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IP: old case of surveillance software, "stolen" by the govt
From: David Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 20:36:46 -0400
X-Sender: jwarren () mail well com Date: Tue, 28 Sep 1999 16:13:46 -0700 To: Recipient List Suppressed:;;;;Recipient.List.Suppressed:;@well.com;;;;;;;; From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com> Subject: old case of surveillance software, "stolen" by the govt Hi all -- [blind-cc'ed to several friends and two "appropriate" lists] I'm trying to track down pointers to some neferious old surveillance software -- from back in the '80s ... or possibly even in the '70s. (My old-fashioned paper archives on it are in such a pilefile disarray as to be useless. <sigh>) Here's what I can remember: It was an expensive commercial software package, for mainframes. It apparently had a very limited market -- primarily (or exclusively?) law enforcement and prosecutors. It was "officially" designed as case-tracking software for use by trial lawyers and/or prosecutors -- but turned out to be just-absolutely-super-dandy-wunerful for tracking and maintaining massive, comprehensive records of all aspects of surveillance of citizens (but would only be used to monitor "bad" citizens, of course ;-). (Hell! If I had the software and had used it to index my paper archives, then maybe I could have used it to track down my copies of the articles about it. :-) The producer of the very-expensive package sold a copy to the U.S. Dept of Justice (US DOJ) ... and later discovered that unpermitted/"stolen" copies of it had been given to at least the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and some of the Israeli defense or police or political-surveillance agencies (don't remember the details) -- allegedly provided by the US DOJ, allegedly to assist them in maintaining massive covert surveillance files on [selected?] citizens. All of this came to light -- and was reported in several articles in COMPUTERWORLD -- because the software producer sued US DOJ and the US Attorney General (US AG) for theft of their proprietary software ... of the copies that were illicitly channeled to the RCMP and Israeli forces. My recollection is that the US DOJ and/or US AG was either found guilty, or that they finally were forced to settle out of court and pay handsomely, for the purloined programs. Now ... questions: Anyone remember the name of the software? The producer/publisher? The approximate dates or time-frame when all this happened? Any pointers to information or articles about it stored/accessible in *modern* web/online form? Many thanks. --jim, Jim Warren Contributing Editor & technology public-policy columnist, MicroTimes Magazine Also GovAccess list-owner/editor; 345 Swett Rd, Woodside CA 94062 voice/650-851-7075; fax-for-the-quaint/650-851-2814; jwarren () well com [self-inflating puff: Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award, Playboy Foundation; Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (in its first year); James Madison Freedom-of-Information Award, Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Calif founded InfoWorld; the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; etc etc etc.]
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- IP: old case of surveillance software, "stolen" by the govt David Farber (Sep 28)