A New Tip for Avoiding Jail in Our Brave New World

This Nation article by Peter Ludlow about journalist Barrett Brown, currently in prison for copying and pasting a link, essentially, is one of the best things I’ve read about privacy and journalism and contracted spying and all that. The events are complex and what’s happened is a mess, but basically Brown was looking into some documents released by some hackers and he shared the documents with other journalists and then then he got in major trouble and is now in jail. And his mom might go to jail too!

One hot tip I learned: If you’re a journalist investigating leaked documents, don’t leave your laptop at your mom’s house or she’ll get charged with obstruction of justice and face 12 months in jail! Servicey.

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