If there was something that could be defined as over-reaching, perhaps this is it. Here’s a story from ARS Technica that I just tripped over that has the U.S. Justice Department’s claiming that companies served with valid warrants for data must produce that data even if the data is not stored in the U.S.:
Global governments, the tech sector, and scholars are closely following a legal flap in which the US Justice Department claims that Microsoft must hand over e-mail stored in Dublin, Ireland. In essence, President Barack Obama’s administration claims that any company with operations in the United States must comply with valid warrants for data, even if the content is stored overseas. It’s a position Microsoft and companies like Apple say is wrong, arguing that the enforcement of US law stops at the border. A magistrate judge has already sided with the government’s position, ruling in April that “the basic principle that an entity lawfully obligated to produce information must do so regardless of the location of that information.” Microsoft appealed to a federal judge, and the case is set to be heard on July 31.
Well, isn’t that delightful. I was always under the impression that you cannot serve warrants to search property in other countries. But I’m a computer nerd, not a lawyer. But I’m thinking that if this does hold up somehow, and Microsoft releases the data stored in another country, then how long will it take for every other country in the world to buy equipment or services from a non-American or solely domestic company simply to avoid something like this happening to them? For example Germans buy from German companies or the French buying from French companies. But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is a case that needs to be watched closely as it’s going to have a huge impact.
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This entry was posted on July 15, 2014 at 9:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Lawsuit, Privacy, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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US Government Claims That Data On Servers Anywhere Belongs To Them
If there was something that could be defined as over-reaching, perhaps this is it. Here’s a story from ARS Technica that I just tripped over that has the U.S. Justice Department’s claiming that companies served with valid warrants for data must produce that data even if the data is not stored in the U.S.:
Global governments, the tech sector, and scholars are closely following a legal flap in which the US Justice Department claims that Microsoft must hand over e-mail stored in Dublin, Ireland. In essence, President Barack Obama’s administration claims that any company with operations in the United States must comply with valid warrants for data, even if the content is stored overseas. It’s a position Microsoft and companies like Apple say is wrong, arguing that the enforcement of US law stops at the border. A magistrate judge has already sided with the government’s position, ruling in April that “the basic principle that an entity lawfully obligated to produce information must do so regardless of the location of that information.” Microsoft appealed to a federal judge, and the case is set to be heard on July 31.
Well, isn’t that delightful. I was always under the impression that you cannot serve warrants to search property in other countries. But I’m a computer nerd, not a lawyer. But I’m thinking that if this does hold up somehow, and Microsoft releases the data stored in another country, then how long will it take for every other country in the world to buy equipment or services from a non-American or solely domestic company simply to avoid something like this happening to them? For example Germans buy from German companies or the French buying from French companies. But I’m getting ahead of myself. This is a case that needs to be watched closely as it’s going to have a huge impact.
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This entry was posted on July 15, 2014 at 9:12 am and is filed under Commentary with tags Lawsuit, Privacy, USA. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.