Lieberman Introduces Anti-WikiLeaks Legislation

Senator Joseph Lieberman and other lawmakers on Thursday introduced legislation that would make it a federal crime for anyone to publish the name of a U.S. intelligence source, in a direct swipe at the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks.

“The recent dissemination by Wikileaks of thousands of State Department cables and other documents is just the latest example of how our national security interests, the interests of our allies, and the safety of government employees and countless other individuals are jeopardized by the illegal release of classified and sensitive information,” said Lieberman in a written statement. “This legislation will help hold people criminally accountable who endanger these sources of information that are vital to protecting our national security interests.”

The so-called SHIELD Act (Securing Human Intelligence and Enforcing Lawful Dissemination) would amend a section of the Espionage Act that already forbids publishing classified information on U.S. cryptographic secrets or overseas communications intelligence — i.e., wiretapping. The bill would extend that prohibition to information on HUMINT, human intelligence, and make it a crime “to publish the names of human intelligence informants” used by military or intelligence agencies, according to the press release.

Leaking such information in the first place is already a crime, so the measure is aimed squarely at publishers.

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Feds Warrantlessly Tracking Americans’ Credit Cards in Real Time

Federal law enforcement agencies have been tracking Americans in real-time using credit cards, loyalty cards and travel reservations without getting a court order, a new document released under a government sunshine request shows.

The document, obtained by security researcher Christopher Soghoian, explains how so-called “Hotwatch” orders allow for real-time tracking of individuals in a criminal investigation via credit card companies, rental car agencies, calling cards, and even grocery store loyalty programs. The revelation sheds a little more light on the Justice Department’s increasing power and willingness to surveil Americans with little to no judicial or Congressional oversight.

For credit cards, agents can get real-time information on a person’s purchases by writing their own subpoena, followed up by a order from a judge that the surveillance not be disclosed. Agents can also go the traditional route — going to a judge, proving probable cause and getting a search warrant — which means the target will eventually be notified they were spied on.

The document suggests that the normal practice is to ask for all historical records on an account or individual from a credit card company, since getting stored records is generally legally easy. Then the agent sends a request for “Any and all records and information relating directly or indirectly to any and all ongoing and future transactions or events relating to any and all of the following person(s), entitities, account numbers, addresses and other matters…” That gets them a live feed of transaction data.

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Prosecutors Dismiss Xbox-Modding Case Mid-Trial

LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities in the first-of-its-kind game-console–modding criminal trial abruptly dropped their prosecution here Thursday, “based on fairness and justice.”

“The government has decided to dismiss the indictment,” prosecutor Allen Chiu told the judge shortly before the jury was to be seated on the third day of trial.

The announcement came a day after a whirlwind of legal jockeying in the case against defendant Matthew Crippen, a 28-year-old Southern California man. The government charged that Crippen, a hotel car-parking manager, ran a small business from his Anaheim home modifying the firmware on Xbox 360 optical drives to make them capable of running pirated or unauthorized games.

It was the nation’s first jury trial to test the anti-circumvention provisions of the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act as applied to game consoles. The law makes it a crime to offer a product or service that circumvents a technological measure designed to protect copyright material. Each of the two charges carried a maximum five years.

“It still has not hit me yet,” Crippen said outside court, moments after Chiu dismissed the indictment.

U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez had blasted the prosecution’s case Wednesday, prompting a brief recess for prosecutors to decide whether they would forge ahead. The prosecution’s decision to continue would come back to haunt them as the government’s first witness ultimately unraveled their case.

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No Deal in Xbox Modding Case, Trial Begins

Matthew Crippen

LOS ANGELES — Federal authorities in the first-of-its-kind Xbox modding trial opened their prosecution here Wednesday, hours after the judge called a recess to give the government time to reach a plea deal or dismiss the case.

The government decided to forge ahead in the landmark trial after U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez gave the government a little breathing room on the standard of proof required to convict defendant Matthew Crippen on two counts of breaching the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The 28-year-old Southern California man is accused of modding Xboxes — a hack circumventing technological measures designed to block pirated or unauthorized games from being played. It is the first such jury trial of its kind. Each of the two charges carries a maximum five years.

“After consulting with the front office as well as the Department of Justice, the office has decided to move forward,” prosecutor Allen Chiu told Judge Gutierrez after a three-hour recess.

“The government,” Chiu added, “believes it has the evidence to prove each and every element beyond a reasonable doubt.”

The recess earlier in the day, as opening statements were to begin, came as the judge berated the prosecution on a number of fronts — from alleged unlawful behavior by government witnesses to proposed jury instructions that would almost certainly have resulted in a conviction.

In the end, the judge said the government must show that Crippen knew he was breaking the law — an acceptable position to the government that earlier had argued it did not have to prove that.

The defense maintained that, if the government proved Crippen circumvented copyright controls, the government must show that Crippen knew he was violating the DMCA.

The government said it would have dropped the case if that more onerous standard was required.

Toward the government’s end of proving that Crippen knew what he was doing was illegal, prosecutors put on the stand an Entertainment Software Association private investigator who told jurors that he paid Crippen $60 to modify a console at Crippen’s residence in Southern California in 2008.

“Hey, I’m hoping you can get this thing modded for me,” Rosario described the verbal encounter ahead of the transaction. “He reassured me that it would be OK. He said, ‘Not a problem.’”

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Salaries of WikiLeaks Staffers to Be Revealed in New Report

Expenses and salary earnings for paid WikiLeaks staff will be revealed for the first time in a report expected to be published by the end of this year, according to Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for the secret-spilling organization.

Hrafnsson, speaking Wednesday in London on a panel discussion at the Frontline Club, said that the Wau Holland Foundation — the Berlin-based non-profit that handles most of the money donated to WikiLeaks — will finally be detailing how WikiLeaks has spent funds from the more than $1 million it has raised in the last year. The report has been expected since August.

“At year end [Wau Holland] will give a breakdown of how they have reimbursed our costs and the staff salaries of people who are getting paid,” Hrafnsson said. It’s the first indication that some WikiLeaks staffers have been receiving salary payments for their work.

The report, if complete, should also detail what money WikiLeaks has paid out to date for the defense fund of Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who confessed in online chats to a former hacker that he downloaded classified documents from Army networks — including 260,000 U.S. State Department cables — and passed them to WikiLeaks. Manning is currently being held at the U.S. Marine Corps brig at Quantico, Virginia.

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Xbox-Modding Judge Berates Prosecution, Puts Trial on Hold

Xbox modding defendant Matthew Crippen (David Kravets/Wired.com)

LOS ANGELES — Opening statements in the first-of-its kind Xbox 360 criminal hacking trial were delayed here Wednesday after a federal judge unleashed a 30-minute tirade at prosecutors in open court, saying he had “serious concerns about the government’s case.”

“I really don’t understand what we’re doing here,” U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez roared from the bench.

Gutierrez slammed the prosecution over everything from alleged unlawful behavior by government witnesses, to proposed jury instructions harmful to the defense. When the verbal assault finally subsided, federal prosecutors asked for a recess to determine whether they would offer the defendant a deal, dismiss or move forward with the case that was slated to become the first jury trial of its type. A jury was seated Tuesday.

Among the judge’s host of complaints against the government was his alarm that prosecutors would put on two witnesses who may have broken the law.

One is Entertainment Software Association investigator Tony Rosario, who secretly video-recorded defendant Matthew Crippen allegedly performing the Xbox mod in Crippen’s Los Angeles suburban house. The defense argues that making the recording violates California privacy law. The other witness is Microsoft security employee Ken McGrail, who analyzed the two consoles Crippen allegedly altered. McGrail admitted that he himself had modded Xboxes in college.

“Maybe two of the four government witnesses committed crimes,” the judge said from the bench. “I think it is relevant and the jury is going to hear about it –- both crimes.”

The government had fought to keep the witness conduct a secret from the jury.

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Jury Seated in Landmark Xbox Modding Trial

LOS ANGELES — Opening statements in a criminal Xbox 360 modding case are set to begin here early Wednesday, a day after 12 jurors were picked to decide the outcome of the first-of-its kind trial.

It took five hours to empanel a jury, whose members include a university student dean, music engineer, lawyer, social worker and car-service technician.

Only a few of the potential panelists said they had an Xbox at their residence or even played video games. All chosen jurors said they could fairly judge defendant Matthew Crippen, who is accused of running an Xbox jailbreak business.

The defendant is charged with two counts of breaching anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, carrying maximum five-year penalties for each count.

After opening statements Wednesday morning, prosecutors are expected to put on witnesses that range from a Microsoft security expert to undercover agents — one federal and one private — for whom the 28-year-old defendant is accused of modding consoles for between $60 and $80 a pop.

Crippen was wearing a dark suit and red tie during jury selection. He sat slouched over, rarely making eye contact with prospective panelists in U.S. District Judge Philip Gutierrez’s courtroom.

During brief breaks, the defendant appeared to be texting on a mobile phone. The gallery was largely composed of prospective jurors awaiting questioning. Also in attendance was Christian Troncoso, the policy counsel of the Entertainment Software Association, whose private investigator uncovered Crippen’s alleged misdeeds.

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Interpol Issues ‘Red Notice’ for Arrest of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange

The international police organization Interpol has issued a Red Notice for the arrest of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, in connection with a sex crime investigation in Sweden.

A Red Notice is kind of international wanted poster seeking the provisional arrest of a fugitive, with an eye towards extradition to the nation that issued the underlying arrest warrant. Interpol transmits the notices to its 188 member countries, including Britain, where Assange is believed to be located. Interpol has no authority to compel a subject’s arrest. It issued 5,020 Red Notice last year for a variety of crimes.

A terse extract of Assange’s notice appeared on Interpol’s website Tuesday, without a photograph, reporting that the 39-year-old Australian is wanted for “sex crimes” by the International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg, Sweden.

A Swedish judge on Nov. 18 ordered Assange “detained in absentia” to answer questions in a rape, coercion and molestation investigation in Stockholm. A court approved an international arrest warrant for the ex-hacker two days later, at which point Sweden reportedly applied to Interpol for the Red Notice. Assange’s lawyer appealed the detention order to the Svea Court of Appeal, but lost. Assange filed a new appeal Tuesday to the Swedish Supreme Court.

The investigation stems from separate encounters Assange had with two women during his August visit to Sweden, where he was applying for Swedish residency and attempting to secure the protection of Swedish free-press laws for his secret-spilling website. According to local news reports, the women told investigators the sexual encounters began as consensual, but turned non-consensual. One woman said Assange ignored her appeals to stop when the condom broke.

Assange has denied any wrongdoing, and hinted that the complaints are the result of a U.S. “smear campaign” targeting WikiLeaks — leading some supporters of the group to publicly investigate the two women and their families.

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WikiLeaks’ Cablegate: The Taiwanese Animated Version

The Taiwanese news-animation company NMA has distilled the global diplomatic furor sparked by the State Department cable leak into a 90-second computer generated highlight reel. Think of it as worldwide anarchy in a CGI format.

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First Criminal Trial Over Game-Console Modding Begins Tuesday

LOS ANGELES — A Southern California man is set to go before a jury here Tuesday on criminal charges of violating copyright law by modifying Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated games.

In the first trial of its kind, defendant Matthew Crippen is charged with two counts of violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. He faces a maximum five years in prison on each count.

The 28-year-old Crippen suffered a devastating blow to his defense last week when a judge ruled that he can’t raise a “fair use” defense at trial. Two other key evidentiary issues in the case are unresolved, and are expected to be ruled upon at any time.

One issue is the admissibility of a covert video recording of Crippen allegedly performing the modification. A second is whether the jury can hear the testimony of hardware-hacking guru Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, who is prepared to testify for the defense that the modification did not circumvent a copy-control mechanism within the meaning of the DMCA.

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