Trust the US Senate to put a good legislative amendment on hold.
Having placed its collective head firmly in the sand over national cybersecurity, provoking the White House to prepare an Executive Order to tackle the issue, the upper house has now ducked an important due process issue -- or at least shelved it, until after the November election.
How often does Patrick Leahy (D-VT) have a smart idea about the Internet? This is the guy, after all, who tried to foist PIPA on us. His proposed amendment to the Video Privacy Protection Act, however, would have done a great deal to protect individual and civil rights. As Chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, Leahy postponed discussion of his own draft, after several lobbying groups objected.
In essence, the amendment would have superseded provisions of the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act, rightly described by Leahy as "woefully outdated." Under the current law, the government can obtain emails and other stored data from an Internet Service Provider with nothing more than an administrative subpoena. Leahy's draft would require a warrant, obtainable only on a showing of probable cause -- a higher hurdle for the government to jump.
The only reason for hauling the Video Protection Act over the coals in the first place was with the apparently uncontroversial goal of allowing Netflix subscribers to integrate their viewing histories with their Facebook pages. The Leahy amendment, worthwhile though it seems, was a late add-on.
Who would seek to block passage of this seemingly sensible measure? Law enforcement, of course, or more specifically "the National Narcotic Officers' Associations' Coalition, National Sheriffs' Association, the Major County Sheriffs' Association, Major Cities Chiefs of Police Association, Association of State Criminal Investigative Agencies, and the National District Attorneys' Association."
I guess due process is just too bureaucratic, time-consuming, and downright pesky for these associations and their members. They've asked for "a more comprehensive review of its impact on law enforcement investigations."
Will the proposal resurface after November? Leahy will still be around -- he's not up for re-election until 2016 -- but who knows? It would be nice to think that legislators could find a better way of dealing with digital issues than this combination of opportunism and obstructionism.
It's interesting that the act on video protection had already passed the house, in an unusually bipartisan way. The Leahy amendment was the complicating factor that led to the postponing of this bill.
Of more interest to me is the changing times. In 1990, a mere rumor of Blockbuster potentially selling lists led to much negative press for Blockbuster and they had to release denials that they planned to sell this data. And in 1990 we were only talking about what categories of movies you watched (releasing the titles was already illegal).
Today, as you noted, the idea of Netflix publicly sharing titles is considered non-controversial - a big change from 1990. I wonder what would happen if Netflix, which has had better revenue years, decided to distribut X rated movies. Then how many people would regret sharing their data with Facebook!
I understand the gripes about the role of law enforcement here, but is anyone depressed about the Senate too? Doesn't seem to matter if it's good or bad cybersecurity legislation, up pop the lobbyists and it gets shelved.
Of course, most of us were happy when that was the case with SOPA/PIPA.
Ah yes, democracy in action. Gone be the days before matrixed or flat organizations (which still challenges some to understand) which were run by a hierarchy of presidents, vice presidents and committees. We are now in everything by popular vote/rule (anarchy to some) where division of responsibility means enforcement agencies create the laws they enforce rather the legislature creating the laws and the agencies enforcing them. We will have to change the song though, "Bad boys, bad boys what ya gonna do when law enforcement MAKES the laws for you." Judge, jury and prosecution. Listening to those charged with enacting something, matrixed organizations, and agility does not mean putting everything to popular vote.
Yes, it just seems to be a knee-jerk response by the law enforcement associations to insist that everything needs to be done in a way that's most convenient for them.
Law enforcement's attempt to block the privacy amendment's passage is a further indication that they see no need to conform to our rights. Why is there a need to supersede the law in which they have been either appointed or elected to protect? GET A COURT ORDER OR SUBPEONA and go from there, because everything isn't of national security or an emergency.
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