NYPD Subpeonas TXTmob records

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

________________________________________
From: Arik Hesseldahl [arik () arik org]
Sent: Monday, March 31, 2008 10:35 AM
To: Class of 1997; New Media Alumni; David Farber
Subject: NYPD Subpeonas TXTmob records

It would seem to me that the text messages in question would have been
recorded and stored in some capacity by the wireless carriers in
question, as each is a fee-bearing transaction, unless I'm
misunderstanding how text messages work. The key bit of information
that txtmob would have available is who was/is signed up to use the
service.


March 30, 2008
City Subpoenas Creator of Text Messaging Code
By COLIN MOYNIHAN
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/30/nyregion/30text.html

When delegates to the Republican National Convention assembled in New
York in August 2004, the streets and sidewalks near Union Square and
Madison Square Garden filled with demonstrators. Police officers in
helmets formed barriers by stretching orange netting across
intersections. Hordes of bicyclists participated in rolling protests
through nighttime streets, and helicopters hovered overhead.

These tableaus and others were described as they happened in text
messages that spread from mobile phone to mobile phone in New York
City and beyond. The people sending and receiving the messages were
using technology, developed by an anonymous group of artists and
activists called the Institute for Applied Autonomy, that allowed
users to form networks and transmit messages to hundreds or thousands
of telephones.

Although the service, called TXTmob, was widely used by demonstrators,
reporters and possibly even police officers, little was known about
its inventors. Last month, however, the New York City Law Department
issued a subpoena to Tad Hirsch, a doctoral candidate at the
Massachusetts Institute of Technology who wrote the code that created
TXTmob.

Lawyers representing the city in lawsuits filed by hundreds of people
arrested during the convention asked Mr. Hirsch to hand over
voluminous records revealing the content of messages exchanged on his
service and identifying people who sent and received messages. Mr.
Hirsch says that some of the subpoenaed material no longer exists and
that he believes he has the right to keep other information secret.

"There's a principle at stake here," he said recently by telephone. "I
think I have a moral responsibility to the people who use my service
to protect their privacy."

<snip>

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