[luau] PATRIOT act may become permanent

[Warren Togami]

On Thu, 2003-04-10 at 17:46, Virgil wrote:
> Is this bill anything even related to DARPA and TIA? Anyone here heard of
> the TIA program before? Well if you  seen the sci-fi movie in which Tom
> Cruise goes and arrest people even before they do their crime.  Basically
> that is what the TIA hopes to become in the future within DARPA.

The movie you are referring to is "Minority Report".  The "Department of
Precrime" portrayed in the movie depicts a scary future where they think
they have 100% accuracy in predicting crime before it occurs, so they
can arrest people before a crime takes place.  The movie itself was very
good, and asked tough ethical questions about the limits of law
enforcement and invasion of privacy.

Our real world grapples with very similar issues, this fine line between
invasion of privacy and investigative powers to prevent crime.  My
personal opinion is that *perhaps* (by a long shot) it was necessary for
the first PATRIOT act to violate our civil liberties in order to expose
terrorists, but at the same time there is a huge potential for
government abuse of these powers.  It is wholly unacceptable and
unconstitutional for PATRIOT to become permanent.  I am a believer in
the Constitution.

While this thread was good to express our opinions and share links to
further information on this matter, especially relating to the PATRIOT
act and its effect on online activities, we are beginning to get
off-topic.  If this thread continues, please be civil, state your
opinions calmly.  Everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Warren Togami
warren at togami.com