This happens all the time. At reddit we would get requests from law enforcement asking for email addresses and other private information. Luckily in our case we could simply reply that we didn't know, since we didn't require any personal information to sign up and didn't keep IP address logs that long.<p>But having been on the other side of the coin, investigating computer crime, I can tell you why it happens. It's really easy to make a request for information, and in most cases, the person you're asking will just willingly give it up even though they don't legally have to, either because they want to be helpful or because they don't know about their legal rights. Even if the evidence can't be used to build a case against the person in court, it can still be used to lead down a path towards finding the person and gathering evidence that is admissible.
This is a really big deal and the story deserves more coverage since apparently it happens all the time. Who would have thought that we have to continue to foment for free speech even in 2015, but apparently we have to!
TL;DR - Judge rubber stamps DoJ's gag order without any basis. He does this because he is friends with another judge who was the target of someone's First Amendment rant in a forum on Reason.
Problem is our society rewards aggressive prosecutors greatly in a variety of ways. But we don't hold them accountable when they are caught doing the wrong things.<p>The worst I can remember is disbarring that prosecutor in North Carolina in the Duke Lacrosse case.<p>So we have a system of overly aggressive prosecutors thinking this is the best career path regardless of legal ethics, respect to the Constitution, etc.<p>It'll never end until we start pushing them back and demand better professionalism and respect.
Excellent perspective on how even an innocent US attorney could be unknowingly using their power to bully. A request or recommendation is read as a threat by most.
I get that I shouldn't really expect anything else from popehat, but how alienating is this article to people who aren't already onboard with this point of view?