Federal Courts Afraid Your Smartphone Might Be A Bomb
from the well-there-goes-that-idea dept
While a state court in Connecticut may be fine with you tweeting from the courtroom via your phone, you might not be allowed to bring your smartphone into federal courtrooms at all. Apparently the Administrative Office of the Courts is arguing that smartphones should be banned completely from federal court houses, because they might hide bombs. Really? I mean, can't we at least have a TSA style grope and scan before we write off all smartphones? David Kravets, the author of the article linked above, highlights how different federal courthouses seem to take very different views on technology these days:At the District of Columbia federal courthouse, which is home to the lower courts and the U.S. Court of Appeals, I had to check my cellphone at the door two weeks ago. And in the Los Angeles federal courthouse, I was ordered, by a judge, to turn off the Wi-Fi signal emitted from my HTC Evo in December.It seems like that's going significantly overboard to claim that we should ban all smartphones just because some people might misuse them.
But in San Francisco, the judiciary allows Wi-Fi connected computing inside its courtrooms, from either a cellphone or a computer. Live blogging or tweeting is commonplace there.
That is the status quo with the ongoing Barry Bonds criminal trial in San Francisco. What’s more, the San Francisco federal courthouse even provides free Wi-Fi in many courtrooms.
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Filed Under: bombs, courts, smartphones
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Ban Pens
Haven't they seen the James Bond movies?? Those pens ARE mightier than the sword. Three clicks and its all over - just like Goldeneye.
Pens are so universal - EVERYONE has a pen - and you can't be to careful with them. Pencils are bad enough that they could actually be used as a sword. Smartphones and other "pager-like" technology are small potatoes compared to all the BICs and Montblancs out there.
They already use chalk to draw people in court. There isn't a need for potentially deadly and terrorizing "writers" out there blowing up the courts.
*** Disclaimer: Just in case it wasn't obvious, this is supposed to be sarcasm.
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Re: Ban Pens
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I mean, can't we at least have a TSA style grope and scan
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Re:
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Well
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Luddism or paranoia?
"We have nothing to fear but fear itself" seems particularly apposite here.
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Re: Luddism or paranoia?
This is no different than courts freaking out about even daring to have a laptop in a courtroom years ago. I'm pretty sure they even used the exact same argument.
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Re: Luddism or paranoia?
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Where the hell would you put a bomb?
I suppose you could blow the battery up - but they tend to just give a big fireball and little explosive damage!
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Re: Where the hell would you put a bomb?
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Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
Your President has no power due to debts owed. Your politicians are corrupt as are your corporations who are those corrupting. I mean, corporations as individuals. When will they be allowed to vote and how many votes will they get?
Your Christian based religions have forfeited the right to be called Christians.
Your military and political leadership is a laughing stock.
The major military successes you have enjoyed in the last 60 years have been against small island countries and client states. Any country you have invaded which has a population armed with equivalent small arm's has either fought you to a stalemate eg. Iraq, Afghanistan or kicked your butt eg. Somalia
I won't even mention Vietnam.
You don't deal with terrorists. North Korea? How much fuel oil did you ship there after they detonated the bomb?
And what about your vaunted Constitution. It is observed when convenient and ignored otherwise.
Your Democracy? Your country is a Republic. It is not now and never was a Democracy. I say here and now that by 2030 your country will be a theocracy.
I could go on about your forcing other countries to adopt your laws or how your corporations abuse the laws of the countries they operate in and so on but why bother. All I care about is that I don't live there and I am glad of that.
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Re: Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
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Re: Re: Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
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Re: Re: Re: Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
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Re: Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
Yeah, none of these things exist in other countries...just the USA. Idiot!
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Smartphones as bombs and other US behaviour
Your President has no power due to debts owed. Your politicians are corrupt as are your corporations who are those corrupting. I mean, corporations as individuals. When will they be allowed to vote and how many votes will they get?
Your Christian based religions have forfeited the right to be called Christians.
Your military and political leadership is a laughing stock.
The major military successes you have enjoyed in the last 60 years have been against small island countries and client states. Any country you have invaded which has a population armed with equivalent small arm's has either fought you to a stalemate eg. Iraq, Afghanistan or kicked your butt eg. Somalia
I won't even mention Vietnam.
You don't deal with terrorists. North Korea? How much fuel oil did you ship there after they detonated the bomb?
And what about your vaunted Constitution. It is observed when convenient and ignored otherwise.
Your Democracy? Your country is a Republic. It is not now and never was a Democracy. I say here and now that by 2030 your country will be a theocracy.
I could go on about your forcing other countries to adopt your laws or how your corporations abuse the laws of the countries they operate in and so on but why bother. All I care about is that I don't live there and I am glad of that.
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I still don't get it
Does anyone know if the politicians have to go through security or check their phones at a courthouse, or is it like the TSA - they get a pass?
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Re: I still don't get it
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Re: I still don't get it
The best way, as demonstrated by the Oklahoma bombing, is to drive a vehicle in front of the building and leave it there. Much less riskier than actually walking into the building.
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Forget the phones, ban the lawyers!
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Re: Forget the phones, ban the lawyers!
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Re: Forget the phones, ban the lawyers!
Maybe I'm in the wrong article...
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Re:
OMG! his phone has a stylus, take cover!
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Re:Luddism or paranoia?
Pat Paulsen
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smartphones and bombs...
America...
It's hard to imagine how the outrageous attempt by anti-choice lawmakers to redefine rape as a way to block access to safe and legal abortions could get any worse. But this week we found out just how far the most recent radical assault on women could go.
Recent testimony to a House taxation subcommittee confirmed the same bill that seeks to redefine rape (the "Stop Taxpayer Funded Abortions Act" or H.R. 3), would force the IRS to audit how women paid for an abortion.
And in some cases, the bill would force women who were sexually assaulted into the hellish scenario of proving to IRS agents that they were victims of "forcible rape" or incest.
Tell Congress: Say no to IRS abortion audits!
A tax expert quoted by Mother Jones magazine explains that under the tax provisions of H.R. 3, anyone who receives a tax deduction or credit for health care costs that include abortion care could face an audit to determine whether that care was related to a case of rape or incest. And the burden of proof during that audit would fall on the taxpayer.
Land of the rapist...home of the criminal
Please tell me this is a joke
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Re: smartphones and bombs...
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Re: Re: smartphones and bombs...
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Re: Re: smartphones and bombs...
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Re: Re: smartphones and bombs...
Then stop comparing it to the rest of the world so that you can see how bad it really is.
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Suitcases?
Not that anyone has ever thought about placing a bomb in a bag or anything...
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Whereas in the UK...
This was at the Royal Courts of Justice, which houses the English High Court and Courts of Appeal, and while it has ... what would have been called airport-style security a few years ago, but now... merely x-ray machines for belongings, and a standard walk-through metal detector at the entrances, security is fairly lax; possibly because the judiciary realise that blowing them up would be kind of pointless; they're not particularly high-profile.
Incidentally, I was also wandering around our Parliament buildings last week, and they had the same level of security (plus "ID" tags, which merely show that you've been through security and are a guest, rather than identifying you personally), and that's a building that *has* been the subject of a terrorist attack, admittedly some time ago (although I imagine the IRA probably tried more recently).
It seems rather ridiculous to the extreme to put in place all these extra layers of security theatre in US (or other) courts (such as banning phones), and one can't help but wonder if the reasoning behind it is something along the lines of "airports have tighter security than courts, this can't be right, we must have more security", rather than actually being worried about concrete threats.
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To be fair
I have done a thought experiment to see how many different methods a smartphone could be configured as a trigger, and the list is long. For example
1. Using GPS, phone triggers when it gets to a specific location
2. Using the phone, it triggers when it recieves a call
3. Using internal giros/electronic compass phone triggers when phone is moved.
List goes on and on. Using Android, you could even build an app to choose a trigger or combination of triggers
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Re: To be fair
1) Why on earth would you trigger a bomb from within a courtroom?
2) What do your points have to do with a courtroom at all?
3) Are you suggesting that terrorists are going to leave a phone-trigger lying around in a courtroom?
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Re: To be fair
I have no idea, but could the same triggery devices be implemented in wristwatches?
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Exploding cell phones
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This is already the case...
Which is still absolutely possible today.
/securitytheatre
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