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SeraphimLabs:
German bureaucracy is pragmatic - and ironic, but honest with it:
German Government Refuses FOI Request By Pointing Out Document Already Leaked | Techdirt
(Copied below sans embedded hyperlinks/images.)
rom the well-played dept
Freedom of information requests are a powerful way of finding out things that governments would rather not reveal. As a result, requests are often refused on a variety of grounds, some more ridiculous than others. The Netzpolitik blog points us to a rather unusual case concerning a request by the politician Malte Spitz for a letter from the Chief of Staff of the German Chancellery to members of a commission investigating intelligence matters. The request was refused on the grounds that the document was already freely available (original in German):
The information you requested may be obtained free of charge on the Internet by anyone, in a reasonable manner. The letter from the Chief of the Federal Chancellery, Federal Minister Peter Altmaier, to the chairman of the first committee of inquiry of the 18th legislature, Professor Dr. Sensburg, is publicly available and published in full at the following link:
https://netzpolitik.org/2014/drohung-des-bundeskanzleramtes-wir-veroeffentlichen-den-brief-in-dem-uns-altmaier-mit-strafanzeige-droht/
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The Netzpolitik link included there leads to an article that a few weeks earlier had not only leaked the document requested by Spitz, but also noted wryly that the letter from Altmaier threatens anyone leaking documents with legal action.
The German bureaucracy should be applauded for taking the adult view that once a document is leaked, it is publicly -- and officially -- available. This contrasts with the childish attempts by the British government to pretend that Snowden's leaks never happened, and its refusal even to pronounce the name of some of the surveillance programs he revealed.
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-IainB (November 24, 2014, 04:08 PM)
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I have to disagree with their refusal to comply on the grounds that it already leaked. This becomes a means of defeating freedom of information requests.
To exploit this, they accidentally on purpose leak a fake version of the document that is either censored or contains a different message than the actual message being requested.
Compliance should be required anyway as per the law, and since it already apparently leaked they should have no problems in doing so because people already know what it should say.
IainB:
...I have to disagree with their refusal to comply on the grounds that it already leaked. This becomes a means of defeating freedom of information requests. ...
-SeraphimLabs (December 21, 2014, 02:42 AM)
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Yes, that was the ironic thing about it.
Renegade:
I have to disagree with their refusal to comply on the grounds that it already leaked. This becomes a means of defeating freedom of information requests.
To exploit this, they accidentally on purpose leak a fake version of the document that is either censored or contains a different message than the actual message being requested.
Compliance should be required anyway as per the law, and since it already apparently leaked they should have no problems in doing so because people already know what it should say.
-SeraphimLabs (December 21, 2014, 02:42 AM)
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Yup. It goes to chain of custody being an issue.
Renegade:
The psychopaths never give up.
http://gizmodo.com/the-new-cispa-bill-is-literally-exactly-the-same-as-the-1679496808
The New CISPA Bill Is Literally Exactly the Same as the Last One
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results. That's a cliche, but politicians often follow the hoariest routes to power, and attempting to enact change by doing the same thing repeatedly is one of them. When word broke last week that the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the twice-defeated bill known as CISPA, was being re-revived by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), it wasn't clear if the zombie legislation would be updated to address the myriad concerns with previous versions. We combed through the full text of the bill and, nope, it's exactly the same, word for word for overly broad data-scooping power-granting word.
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More at the link.
TaoPhoenix:
The psychopaths never give up.
http://gizmodo.com/the-new-cispa-bill-is-literally-exactly-the-same-as-the-1679496808
The New CISPA Bill Is Literally Exactly the Same as the Last One
The definition of insanity is trying the same thing over and over expecting different results. That's a cliche, but politicians often follow the hoariest routes to power, and attempting to enact change by doing the same thing repeatedly is one of them. When word broke last week that the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, the twice-defeated bill known as CISPA, was being re-revived by Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.), it wasn't clear if the zombie legislation would be updated to address the myriad concerns with previous versions. We combed through the full text of the bill and, nope, it's exactly the same, word for word for overly broad data-scooping power-granting word.
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More at the link.
-Renegade (January 14, 2015, 07:50 PM)
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Well, that first sentence is one of those "logical fallacies". It's not insane if it works. In this type of situation it's clearly about exhausting the defensive resources through attrition.
And if it DOES work, it's "insane" not to. Ethically it's (Insert seventeen Renegade words here), but not insane.
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