Welcome to the age where copying and pasting a link can land you in jail. In a case that threatens the future of information sharing and journalism, Barrett Brown is facing up to 105 years in prison for sharing a link from one chatroom to another in the course of research he was doing as a journalist.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) published an article explaining that this prosecution is setting a dangerous precedent which could "criminalize routine journalism practices" and even the ability to freely share links.
Despite the fact that Barrett was not involved in the hacking of Stratfor, he's been charged with fraud and identity theft for merely pasting a hyperlink to leaked information.
Barrett never profited from the data contained in the link - in fact, he's on record as being opposed to the release of credit card information by hackers. Moreover, as Stratfor's CEO George Friedman relates, the FBI had already provided the credit card companies with a list of compromised cards, allowing customers to be notified and account numbers cancelled, over a week before Barrett is alleged to have shared the link with his fellow researchers.
The data included the firm's subscriber list, which showed how well connected they were within the intelligence industry, and a number of their surveillance activities were exposed by the release of email which were later published by WikiLeaks as the Global Intelligence Files - which has yielded numerous stories as a source for journalists.
We need to stop this before it goes any further.
Fight for the Future and Free Barrett Brown have teamed up to create a petition demanding Attorney General Eric Holder drop the 2nd and 3rd indictments against Barrett Brown - those threatening the right to link and reporter's privilege, respectively.
Click here to sign the petition to drop the charges against Barrett Brown.
Director, Free Barrett Brown
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