Judge approves TRO to stop DEFCON presentation

[Perry E. Metzger]

It seems that US judges aren't as protective of speech rights as Dutch
ones.

    Las Vegas - Three students at the Massachusetts Institute of
    Technology (MIT) were ordered this morning by a federal court
    judge to cancel their scheduled presentation about vulnerabilities
    in Boston's transit fare payment system, violating their First
    Amendment right to discuss their important research.

    The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) represents Zack Anderson,
    RJ Ryan and Alessandro Chiesa, who were set to present their
    findings Sunday at DEFCON, a security conference held in Las
    Vegas. However, the Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA)
    sued the students and MIT in United States District Court in
    Massachusetts on Friday, claiming that the students violated the
    Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) by delivering information to
    conference attendees that could be used to defraud the MBTA of
    transit fares. This morning District Judge Douglas P. Woodlock,
    meeting in a special Saturday session, ordered the trio not to
    disclose for ten days any information that could be used by others
    to get free subway rides.

http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/08/09

-- 
Perry E. Metzger		perry at piermont.com

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