Crime, Facebook, Privacy, Rape, Technology, United Kingdom / Great Britain

An Update on WikiLeaks and Its International Man of Mischief, Julian Assange

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Although I’m no longer an editor here at Above the Law (*tear*), you know my byline occasionally still pops up to bring you news of lonely lawyers and goings-on in the world of privacy. This week, I asked Elie and Lat if they were interested in a lawsuit against a computer rental store accused of spying on its customers via webcam. (Most shocking aspect to me: People actually rent laptops?) Or the recent reminder from the Seventh Circuit that looking at porn at work — even if just for 67 seconds — can get you fired (at least he got the job done quickly).

Instead, Elie saw that I’d recently written about WikiLeaks founder (and dancer extraordinaire) Julian Assange — who’s still kicking it in England — calling Facebook “the most appalling spying machine ever invented.” Elie asked, how is that guy not in a jail in Sweden by now? And why have no major banks bitten the WikiLeaks bullet since we last heard from the white-haired wonder?

An update on the Julian Assange – WikiLeaks saga, after the jump…

A British judge did indeed rule against Julian “I’m wearing you” Assange in February, ordering that he be extradited to Sweden to face rape charges. (In case you’re not as intimately familiar with Assange’s sexual assault charges as am I, that’s how he allegedly responded to a condom-insisting partner who woke up mid-intercourse and asked if he “was wearing anything.”)

Assange is appealing that extradition ruling, and has a hearing set for early July. That means Assange is free to lounge around in a mansion in Eastern England, say mean things about Facebook, and keep overseeing big WikiLeaks document dumps. (And I think we all know who newly-royal in-law Pippa Middleton can blame for leaking this kind-of-sexy pic.)

But what about that whole “taking down a bank thing“? What happened with that? Apparently, Assange’s lip service was greater than his leak. “A snore,” suggested Reuters.

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In lieu of a dust-up with the big B of A, Assange is turning his ire on the social network that we all know and love, and love to hate: Facebook. Calling it an “an appalling spying machine,” Assange said in an interview with Russia Today:  “Here we have the world’s most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other, and their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. intelligence.”

Despite what the Onion News Network might have you believe, Zuckerberg is in this for the bling, not to help hunt down OBL. Facebook was none too happy about being called the C.I.A.’s lapdog…

Read on at Forbes.com….

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