hilarious. What is a better way to get internet users up in arms? This, along with the bin Laden tape, are perfect to get everyone to look the other way. I’ve gotten so bad I actually wonder how the administration got bin Laden to send in a tape just when the scandal was getting good.And now this google bull, these folks are shameless, aren’t they?
Well, I for one am not going stop pressing for an investigation into the spying and Abramoff fraud.