The NSA Lost In Court, So This DMCA Notice Is Totally Valid

from the not-how-any-of-this-works dept

Tue, Feb 2nd 2016 9:33am — Tim Cushing

The misuse of DMCA notices to remove unwanted information from the web has been well-documented here. The "right to be forgotten" has sort of codified this behavior, but only applies to citizens of certain countries.

James Kutsukos would like something removed -- a search warrant application hosted by the ACLU, which details a US Postal Service investigation which culminated in his being convicted for marijuana distribution. It's easy to see why Kutsukos would want this removed:

It's far less simple to divine why the ACLU should feel compelled to remove it.

Kutsukos has his reasons.

Re: This needs to be taken off ASAP NOW THAT THE NSA LOST THEIR CASE

[...]

Explanation of complaint
this must be removed now. info@jamesrisk.com

The NSA hasn't "lost" any "cases," so far. I assume the "lost case" Kutsukos is referring to is Judge Leon's determination that the Section 215 bulk collection was unconstitutional (back in December of 2013). This would predate the April 1, 2014 timestamp on the takedown notice (which, for some reason, appears to have been received by the ACLU one year before Kutsukos sent it).

If so, then the decision had not been overturned by the Appeals Court yet, so it was technically still in the loss column. Even so, there's nothing about this that involves the NSA. The investigation was initiated by the US Postal Service and later involved the FBI.

The evidence obtained by the postal inspector consisted of text messages sent using Google Voice, which is not one of the providers implicated in the NSA's bulk collection efforts. (At least as far as we know... The phone metadata program [which also sweeps up other "business records"] targets telcos, not Google. Google's data is likely gathered under a different authority using a separate NSA collection program.)

So, it looks like either a misreading of Judge Leon's decision or -- as we've seen in other cases -- a sad attempt to intimidate a takedown recipient by throwing around government agency acronyms.

Either way, the document remains intact on the ACLU's servers and in Google's search results for Kutsukos, which lead off with a link to the affidavit.

And, because his woeful takedown attempt has been archived for posterity, Kutsukos is once again linked to a document he'd rather bury.

Google-Voice-Weed-Warrant-1 (PDF)Google-Voice-Weed-Warrant-1 (Text)

Kutsukos-Affidavit (PDF)Kutsukos-Affidavit (Text)

Kutsukos-Plea (PDF)Kutsukos-Plea (Text)

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Filed Under: censorship, dmca, huh?, james kutsukos, nsa, search warrant, takedowns

10 Comments

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Anonymous Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 9:47am

Forgive, forget, forgotten
It looks like he forgot how to implement the forget to be forgotten protocol. Being forgetful about being forgotten suggests that forgetfulness can be forgiven, but only if one forgets...forgetting.
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David, 2 Feb 2016 @ 10:58am

Perjury charge?
The DCMA is flawed, but the perjury attestation is that you actually own the copyrights to the material you claim is infringed. Is he making a copyright ownership claim to the court document? Which obviously, he doesn't own the copyright to?
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 12:37pm
  
  Re: Perjury charge?
  … the perjury attestation is
  Mr Cushing did rather helpfully provide a link to the takdown. In the article, the link is attached to the microtext: “Kutsukos has his reasons.”
  
  Perhaps you might consider reading Mr Kutsukos' attestation? Before you draw any serious conclusions? When those conclusions may have extremely grave consequences?
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 12:38pm
  
  Re: Perjury charge?
  He now has the right to forget who owns the copyright. It says so on the DMCA notice the court sent the NSA over the USPS. The ACLU should get on the case and inform the FBI to arrest someone.
  
  PS: The funny thing is the jumbled mess wasn't even caused by the word salad of acronyms, but by this guys sheer amount of stupid.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 12:25pm

Sent and received dates
From the Lumen record of Mr Kutsukos's takedown notice, which was linked in the article above:
Sent on May 01, 2015

Received on April 01, 2014
How was this takedown received thirteen months before it was sent?
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 1:59pm

Publication context
“US Surveillance Law May Poorly Protect New Text Message Services”, by Chris Soghoian, Free Future (ACLU Blogs), Jan 8, 2013
. . . .

The government is in fact obtaining Google Voice records without a court order

Although the law is anything but clear, court records from a 2012 federal drug case make it clear that Google is in fact turning over records to the government of SMS messages sent via Google Voice with a mere subpoena. In support of a criminal search warrant, a postal inspector in Ohio referenced a previously submitted subpoena to Google, and the Google Voice text message records that Google provided in response.
[ Embedded extract from warrant affidavit: Your affiant has reviewed . . . through March 4, 2012. ]
. . . .
Note hyperlink at “drug case” to https://www.aclu.org/technology-and-liberty/google-texting-warrant. At that url, google-voice-weed-warrant_1.pdf is embedded in a pdf viewer.
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Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 2:37pm

whois jamesrisk.com
this must be removed now. info@jamesrisk.com

$ whois jamesrisk.com Whois Server Version 2.0 Domain names in the .com and .net domains can now be registered with many different competing registrars. Go to http://www.internic.net for detailed information. No match for "JAMESRISK.COM". >>> Last update of whois database: Tue, 02 Feb 2016 22:29:35 GMT <<<
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- Anonymous Coward, 2 Feb 2016 @ 3:33pm
  
  Re: whois jamesrisk.com
  No match for "JAMESRISK.COM".
  From Wayback Machine capture of http://jamesrisk.com [May 17, 2014]
  Contact Info
  
  jameskoutsoukos@gmaill.com
  N.B. doubled ‘l’ [0x6C] in “ gmaill ” !
  
  This doubled ‘l’ also occurs in the email address on the “Contact Info” webpage from that site, archived Sep 23, 2014.
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That Anonymous Coward (profile), 2 Feb 2016 @ 3:43pm

drugs are bad mmmm'kay....
Shit this really embarrasses me....
I KNOW, LIGHT THE WARNING BEACONS OF GONDOR!!!!
This will totally not draw any more attention to this.
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- Wendy Cockcroft, 4 Feb 2016 @ 2:28am
  
  Re: drugs are bad mmmm'kay....
  The best he can do is put his head down and get back to work. Everyone should be forgiven for making mistakes, even big ones, if they learn from them and move on.
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