[Noisebridge-discuss] Will they seize *everyone's* computers?

[mark burdett]

That's what I've seen, unless the warrant somehow limits what they can
take.  e.g. when the federal marshalls seized a pirate radio station
in SF they left behind a personal computer that wasn't plugged in to
the radio station at all but took several others.

In http://www.eff.org/cases/long-haul-v-regents-university-california
they just took every computer and storage media in the place even
though it was subleased to various organizations.

--mark

On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 4:01 PM, Annalee Newitz <annalee at gmail.com> wrote:
> Often warrants are for places, not items belonging to specific people.
> So yes, Mark is right. They could indeed seize every piece of
> equipment in Noisebridge if they wanted to.
>
> So don't make Steve Jobs mad.
>
> Annalee
>
> On Mon, Apr 26, 2010 at 12:48 PM, Mark Cohen <markc at binaryfaith.com> wrote:
>>
>> In short, yes, they will take any and all community property that could "possibly" have been used in the course of committing a felony. (period)
>> That means that if you're there and they decide that someone used NB equipment to commit a felony, they can get a warrant and seize any and all computers/equipment they deem to have possibly been used during the act.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Apr 26, 2010, at 3:38 PM, William Nye_COMCAST wrote:
>>
>>> I noticed these paragraphs from today's news story
>>> "Calif. police seize computers in 'lost' iPhone case" at
>>>
>>> http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9176020/Calif._police_seize_computers_in_lost_iPhone_case
>>>
>>>     According to the warrant that Gizmodo published,
>>>     the San Mateo County Sheriff's Office had
>>>     "demonstrated that there is probable cause to
>>>     believe that the property described herein ... is
>>>     lawfully seizeable pursuant to Penal Code Section
>>>     1524 in that it was used as the means of committing
>>>     a felony [or] it tends to show that a felony has
>>>     been committed or that a particular person has
>>>     committed a felony.
>>>     Among the items seized from Chen's home were four
>>>     laptops -- including three Apple notebooks -- a
>>>     Hewlett-Packard server, two Dell desktop computers,
>>>     several hard drives, two digital cameras, an iPhone,
>>>     an iPad and other hardware.
>>>
>>> My question is, if the police have a warrant for something
>>> or other at Noisebridge, are they going to seize the
>>> computers and devices of *everyone* who happens to be
>>> in the space when they arrive?   Thanks  -Bill
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> Noisebridge-discuss mailing list
>>> Noisebridge-discuss at lists.noisebridge.net
>>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>> Mark Cohen
>> markc at binaryfaith.com
>>
>> Science is a way of skeptically interrogating the universe with a fine understanding of human fallibility.
>> -Carl Sagan, 1996
>>
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>> https://www.noisebridge.net/mailman/listinfo/noisebridge-discuss
>>
>
>
>
> --
> Annalee Newitz
>
> editor and time distortion field operator: io9.com
> writer: techsploitation.com
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