RSS FeedFBI Overreaches On McCain Prank
This guy posted a comment on to Senator McCain's website, and included an image, which the site apparently supports. The comment was approved, but later that evening he switched the image (which resided on his server) to something far less "supportive".
The next day the FBI and a local Sheriff came and hauled away all of his computer equipment and other items based on a search warrant.
What kind of a country are we living in where the FBI has the manpower and can get a warrant so fast to investigate what isn't even a crime, yet the government's nuclear weapons agency has lots of missing computers?
I can almost guarantee you that the judge that signed the warrant wasn't told that a single comment posted by the "perpetrator" was later changed. The FBI probably told the judge that they had evidence that this individual had changed content on the Senator's website, which is a crime. Has they been told that only the one comment had been changed, and only by switching the image properly linked to by the comment, the judge should not have granted the warrant.
Copyright of a work in the US belongs to the creator, unless you explicitly wave it. The only thing I can do with your comment is not show it. If I allow you to edit your comments, my only recourse is to delete them if you say something evil. Likewise if I allow you to post an URL or put an image URL into a comment, I have no right or expectation that it won't or can't be changed. I don't allow commentors (other than me) to do this for that exact reason. The comment and links belong to you. Period.
That the FBI is either stupid, or incompetent, or quick to support loyal Bushies like McCain, is still no excuse to take someone's computers away based on a false understanding of the law, or even a wild misrepresentation of the facts.
The judge (assuming he is even aware of the real facts) should immediately overturn the warrant and order the FBI to return everything they took from this guy.
The Senator himself, if he has any honor anymore, should also apologize for the situation, and then order his staffers to no longer allow images or urls to be posted in the comments on his website unless he obtains copyright clearance to copy the data to his own server.
Maybe we should in the future vote for people who have a clue about how the internet works, unlike this guy.
