the CLOUD Act (was What can ISPs do better? Removing racism out of internet)

Tue Aug 6 19:43:23 UTC 2019

On Tuesday, 6 August, 2019 13:21, Valdis Kletnieks <valdis.kletnieks at vt.edu> wrote:

>On Tue, 06 Aug 2019 12:54:55 -0600, "Keith Medcalf" said:

>> I realize that the purpose of the terms "serve a demand" if legal
>> globedey-glook phrased to pompously instill in the reader some
>> feeling of the majesty and due regard for the process (etc), but 
>> in reality it is just pompous for "send a letter requesting" is it not?

> I don't know about that.  Most definitions of "pompous" don't include
> the implied phrase "or end up in a cell on a contempt citation".

In Canada that is called "Extortion" and is a crime punishable by a number of years in prison.  If the "implication" of the phraseology is to convey a threat in order to obtain compliance with the object of the statement, then the entire process is extortion from the get go.  Since this cannot possibly be the case, your assertion must be incorrect, and there can be no such implication.

Moveover I would wonder what exactly one would be in contempt of?  The politicians who voted in favour of the passage of the Act?  Contempt for the sender of the letter?  None of these are capable of being "contempt" in any actionable sense.  In fact, failure to comply with an order of a judge who makes an "administrative" order (that is, who is not acting as a judge, but is merely an administrative functionary or rubber-stamper) does not constitute contempt of court in Canada (since there was no actual due process or court function of judicial judgement involved to be in contempt of).

>Feel free to be the test case to find out if a demand under the CLOUD
>act can result in a US contempt citation. :)

Anyone can bring whatever proceedings they like before any court at any time for any reason or no reason at all without regard to the probability of success of those proceedings.  So whether or not "a demand under the CLOUD act can result in a US contempt citation" is quite meaningless.

Of course, I only have first-hand knowledge of legal procedures in free countries, so how the United States does things is not entirely within my experience.

-- 
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