If you're not paranoid yet...

Leonard Fehskens · 2003-08-13T19:20:56+00:00

Check this out: those who insist on a preview:San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) today criticized the sentencing on August 4 of political activist Sherman Austin to one year in jail for hosting a website describing bomb-making and for linking from his website to that website. U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson sentenced Austin to triple the sentence term the prosecutor had recommended under a binding plea bargain agreement, along with three years of probation. He faces strict restrictions and monitoring of his use of computers, a $2,000 fine for restitution, and a prohibition from associating with any person or group that "espouses violence or physical force as means of intimidation, or achieving economic, social, or political change." ...Although information on how to make bombs is commonly available in libraries, universities, and on the Internet, the U.S. Justice Department charged Austin under a law sponsored by Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and passed by Congress that prohibits "distribution of information relating to explosives, destructive devices, and weapons of mass destruction with the intent that such information be used in furtherance of a federal crime of violence." A charge related to possession of the components of a Molotov cocktail was dropped as part of the plea bargain agreement.

Aug 13, 2003 143 Replies

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Marty Schrader 22 years ago

kaplow snipped-for-privacy@encompasserve.org.TRABoD (Bob Kaplow) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@eisner.encompasserve.org:

Yeah, you'd think that lawmakers would have *somebody* on their staff who could point out such simplistic solutions to this kinda crap. If a flaw in some proposed legislation can be spotted by a five year old, then it is probably not good legislation.

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Jerry Irvine 22 years ago

You just described 50% of legislation.

I suspect that is because most legislation is politically motivated not needs motivated.

Jerry

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