Hacker News Reader

Comment by lucajona | Hacker News Reader

>> You can't wave off court orders just because you think the Internet is some kind of libertarian cyber-paradise where mortal laws do not apply

“One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws.” — Martin Luther King Jr.

View on HN

>> Are you saying that the Pen Register Act is on par, morally, with Jim Crow?

No.

Yes. It's a multiplier of bad laws like Jim Crow. If these capabilities had existed at the time of Jim Crow, the damage that this would have done compared to what was done would have been far worse.

TBH, the fact that black people at the time were poor and had less access to ubiquitous communication probably protected them greatly.

I hate to invoke Godwin's law, but also imagine if communications for everyday conversations and the surveillance thereof had existed in 1939.

Are you saying that the Pen Register Act is on par, morally, with Jim Crow?

That quote would have read “One has a moral responsibility to disobey unjust laws so long as those laws are of equal or greater unjustness than Jim Crow.”

References to prior controversies should not be interpreted as implying a moral equivalence with current controversies.

In essence yes at least in the context of this case, as it is essentially segregating those who wish to expose the illegal activity of the government, and those that wish to turn a blind eye. Remember, the NSA lied to congress, which is not only illegal but immoral in itself. Think about it, you get to sleep in your bed tonight, Snowden who knows where ?

When it's used to attack whistleblowers, yes.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com