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by mpyne 4741 days ago
That's just it; our Icelandic friend at WikiLeaks didn't lose due process. A valid warrant was issued, that's essentially the end of story; that's all the protections U.S. citizens get, after all.

I do agree that there needs to be a framework for how "data privacy" works in the Cloud Era, but it's important to keep in mind that it's not as if the law was meant to be that uneven toward foreigners, the law is essentially still from a time when there was no such thing as a Cloud, and "search & seizure" actually meant something physically present was found and seized.

The law doesn't (in general) permit taking property in the U.S. belonging foreigners abroad, for instance, so it was not as if the legislators all had their "FUCK U EUROPE" pens out when they were drafting the laws.

What we need are bilateral treaties that cover this situation. Perhaps something like a Most Favored Nation status between nations that specifies what kind of warrant requirements would exist for a given foreign national.

But then again, how do you determine the nationality of the user behind a given IP address in the modern world?? :-/