[Cryptography] Sky Global Indictment, March 12, 2021

[Dennis E. Hamilton]

On March 15, 2021, Peter Fairbrother wrote:

> Could there be a Fourteenth Amendment defense in the US? Telephone 
> companies, UPS, and the US Postal Service are all used for illegal purposes 
> but the federal government has never shut down the USPS and arrested the 
> Postmaster General. "Equal protection under the law" seems to be missing.

Questions about the US Constitution Fourteenth Amendment come up in cases such 
as abuse of police powers.  The US Supreme Court has ruled that the amendment 
does not set forth a duty, but establishes a right that can be adjudicated in 
the breach.    It will take an unlikely review by the Supremes to expand 
protections under Fourteen.

In a way, application of the Fourth Amendment is similar except there have 
been cases such as Miranda that do restrain police efforts.  And 
arrests/detainments are used to defuse/control situations even though the 
charges will be dropped.  And tainted evidence is sometimes worked around, if 
we are to believe police procedural stories.

It is useful to be mindful that there is no human institution that cannot be 
corrupted.  Everything depends on enough people of good will.  It is also very 
difficult for individual persons to protect themselves, as we know from 
take-down notice abuses and mis-appropriation of content.  These are 
challenging times.

I think the Napster case is more akin to what Fairbrother is reaching for, but 
the difference with regard to Sky Global and others has to do with allegation 
of complicity in the illegal activity on their service.  Napster survived 
that.  We don't know about these current cases and whatever jurisdictions they 
are pursued in.  Regardless, the criminals will have moved on, whether 
successfully or not.