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Cell Phone Snooping: 1991 - Present: Triggerfish, Stingray and Beyond

By       (Page 2 of 3 pages) Become a premium member to see this article and all articles as one long page.   3 comments, In Series: Privacy and Surveillance
Message Glen Roberts

Your issue No. 24 of Full Disclosure has been brought to my attention because of an apparently unauthorized advertisement on page 8 for a Harris law enforcement product referred to as "Triggerfish." It is my understanding that the publication of this advertisement was not previously requested nor authorized by Harris. The unapproved use of this advertisement constitutes a deceptive trade practice, which would potentially subject you and your newspaper to civil liability.

Further, you have used our trademarks -- Harris and Triggerfish -- without permission.

Lastly, you may have committed a felony under 18 USC 2512(1)(c)(i).

This criminal statute prohibits the placement in a newspaper or magazine of an advertisement for an electronic product that is primarily useful for the purpose of surreptitiously intercepting electronic communications. Further, these actions on your part may have also subjected Harris Corporation to such liability under this statute.

You are hereby instructed to immediately desist from placing advertisements or promotional material related to Harris electronic law enforcement products in your newspaper. Any further actions of this nature will be dealt with by filing a suit against you and your newspaper.

Sincerely, /s/ John L. DeAngelis, Intellectual Property and Licensing Counsel.

JLD/bea

Harris Corporation Electronic Systems Section P.O. Box 37, Melbourne, Florida 32902 Telephone 407-727-4000

Of course, they needed to view my First Amendment expressions as commercial advertisements in order to intimidate me. As all the criminal, civil and trademark issues would relate to commercial advertisements, not some schmuck trying to say there is something wrong! Of course, Harris Corporation never apparently questioned whether their own marketing efforts were compliant with the criminal statues they accused me of violating on their behalf!

Nor, is Harris Corporation alone in the ability to craft an intimidating nastygram. My attorney fired off the following response:

Dear Mr. DeAngelis:

I write on behalf of Glen L. Roberts, the editor and publisher of the magazine, Full Disclosure, in reply to your May 26 letter addressed to him. In addition to advising Mr. Roberts, I serve as privacy law columnist for his publication and co-host with him of "Full Disclosure Live," a one-hour live radio program carried across the country on the Let's Talk Radio Network.

It is shocking sophistry on your part to have characterized Full Disclosure's editorial expression about the product, "Triggerfish," as an "advertisement" Of course, I recognize your procrustean need to do that, because "advertisement," is the operative word of the criminal statute you cite.

Had you taken time to research even a few of the many cases in which "advertisement" not only has been defined as the space one associated with a product purchases from a publisher, but as well distinguished from editorial expression or news reporting by such a publisher or his or her subaltern, for example, an editor, you might have saved your company the embarrassment that well may flow from your misguided missive. Cary Grant couldn't make an Esquire magazine news article, which used a photograph of his head, into an advertisement in the Southern District of New York 20 years ago; I doubt you'll have any greater success today, venue notwithstanding.

Respecting your assertion of trademark use without permission, we are unable to locate any authority, statutory or decisional, that even suggests that editorial mention of a product or service, which enjoys registered or common law trade or service mark protection, obliges the publisher to include an indication of such status or forbids such publication "without permission." Perhaps, given your stated role as intellectual property counsel, you can afford us the benefit of your expertise in this realm.

What I find most troubling about your letter is your apparent indifference to First Amendment law. A careful reading of the 1968 legislative history of 18 USC 2512 acquaints one with the fact that Congress did not seek to abridge free press rights in proscribing the advertising of "bugging" devices.

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Forging a path through life without involuntary allegiances: On June 21, 2013 I walked into the US Embassy a American Citizen and a short time later walked out without any nationality at all.

Author of "How to Renounce Your U.S. (more...)
 
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