NY protester's tweets at heart of clash on privacy

[ellisonz]

An Occupy Wall Street protester and prosecutors are tussling over his tweets, a clash that's raising legal issues of privacy in an age of living online.
Originally published Thursday, February 23, 2012 at 2:59 PM

By JENNIFER PELTZ

An Occupy Wall Street protester and prosecutors are tussling over his tweets, a clash that's raising legal issues of privacy in an age of living online.

The contest has sounded alarms among electronic privacy advocates, who see ominous overreaching in the Manhattan prosecutor's efforts to subpoena tweets sent by a demonstrator facing a disorderly conduct charge. The protester's lawyer is trying to block the subpoena, calling it an infringement on constitutional rights and "an unwarranted invasion of privacy."

But the Manhattan district attorney's office says it's fair game to go after messages protester Malcolm Harris sent publicly for weeks before and months after his arrest. The messages might contradict Harris' defense that he thought protesters had police permission to march in the street on the Brooklyn Bridge on Oct. 1, prosecutors said in a court filing Wednesday.

"He has no proprietary or privacy interest in tweets that he broadcast to every person with access to the Internet," Assistant District Attorney Lee Langston wrote.

More: http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2017581482_apusoccupytweetsubpoena.html?syndication=rss