The order was time limited, narrowly scoped. The comment was by no means a clear threat, but its also not unreasonable to interpret it that way.
I don't really think techdirt has much to complain about here.
I don't really think techdirt has much to complain about here.
you think, perchance, they were actually looking at multiple comments from multiple sources presenting a pattern of behaviour by some pseudononymous potential plotter?
people are so self centered and ignorant of these things,.
"Hell, eventually somebody might decide that it’s cheaper to pay a hitman to just cut a brake line or something than go through discovery in that judge’s court."
It was in reply to a story about the founder of Silk Road being arrested for, among other things, hiring a hitman. In the Ulbrecht case, the hitman was a FED and was paid by Ulbrecht after giving staged photographic evidence of a murder.
It looks like they were investigating whether this person was doing anything in furtherance of such a plot beyond just angry comments and wanted them to keep quiet while they investigated.
In the absence of other evidence, I would say that it is unreasonable to interpret it as a threat. I mean, what's next, arresting people for murdering a video game character on the assumption they would do that in real life?
I think we can all recall at least one recent incident of this happening.
also, its more likely the us marshals were trying to connect the dots on more straightforward threats and this comment ended up in the drag net.
so if you think internet threats are a big deal, then the effort going into documenting those potentiak threats are still important and juzt becausw they observed a false-positive dowsnt mean the us marshalls went overboard.
the end basically just confirms there was nothin in that specific comment.
maybe if they dug deeper, like a journalist would, they would illuminate what the actual broader activities were.
If it's a a dragnet, they aren't calling about every single post in under 24 hours of it occurring unless the investigating team is absolutely gargantuan.
Your explanation really doesn't make sense because it's the wrong one.
But I agree: of all the law enforcement oversteps that we see in this country, this case barely registers.
Unless you have tens or hundreds of thousands for a multiyear lawsuit, you're screwed. I recently had a trooper violate my wife's civil rights. I had a lawyer tell me it was a violation, but it wasnt worth standing up for ourselves because the judges don't care about cases unless there was extensive monetary loss.
This brings up a really big point though. If the lawyers don't want it because they can't make money, and the judges don't want it because it's not important enough, then who stands up for our rights? Do we even really have them if they can be ignored?