The champions of our digital rights, the Electronic Frotier Foundation, went to court twice this week. The first suit is on behalf of AT&T customers, against the NSA and others, for illegally spying on them.  They are also personally suing Bush, Cheney, Cheney’s chief of staff David Addington, former Attorney General and White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales and others involved.   That should turn out to be interesting (if it turns out at all).

The EFF and Public Knowledge are suing the Office of the US Trade Representative to get information about the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, which has been kept secret.   The agreement is between countries to enforce each others’ intellectual property laws.

Apparently we (the people) don’t have a `need to know’ about this treaty.

A by-product is that the RIAA/MPAA (who also brought you Vista) has hired the US government as their enforcement arm.   To sweeten the pot, the taxpayers will then be paying for each of the lawsuits brought at the behest of the RIAA/MPAA, which isn’t shy about suing (whether they have grounds to or not).

It really sucks to be less that incredibly rich, doesn’t it?  No bailouts, no government charity, no laws written with a wink, nothing…