In a big interview with the German media outlet Der Spiegel, President Obama was asked about his interest in pardoning Ed Snowden in response to the big campaign to get him pardoned. Obama’s response was that he could not, since Snowden has not been convicted yet
Source: President Obama Claims He Cannot Pardon Snowden; He’s Wrong | Techdirt
Good riddance, I say
Rightscorp’s dream of turning piracy into profit continues to be a nightmare. In its latest quarterly filing the anti-piracy outfit reports revenue down 35% over the same period last year, alongside a loss of $385,433. Year to date, the company has lost almost $1.4m and only has enough money to last until December.
Source: Rightscorp Only Has Enough Cash to Last Until December – TorrentFreak
The NSA has operated a top-secret surveillance program out of an iconic AT&T building in Manhattan, documents indicate.
Source: The NSA’s Spy Hub in New York, Hidden in Plain Sight
Set-top box rules and other changes could be dead in Obama’s final months.
Source: GOP tells FCC to just stop what it’s doing until Trump is inaugurated | Ars Technica
To increase traffic to his Facebook page, Johnny Mullins took matters into his own hands.
Source: Would-be Internet weatherman star sets a wildfire to increase his viewership | Ars Technica
The Louisiana legislature decided to help out its most underprivileged constituents — law enforcement officers — by making it a felony to “attack” them using nothing more than words.
In 2013, the FBI received permission to hack over 300 specific users of dark web email service TorMail. But now, after the warrants and their applications have finally been unsealed, experts say the agency illegally went further, and hacked perfectly legitimate users of the privacy-focused service.“That is, while the warrant authorized hacking with a scalpel, the FBI delivered their malware to TorMail users with a grenade,” Christopher Soghoian, principal technologist at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told Motherboard in an email.
Critics are right to be concerned about the FBI’s expanded power, especially when it comes to recruiting and deploying informants. That’s true regardless of why FBI Director James Comey acted as he did toward Hillary Clinton.
Source: Amid Clinton Controversy, FBI Documents Show Why Americans Should Worry About Intelligence Gathering
Each new investigation and judicial inquiry proves Snowden’s core warnings were correct.
Jury to be asked to consider self-defense in secretly recorded shooting.
Source: Defense tries to exclude video from trial of cop shooting man in back | Ars Technica
