Bill of Rights 2003/3

5th UK Big Brother Awards

The UK Big Brother awards were announced today. They are presented each year by Privacy International to the people and groups which have done the most to invade personal privacy. There is also a lifetime menace award for those with long histories of invading privacy.

Prime Minister Tony Blair was awarded a Lifetime Menace award this year.

The 2003 US BBAs will be announced on April 3, 2003 at Computers, Freedom and Privacy Conference in New York City.

Who do you nominate?

The Alien and Sedition Acts

Texts from the Yale Law School.

These acts are part of John Adams' legacy. I though that Abraham Lincoln used them in the Civil War to suspend the writ of habeascorpus ( summary on www.civil-liberties.com ) , but after a brief and superficial search, I haven't found evidence to support that claim.

For more on habeas corpus, see lectlaw.com , nolo.com , and Article I, Section 9, Clause 2 of the US Constitution .

PBS: Civil Liberties after 9/11: Timeline

A history of attempts to curb civil liberties in the US.

As I post this, the link is slow, as if the site has been slashdotted .

Independent Media

Speak truth to power, teach the ignorant, report the news in your neighborhood. Be an independent journalist through your local Independent Media.

Mitchell Kapor Leaves Groove Over TIA

This man has integrity.

The usual NY Times "free registration" applies. You can use John Gilmore's cypherpunks login scheme if you don't want to register in your own name: use the userid cypherpunks (or as much as will fit) and the password cypherpunks. In the case of the New York Times web site, try cypherpunks + some digits as the userid and either cypherpunks or cypherpunks + the same digits as the password. cypherpunks39 works for me.

Anti-War Arrests

The incident about the man arrested for wearing a peace t-shirt happened in Guilderland, NY, near my home down, Delmar . I never expected to read anything like this.