] I've seen a number of things like this over the years.
] While sometimes laws like that are designed to keep US
] companies from boycotting Israel or South Africa or Burma
] or black people, and sometimes even enforced, that's usually
] not the real purpose (unlike laws _requiring_ US companies to
] boycott Cuba or Iraq or France), just as the Foreign Corrupt
] Practices Act laws that forbid US companies from bribing
] foreign officials usually aren't intended to hunt down corrupt
] US companies.

Anti-boycott compliance has been mentioned on MemeStreams before, but not discussed. I want to know what you think about this. I find the idea uncomfortable, but I also find the specifics thorny.

Is boycotting someone an act of speech or of association, which should have first amendment protection? (Do I have a right to do business with other people of my choosing?)

Should it be legal for the government to prevent you from engaging in a boycott? (I.E. compel you to agree to trade with someone?)

Should it be legal for the government to compel you to engage in a boycott (i.e. economic sanctions against Cuba or North Korea)? If so, they why can't the government prevent a boycott as well?

Should it be legal for the government to prevent a company from refusing to do business with black people? If so, how is this different from anti-boycott enforcement?

Should it be legal for the government to prevent a company from doing business with North Korean people?

Re: Boycotting the Unwilling

] A study in January by the General Accounting Office, the
] investigative arm of Congress, concluded that while the
] number of terrorism investigations at the Justice
] Department soared after the Sept. 11 attacks, 75 percent
] of the convictions that the department classified as
] "international terrorism" were wrongly labeled. Many
] dealt with more common crimes like document forgery.

U.S. Uses Terror Law to Pursue Crimes From Drugs to Swindling

] Not only was BlackBoxVoting.org pulled down, but ALL of
] the documents, databases and programming for approximately
] 500 pages of material, most of which did not relate to Diebold at
] all, was confiscated. Dozens of web pages were pulled down which
] had nothing whatever to do with the disputed information. AIT Inc.
] has indicated that it believes it has the right to pull down the entire
] web site including unrelated pages. AIT Inc. is now prohibiting Bev
] Harris or Black Box Voting from accessing any of her own files, even
] for the purpose of removing them.

If these allegations are correct, there could be another interesting DMCA court case in here...

[IP] yet another misuse of dmca? Black Box Voting files confiscated

] The Pentagon office that was developing a vast
] computerized terrorism surveillance system would be
] closed and no money could be spent to use those high-tech
] spying tools against Americans on U.S. soil, House and
] Senate negotiators have agreed. But they shifted some of
] the high-powered software under development to different
] government offices, to be used to gather intelligence
] from U.S. citizens abroad and foreigners in this country
] and abroad.

More good news!

Terrorism spying project to end

] Congress moved Wednesday to delay the planned takeoff of
] a controversial new airline passenger-profiling system
] until an independent study of its privacy implications
] and effectiveness at stopping terrorism can be completed.

Good news!

Wired News: Congress Puts Brakes on CAPPS II

] There's something you can do *right now* that will stop
] pending abuses of air travelers' private data. And your
] chance to do it will expire this coming Tuesday (Sept 30).

[Politech] JetBlue privacy woes: my column and John Gilmore's request [priv]

] According to ACLU legal papers, local police, acting at
] the direction of the Secret Service, violated the rights
] of protesters in two ways: people expressing views
] critical of the government were moved further away from
] public officials while those with pro-government views
] were allowed to remain closer; or everyone expressing a
] view was herded into what is commonly known as a
] protest zone, leaving those who merely
] observe, but express no view, to remain closer.  

American Civil Liberties Union : Secret Service Ordered Local Police to Restrict Anti-Bush Protesters at Rallies, ACLU Charges in Unprecedented Nationwide Lawsuit

] Patriot Act II would give the government broad powers to
] seize documents and force testimony without a court
] order, expand use of the death penalty and make it harder
] to be released on bail. None of these tools are necessary
] to fight terrorism, and each threatens to infringe on the
] civil liberties of Americans.
]
] The most troubling part of the new plan is the call for
] expanding government access to private data, allowing
] federal agents to issue subpoenas for private medical,
] financial and other records, without a court order. The
] lack of judicial oversight removes an important check on
] government misconduct. Record holders would be required
] to comply, or face prison, and would be barred from
] telling anyone about the subpoena.

Patriot Act, Part II - Fucking Insane

] JetBlue Airways confirmed on Thursday that in September
] 2002, it provided 5 million passenger itineraries to a
] defense contractor for proof-of-concept testing of a
] Pentagon project unrelated to airline security -- with
] help from the Transportation Security Administration.

1. Jet Blue is so fucked. They violated their privacy policy. There are passenger social security numbers in the pdf file linked from this story. The law suits should start flying any minute now.

2. The PDF is worth checking out. Its a nice example of the things you can learn from trolling a database like this.

3. These consultants seem to recommend that if you don't own your home or you change residency too frequently, you ought to be given additional scrutiny at the airport.

This is the future we are heading towards. We have total access to all your purchasing, credit, and other demographic information, and if we determine that you don't fit into a popular demographic group, or that you fit into a demographic group we often have trouble with, you can look forward to getting hassled endlessly.

Remember that you live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, where we employ omnipotent surveillance to keep us safe from danger.

Wired News: JetBlue Shared Passenger Data

] In the two years since law enforcement agencies gained
] fresh powers to help them track down and punish
] terrorists, police and prosecutors have increasingly
] turned the force of the new laws not on al-Qaida cells
] but on people charged with common crimes.

Didn't take long...

Yahoo! News - New Terror Laws Used Vs. Common Criminals