(Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid)

For months, Twitter has gone back and forth with the District Attorney's office over one user's tweets related to the Occupy Wall Street protests. That user, Malcolm Harris, is being charged with disorderly conduct, and the tweets in question may help cement the case against him. Twitter originally appealed the subpoena to provide them, but earlier this week Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. told the company it had until today to cooperate or face a fine for contempt of court.

Now the Post says that Twitter will cooperate, and a report from Reuters seems to corroborate.

As the AP pointed out yesterday, as the deadline to hand over the tweets or face a fine loomed, Twitter had already started sounding like it was backing off:

Twitter had said the case could put it in the unwanted position of having to take on legal fights that users could otherwise conduct on their own.

Hear that? That's the sound of running water, as Twitter washes its hands of this whole fiasco.

Sure enough, the Post reported this morning that the company would "tweet like canaries" (never change, Post writers) and turn over the information, rather than face the fine. Reuters also reported late last night that the protestor's lawyer says Twitter plans to hand over the tweets--unless his motion for an emergency stay is accepted. But perhaps more crucial than the fine was what it meant. Judge Sciarrino told Twitter earlier this week that determining the appropriate fine would require handing over two quarters' worth of earnings statements.

Is it just us, or does that sound like one of Jack McCoy's more creative legal manuevers on Law and Order?

Of course, it's not exactly shocking that a private company would choose to keep its books closed where the rubber meets the road. And for all the questions that remain about Twitter's revenue model, it's still a business, not an NGO. But it's a sorry end to a principled stance, and judging from this summer's furor over the temporary suspension of a gadfly journalist with the nerve to criticize media partner NBC, users aren't going to take this very well.

UPDATE: Twitter declined to respond to questions about the case, but directed Betabeat to a statement from Terryl L. Brown of Harris Beach, outside counsel for Twitter, made to the Criminal Court of the City of New York. Mr. Brown framed the decision before Twitter as "a fundamentally unfair Hobson’s choice that is contrary to the core of our justice system." Since Twitter handed over the documents rather than disobeying a court order, Mr. Brown requested that the court keep the documents under seal, "without inspection or production to the District Attorney," under the appeals process is decided.

(Photo: Blogspot)

Twitter has remained firm on its decision not to provide a New York Supreme Court with tweets published by an Occupy Wall Street protestor last October, but now the court is putting its foot down. Bloomberg reports that Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. has told Twitter they must produce the tweets by this Friday, September 14th, or face a fine.

According to Bloomberg:

New York State Supreme Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. in Manhattan today said Twitter must produce the information by Sept. 14 or provide its earnings statements from the last two quarters so he can decide on a fine.

“I can’t put Twitter or the little blue bird in jail, so the only way to punish is monetarily,” Judge Sciarrino said, making it all too evident that he is despising every single minute of this glorious attention.

(Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid)

As promised, today Twitter officially appealed the ruling of Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. that required the company to provide tweets by Occupy Wall Street protestor Malcom Harris published during an October 2011 demonstration. Last month, Twitter's legal counsel Ben Lee announced the company would be appealing, but the document was officially filed today.

According to The Next Web:

The issue of the appeal alleges that Harris’ fourth-amendment rights were violated, and that he further would have been protected under New York’s own constitution should the government cede that Harris’ tweets were not publicly available.

You can read the whole appeal here.

Twitter: loves its users, hates its devs.

Tartan Metrics (Screen grab)

Russian news outlet RT.com has been excitedly suggesting that the TrapWire surveillance system marks the advent of an American police state. Now RT is suggesting a fairly direct connection between the shady ex-CIA types behind TrapWire and something called Tartan Metrics.

Tartan certainly uses dense doublespeak to describe itself, stating on its site landing page that it "quantifies key influencers and hidden connections in social networks using mathematical algorithms" for "un-biased output." RT doesn't note that Tartan is so secretive those interested in its services can try them for free over the web, but maybe they have more important information to impart--Tartan expressly mentions using its software and services to analyze Occupy Wall Street and related movements:

Tartan is advertised on their site as a must-have application for the national security sector, politicians and federal law enforcement, and makes a case by claiming that “an amorphous network of anarchist and protest groups,” made up of Occupy Oakland, PBS, Citizen Radio, Crimethinc and others, relies on “influential leaders,” “modern technology” and “illegal tactics” to spread a message of anarchy across America.

“The organizers of Occupy Wall Street and Occupy DC have built Occupy networks through online communication with anarchists actively participating in the movements’ founding,” the executive summary reads. On the chart that accompanies their claim, the group lists several political activism groups and broadcast networks within a ring of alleged anarchy, which also includes an unnamed FBI informant.

RT also reports a Margaret A. Lee registered TrapWire Inc. with the Virginia Commonwealth's State Corporation Commission in March of 2009. Margaret A. Lee appears to also be on the board of Ntrepid Corporation, which produces Tartan.

Simply stated: Ntrepid links TrapWire and Tartan, and the latter may be actively investigating the Occupy movement.

While there are clear documented links between these shadowy outfits, it's hard to separate fact from frenzied theorizing and assumptions made from tenuous links.

So for now just know basically that someone may always watching and analyzing whatever you do online and in public. That's creepy enough.

(Photo: Magnetic Productions)

If Law and Order doesn't provide you with sufficient insight into those who protect and serve our fine city, perhaps this Reddit thread can help. A user named 10-13 decided to initiate an "Ask Me Anything" post last night about his experience as a NYPD officer.

Perhaps because the Occupy Wall Street fervor has ebbed, or because 10-13 is a well-respected member of the r/NYC subreddit, the questions weren't as pointed or aggressive as we anticipated. Maybe anonymous user names don't automatically engender bad behavior, after all.

10-13, which is top secret police code for "Officer in need of immediate assistance," answered users' questions with a distinct mix of wry humor and endearing admiration for his job. But our favorite reply had to be when he discussed the time he found a guy with a silver dildo in his mouth:

When we got up to the 3rd flood he was on the stairs with some kind of portable VHS/DVD player watching tranny porn and jerking off. Weirder still, he had a silver dildo in is mouth.

"Some people are just born with a silver dildo in their mouth," quipped a user named bunglejerry.

We would like to quibble with one answer, however. We have spent a large part of our lives allowing our legal beliefs to be dictated by Jay-Z's hit song "99 problems," primarily because of the following line: "My glove compartment is locked so's the trunk in the back and I know my rights so you gon' need a lawyer for that."

A lawyer recently did a line-by-line reading of the song and determined that--actually--officers can search your locked glove compartment without a warrant. World rocked. 10-13, however, maintains Jay-Z's party line, saying that the NYPD can't look in your glove box without a warrant.

So which is it? Those of us who take our legal advice from Mr. Carter are dying to know.

(Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid)

The legal battle between Twitter and the Manhattan Criminal Court is heating up. Just a few weeks ago, we reported that Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr. struck down Twitter's protest of a subpoena requiring it to hand over tweets by Malcolm Harris, an Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested for disorderly conduct during the Brooklyn Bridge protests.

Today, Twitter counsel Ben Lee announced--via Twitter, natch--that the company will be appealing Judge Sicarrino's decision, stating that, "It doesn't strike the right balance between the rights of users and the interests of law enforcement."

The decision is merely the latest chapter in the long saga of Twitter vs. the New York courts. The company originally refused to cooperate with the subpoena in May, due to the fact that Twitter's terms of service clearly state that all users own their tweets. Judge Sciarrino scoffed at that reasoning, ruling that:

The Constitution gives you the right to post, but as numerous people have learned, there are still consequences for your public posts. What you give to the public belongs to the public. What you keep to yourself belongs only to you.

The District Attorney's office declined to comment.

(Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid)

Things are not looking very good for Malcolm Harris, the Occupy Wall Street protestor who was arrested for disorderly conduct for taking place in the 2011 protest march across the Brooklyn Bridge. Back in April, a Judge ruled that your tweets are not your own, striking down a motion from Mr. Harris’s lawyer to block the courts from subpoenaing his tweets.

Twitter stood up for Mr. Harris in May, protesting the subpoena on several grounds, including the fact that the company's terms of service explicitly state that all users own their content. Twitter's Legal counsel, Ben Lee, told Betabeat, "As we said in our brief, 'Twitter’s Terms of Service make absolutely clear that its users *own* their content.' Our filing with the court reaffirms our steadfast commitment to defending those rights for our users."

Unfortunately for Twitter, the company's motion was overturned today by Manhattan Criminal Court Judge Matthew A. Sciarrino Jr., who demanded that Twitter furnish Mr. Harris's tweets. "While noting that laws regarding social media are evolving, [the judge] held that public speech, regardless of the forum, does not enjoy the protections of private speech," reports the New York Times.

In this ruling, Judge Sciarrino wrote:

The Constitution gives you the right to post, but as numerous people have learned, there are still consequences for your public posts. What you give to the public belongs to the public. What you keep to yourself belongs only to you.

Based on that reasoning, it seems like the court will only be soliciting Mr. Harris's public tweets and not his DMs or private account information. Still, definitely not a good day for Internet privacy advocates.

Chief Assistant District Attorney Daniel R. Alonso provided Betabeat with the following statement: “We are pleased that the court has ruled for a second time that the Tweets at issue must be turned over. We look forward to Twitter’s complying and to moving forward with the trial.”

(Photo: Scott Beale, Laughing Squid)

When last we checked in with the legal struggle over Occupy Wall Street and Twitter accounts, it didn't look great for anyone looking to keep their DMs out of court. At issue: The state wants data associated with a protestor charged with disorderly conduct. A judge ruled the defense can't fight a subpoena, because--as the legal thinking went--the information on Twitter belongs to the company, not to the individual user. And Twitter's policies seem to suggest they'll hand material over in the event of a subpoena.

But it appears it won't be quite that simple for the DA's office. Rather than complying with the order, Twitter just filed a motion to quash it.

We reached out to Twitter for comment and received a statement from Legal Counsel Ben Lee: "As we said in our brief, "Twitter's Terms of Service make absolutely clear that its users *own* their content." Our filing with the court reaffirms our steadfast commitment to defending those rights for our users."

The motion identifies several problems with the order, starting with the idea users don't own their tweets. Apparently, according to the company's terms of service, users do retain rights to the content posted on the site, and the document "expressly permits users to challenge demands for their account records." The motion also alleges that the order for Twitter to produce "basic user information" compels the company to violate the Fourth Amendment (that would be the one regarding search and seizure), as well as the Stored Communications Act.

The document concludes that, "Twitter respectfully requests that the Court quash the Order and direct the District Attorney to request a search warrant for the desired records."

Translation: Come at me, bro.

The ACLU's blog explains the implications:

This is a big deal. Law enforcement agencies—both the federal government and state and city entities—are becoming increasingly aggressive in their attempts to obtain information about what people are doing on the Internet. And while the individual Internet users can try to defend their rights in the rare circumstances in which they find out about the requests before their information is turned over, that may not be enough.

For the curious and/or legally inclined, the motion is here.

The off-message tweets happened between 3:39 a.m. and 4:02 a.m. EST on May 3.

Demonstrations broke out all over New York City Monday for what was billed as a day of resurgence for the Occupy Wall Street movement. The May 1 protests were months in the planning and drew 15,000 people at one point to Union Square, according to Mother Jones. As in the fall, the protesters used Twitter to communicate. The official Twitter account of occupywallst.org, @OccupyWallSt, has 159,281 followers. It usually tweets about assemblies and the revolution, but anyone who was logged on early this morning got treated to a few off-color remarks.

"Millions shocked at how bad their credit scores are. See it Instantly @http://bit.ly/K3uzg8," the account tweeted early this morning. "A Good Credit Score is 693 & Above See Your Credit Instantly Now !!Check at http://bit.ly/K3uzg8."

One follower recognized this particular spam from a virus spreading on Facebook and warned the rebels they'd had a breach. But judging by the number of retweets and favorites, not all the freedom fighters were hip to the scam. When the account announced at 4:06 a.m. that it had been hacked and was "working on shutting it down," a few followers breathed relief.

"Yeah, I was wondering why you'd be tweeting about credit reports," tweeted one Erik Smith.

@OccupyWallSt @Profinity Im not shocked nor curious bout my credit score. When its all good again I will be able 2 tell by offers 2 buy shit

— KellyAnnPritchard (@KellyAPritchard) May 3, 2012

UPDATE: Columbia student Peter Sterne pointed out via Twitter that the New York Republican State Committee was infiltrated by acai berry spammers around the same time:

@jakebeckman Here's a screenshot, for when @NewYorkGOP deletes the tweet. twitter.com/petersterne/st…

— Peter Sterne (@petersterne) May 3, 2012

Vibes at the Occupy Wall Street protest.

Vibe, the anonymous microblogging service used during the Occupy Wall Street protests in the fall, is back. The app has a new release for iPhone and, later today, Android as well. The releases are timed to the citywide Occupy Wall Street protests planned for tomorrow.

Vibe works like Twitter, but users don't have to register their names. Instead, a message is pinned to a specific location and shown only to users within the designated radius. Vibe also allows users to set an expiration date on their messages. Activists can use the service to coordinate in real-time, creator Hazem Sayed told Betabeat, and recently it's been discovered by users in the Middle East.

The new features should make Vibe even more appealing to protesters. "The main thing that's been added is this idea of a double hashtag," Mr. Sayed said. "Unlike the standard hashtag, where you put it in and it's vis to everyone, a double hashtag makes that thread invisible. So if you do ##newyorkcity, it doesn't show up in the public stream. The only way to find it is to search for it explicitly."

The technology could be useful for groups of students, families traveling, and departments within a corporate building, he said. Some working groups, or committees, involved with Occupy Wall Street have been using the double hashtag feature to communicate rather than trade email addresses and phone numbers. "I consider it like a user password," Mr. Sayed said.

The new iPhone version, which has a few more features than the new Android release, will also allow users to pin messages to remote locations that will only be visible to people at that location. "It's like you're sending a letter," Mr. Sayed said.

He's encouraging Occupy Wall Street participants to post messages that will be projected onto a screen in Bryant Park. The May 1 protest will be on a "much larger scale than at any time in Occupy Wall Street," he said.

With the recent decision by a New York judge to uphold a subpoena of an Occupy Wall Street protester's tweets, Vibe is more relevant than ever. "I'm more interested in the focus on Vibe being a freedom of expression tool," Mr. Sayed said. "I won't say focused on politics, but more privacy-robust."

Mr. Sayed advertises Vibe as "anonymous" and "secure." So what happens if the police subpoena Vibe's data after the protests? "Certainly if we were served, we'd fight it to the extent that we can," he said.

In December Mr. Sayed sold a majority of Vibe to Betaworks, which is using the technology for a less anarchist purpose. He has continued working on Vibe as a separate project.