Usually I think the Electronic Frontier Foundation does some good work. This time, they've just gone off their rocker. The EFF has filed suit against AT&T. For what?

This case challenges the legality of DefendantsÂ’ participation in a secret and illegal government program to intercept and analyze vast quantities of AmericansÂ’ telephone and Internet communications, surveillance done without the authorization of a court and in violation of federal electronic surveillance and telecommunications statutes, as well as the First and Fourth Amendments to the United States Constitution.

I think these people aren't quite aware of the Constitution. If there's a violation of "freedom of speech," it's difficult and almost impossible for an individual company to do so. If a company tells you to shut up about something, there cannot be a free speech violation.

If you're employed by them, you either shut up or get fired. If you're not employed by them, feel free to ignore them. Either way, there's no violations. It's the same with the fourth and other alleged violations here -- they're WAY off base with this lawsuit.

In addition, they're intentionally ignorant of the law. They list zero people who were harmed. If no one has been harmed, if there are no victims, what damages can they sue for? There are none! The lawsuit simply lists some people who have called long distance.

The lawsuit also claims that AT&T violated the law by giving database records to the government. Hey loons, unlike Google, perhaps AT&T is actually complying with law -- when the government subpoenas documents that may contain evidence of terrorism and acts against the government, you're supposed to provide them. Don't like it? Elect someone else.

I could go through each point of the lawsuit, but why? The lawsuit goes on for 28 pages. Each section lists the law that's allegedly been broken. And nearly every one has a section at the end that is similar to this:

(6) on demand of other lawful authority.

The lawsuit should be dismissed for various reasons, very quickly. There is no basis for the lawsuit. There is no evidence of any damages. The people listed in the lawsuit as suing and the lawyers who filed the suit should be heavily fined to discourage such lawsuit abuse.

But, in all likelihood, this is just a publicity stunt, being paid for with tax dollars (for court and document processing fees). Then again, AT&T might just give them some money to shut up -- again paid for by all customers to AT&T.

Posted by: Ogre at 05:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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