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donal brown

Free speech: Whistleblowers silenced by Supreme Court ruling

donal brown April 19, 2011

A state police officer whose job it was to investigate corruption of the Connecticut State Police was removed from his job, isolated from other officers and made the subject of an investigation of conduct that occurred several years earlier. The officer had alleged that  the state police routinely covered up misconduct by police officers, including drunk driving, domestic violence, and misuse of state funds. When the officer sued, a federal judge cited Garcetti v. Caballos

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Courts limit subpoenas of reporters doing good jobs

donal brown April 19, 2011

A federal judge has ruled that in suing Goldman Sachs, a couple cannot subpoena a reporter to show how easily a Wall Street Journal reporter obtained information. The couple had lost millions in a merger deal made with advice from Goldman Sachs. The couple claimed that the reporter had obtained crucial information that Goldman Sachs should also have been able to obtain. Douglas E. Lee of the First Amendment Center quotes the judge who ruled

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Opinion: Classification reform of national security information stalls

donal brown April 19, 2011

Writing in Secrecy News, Steven Aftergood says that an initiative to reduce overclassification of national security information has produced no significant results. Obama announced the initiative in December of 2009. The Department of Defense (DOD) with the greatest portfolio of classified documents did not met its December 31, 2010 deadline for producing regulations for implementing change, and most DOD components have not begun reviewing their classification guides. -db From a commentary in Secrecy News, April

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Freedom of information: Public ignorant of cyberspace attacks

donal brown April 19, 2011

A U.S. senator concerned that the American public has not been adequately informed about the dangers of cyberspace attacks is seeking to poke a hole in the classification system to raise awareness. Steven Aftergood of Secrecy News quoted Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) about the effects of the attacks, “Every year, cyber attacks inflict vast damage on our Nation’s consumers, businesses, and government agencies. This constant cyber assault has resulted in the theft of millions of

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Opinion: Righthaven lacks exclusive copyright ownership of Stephens Media news articles

donal brown April 19, 2011

Electronic Frontier Foundation Senior Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl says that in obtaining  from a federal district court an agreement between Righthaven and Stephens Media, it discovered that although Righthaven claimed in its suits for copyright infringement that it held exclusive rights to reproduce and distribute Stephens Media news articles, that the agreement stated that Righthaven “shall have no right or license to Exploit or participate in the receipt of royalties from the Exploitation of the

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