Folks - serious stuff here, not to be paranoid - regarding posting on the net

[JurisDoctorOfDoom]

Yikes, this is pretty scary although (obviously) I don't want to be paranoid but his is actually pretty scary. I haven't read the original 100 comments but my guess is they were a mixture of well-intended if bit blustery ass-foolery with some intelligent analysis:

On May 26 the Las Vegas Review-Journal published an article about an ongoing federal tax evasion trial. The primary defendant, Las Vegan Robert Kahre, stands accused of tax fraud for using the rather inventive argument that he could pay people in U.S. minted gold and silver coins based on their precious metal value but for tax purposes use their face value, which is many times less.

The story was posted on our Web site. When last I checked nearly 100 comments were appended to it, running the gamut from the lucid to the ludicrous.

This past week the newspaper was served with a grand jury subpoena from the U.S. attorney’s office demanding that we turn over all records pertaining to those postings, including “full name, date of birth, physical address, gender, ZIP code, password prompts, security questions, telephone numbers and other identifiers … the IP address,” et (kitchen sink) cetera.

Tantamount to killing a gnat with an A-bomb.

There was no indication what they were looking for or what crime, if any, was being investigated, just a blanket subpoena for voluminous and detailed records on every private citizen who dared to speak about a federal tax case.

Sure, some of the comments were a bit rough, but criminal?

Source: http://www.lvrj.com/opinion/47141327.html

[Phildo]

[Phildo quickly begins deleting accounts at various sites]

    

[jcs44]

LOL- dontcha think a lot of us here are already on some list with one (or more) of the Alphabet agencies. I'm not that worried because I've never posted anything that could be remotely interpreted as a threat, but I'm sure they're watching.

[Cornelian]

I think I'd best not comment. At all!

[SabreKai]

Anyone who posts on the internet thinking his comments are anonymous is a fool. So smart people won't be posting threats, lies or anything else potentially harmful. Dummies on the other hand, will be posting all that stuff. So let it come as a surprise to them when the FBI/PD/Delta Force/Green Berets/RCMP/MI6 or other members of the alphabet soup gang come to call.

Sabre.

[Kushtaka]

Anyone who posts on the internet thinking his comments are anonymous is a fool. So smart people won't be posting threats, lies or anything else potentially harmful. Dummies on the other hand, will be posting all that stuff. So let it come as a surprise to them when the FBI/PD/Delta Force/Green Berets/RCMP/MI6 or other members of the alphabet soup gang come to call.

Sabre.

I'm going to TP your house, Sabre. I'll be there tonight wearing an Ed Grimely mask and flying a rebel flag. Just you wait...

[Phildo]

A little gaming analysis?

If this were merely a "need to know" issue for threats, etc., the Feds could have made this a Patriot Act demand for information, and the respondent would have been barred from informing or discussing the matter.   But they did not do that.

As I recall this case, the IRS lost all of something like 161 charges?  And folks trading the money at its stated face value went completely free?  Is that correct. 

That is pretty much a total loss of face from their point of view. 

So this is meant to be intimidation.

Like killing all the kids at Waco. 

Just to make sure everyone understands who and what they are really dealing with. 

[PseudoPhil]

Anyone who posts on the internet thinking his comments are anonymous is a fool. So smart people won't be posting threats, lies or anything else potentially harmful. Dummies on the other hand, will be posting all that stuff. So let it come as a surprise to them when the FBI/PD/Delta Force/Green Berets/RCMP/MI6 or other members of the alphabet soup gang come to call.

Sabre.

+1

Kush - LOL

[mtlouie]

Anyone who posts on the internet thinking his comments are anonymous is a fool. So smart people won't be posting threats, lies or anything else potentially harmful. Dummies on the other hand, will be posting all that stuff. So let it come as a surprise to them when the FBI/PD/Delta Force/Green Berets/RCMP/MI6 or other members of the alphabet soup gang come to call.

Sabre.

You got that right!  There's a reason they call it the World Wide WEB.  If you can't take it, better not dish it out.  Or, if you don't want to be the fly in the parlor....

[wordnerd]

mtlouie
YAY!!!
You are back

[mtlouie]

Hello, dahling!

[theozarker]

Wow.  That is sort of like going after a gnat with a sledgehammer, isn't  it?  I'm appalled.

Linda

Hey, louie louie, welcome back.

[kats]

I think Phildo's right. But it's the paper I feel sorry for, not the posters. The paper could go out of business just collecting all that shit.

Edited to add: And they don't have it.

What the prosecutors don't appear to understand is that we don't have most of what they are seeking. We don't require registration. A person could use a fictitious name and e-mail address, and most do. We have no addresses or phone numbers.

To add prior restraint to the chilling effect of the sweeping subpoena, we were warned: "You have no obligation of secrecy concerning this subpoena; however, any such disclosure could obstruct and impede an ongoing criminal investigation. ..."

[Jeromie]

This is an  IRS  investigation  via a Grand Jury.    Draw your own conclusions.   Kahre messed with  the life blood of bureaucracy-  money. What pays them.  The public fisc as the bureaucracy puts it.

[April]

What a bunch of bullshit - it's just so 1984. Imagine if the government demanded the names, SSNs, and identifying information for students who made commentary (regardless of the content of the commentary) at a lecture of a controversial professor - there would be tremendous public outcry. Yet, sadly, this is the first I have heard of this. People are so much less likely to stand up for themselves when the format is technological - and that, I think will prove to be a very dangerous tendency.