Tech Giants Back Microsoft's Fight Against The Government

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When is the last time any of these companies worked together on anything? The government better watch out. ;)

Microsoft is currently embroiled in a legal battle with the US government, and the fight has led to an unlikely alliance between several rival companies. Microsoft was handed a government order requesting access to emails stored at a datacenter in Ireland. The company has been battling the order for several months, and now Apple, Amazon, Verizon, and HP are among the big names lending their support to the fight.
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It continues to get worse and worse with this administration. Yes, I'm sure Bush's admin also had some of this, but not anywhere as much as the current one.
 
It's probably about hiding tax money, instead of paying taxes. The government should just skip all of this and take away their tax loopholes all at once. Trillions of dollars in back taxes are hidden offshore. A lot of the big companies would barely notice. Not that government won't waste and abuse the money...
 
Has Ireland said anything about this? What if Ireland orders Microsoft not to hand it over?
 
There is something they aren't telling us. Is the subject of the search order a US Person or US Entity. I suspect they are, hence the search warrant and not a Court Order. But the language in this article actual says orders and search warrant, there is no consistency. They also neglect to say whether this is related to Law Enforcement or an Intelligence Agency, the law is not the same. If the info is on a US Person and the data just happens to be stored on an overseas server of a US owned business then this isn't the issue they are making it out to be. These questions are important so why aren't they telling us in this article?
 
Poseur said:
It's probably about hiding tax money, instead of paying taxes. The government should just skip all of this and take away their tax loopholes all at once. Trillions of dollars in back taxes are hidden offshore. A lot of the big companies would barely notice. Not that government won't waste and abuse the money...
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Closing tax loopholes would affect more people than leaving them open, the kinds of people that provide large 'campaign contributions'. With the current situation, and by forcing businesses to give them direct access to client information, they can simply pick and choose who to go after so they don't have to inconvenience their buddies.
 
I am finding some thing from other articles;
The materials sought by the government are e-mails held in a Microsoft data center in Ireland and connected to a drug-trafficking investigation.
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http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/microsoft-fights-us-search-warrant-for-customer-e-mails-held-in-overseas-server/2014/06/10/6b8416ae-f0a7-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

So it is a Law Enforcement thing.
I still find nothing as to the subject of the warrant and their nationality or place of residence other then Microsoft says the data was stored overseas because the user listed his address overseas.
 
AaronGant said:
Has Ireland said anything about this? What if Ireland orders Microsoft not to hand it over?
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If the subject of the warrant was Irish I think they would. The fact that Ireland has been silent suggests this is not about an Irish citizen. That doesn't mean it's about an American though, just that it's probably not about an Irishman.
 
lcpiper said:
I am finding some thing from other articles;

http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/microsoft-fights-us-search-warrant-for-customer-e-mails-held-in-overseas-server/2014/06/10/6b8416ae-f0a7-11e3-914c-1fbd0614e2d4_story.html

So it is a Law Enforcement thing.
I still find nothing as to the subject of the warrant and their nationality or place of residence other then Microsoft says the data was stored overseas because the user listed his address overseas.
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I'm just going to guess Mexico / cartel. It's an interesting case. Microsoft's position is essentially that the letter they want is stored in a storage unit in Ireland. Because US search warrants do not extend beyond US borders, they can't legally comply with such an order (if they did, they'd lose international business).

It seems like an easy fix is for the DOJ to phone Ireland, present their case, and see if they'll grant a search warrant (or their equivalent). It's the exact same procedure for this type of thing that isn't digital. So why is the DOJ being fuckwits and drawing this out? That's one of the major issues with law enforcement right now, they're getting into technology and forgetting how to do real police work.
 
gman said:
It continues to get worse and worse with this administration. Yes, I'm sure Bush's admin also had some of this, but not anywhere as much as the current one.
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well, a lot of it started in the bush administration and only came to light after obama took over. of course his administration is just as guilty since they just kept doing what was started years before and even extended this crap.
 
Well damn, leave it to the gubmint to unify all of these parties that often just hate each other...... :eek:
 
temujin987 said:
well, a lot of it started in the bush administration and only came to light after obama took over. of course his administration is just as guilty since they just kept doing what was started years before and even extended this crap.
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IMO the thing that makes it worse is that he campaigned on "change" and not doing what Bush did. Just goes to show that both parties are the same.
 
If the data is in another country it doesn't matter what the US court says. It's the same as the US court issuing a search warrant to physically search a MS owned file cabinet in Ireland. A physical search order has to be issued in the jurisdiction of the item being searched. A New York cop can't get a search warrant for a house in Utah.
 
AaronGant said:
Has Ireland said anything about this? What if Ireland orders Microsoft not to hand it over?
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Who cares whether Irish courts would turn over the data, everyone everywhere should obey US law. At least that seems to be the Obama administrations opinion.
 
crusty_juggler, yep ya can't criticize our current president's policies or you're racist. That's the libs favorite word too.:D The media and whoever could call Bush a Nazi and hey it's ok, but I won't get into the politics of it anymore than I have. Just my 2 cents. We've all got at least 2.
 
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