sedition and the "duty to report": hazards of using your employers' computers]

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: 	sedition and the "duty to report": hazards of using your 
employers' computers
Date:   Wed, 08 Feb 2006 08:23:00 -0500
From:   David P. Reed <dpreed () reed com>
To:     dave () farber net



Re the following news story, from Dewayne's list:

It's important to remember that employers are now "required" to monitor
employee communications for bad behavior (according to some corporate
counsel, at least - according to Jeffrey Rosen, that's the holding in
case law in harassment cases, at least).   So it's not surprising that
we don't need "lawful interception" by agencies if we have busybodies in
the IT dept.   I don't think there's a "duty to report" sedition, but
harassing speech does seem to be imposing a "duty" on employers.

Since employers are expected by investors to "offshore" non-core IT jobs 
that are nonetheless required to do business to India and China, it's 
quite reasonable to expect that we will see such warrantless "email 
monitoring" outsourced to countries that have cheaper costs, and I'm 
sure there are experts in those countries particularly skilled in 
detecting "seditious" tendencies in communications (a new profit center 
for ex-KGBers?  a no-bid contract to Iraqi IT shops subcontracting to 
SAIC?).
-----------------
Wednesday, February 01, 2006
> ACLU Wants Apology to VA Employee Investigated on 'Sedition'
>
> Associated Press
>
>    The American Civil Liberties Union of New Mexico wants the  
> government to apologize to a nurse for seizing her computer and  
> investigating her for "sedition'' after she criticized the Bush  
> administration.
>      The ACLU said Wednesday the Department of Veterans Affairs  
> found no evidence Laura Berg used her VA office computer to write  
> the critical letter.
>      VA human resources chief Mel Hooker said in a Nov. 9 letter  
> that his agency was obligated to investigate "any act which  
> potentially represents sedition,'' the ACLU said.
>      A VA spokesman in Washington could not say Wednesday whether  
> the agency had received the ACLU's request.
>      It seeks an apology from Hooker "to remedy the  
> unconstitutional chilling effect on the speech of VA employees that  
> has resulted from these intimidating tactics.''
>      Even if Berg had used an office computer, neither that nor her  
> criticism approached "unlawful insurrection,'' said Peter Simonson,  
> executive director of the ACLU.
>      "Is the government so jealous of its power, so fearful of  
> dissent, that it needs to threaten people who openly oppose its  
> policies with charges of sedition?'' he said.
>      Berg, a clinical nurse specialist, wrote a letter in September  
> to a weekly Albuquerque newspaper criticizing how the  
> administration handled Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq War. She  
> urged people to "act forcefully'' to remove an administration she  
> said played games of "vicious deceit.''
>      She signed the letter as a private citizen, and the VA had no  
> reason to suspect she used government resources to write it, the  
> ACLU said.
>      "From all appearances, the seizure of her work computer was an  
> act of retaliation and a hardball attempt to scare Laura into  
> silence,'' the ACLU said.








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