Earlier this week, I wrote about the legal threats from Landis and Gyr against the Freedom of Information service Muckrock, which had received documents from the City of Seattle detailing the workings of Landis and Gyr's smart-meter system, which Seattle has purchased from them at public expense.
Seattle was supposed to redact some information from the documents before sending them on to Muckrock, but they messed up and sent the complete documents, which detailed some of the technology's inner workings. Landis and Gyr's petition for a temporary restraining order was hyperbolic on this matter, stating that disclosure of their technology design meant that terrorists could attack the city's key infrastructure — implying that the system's security depended on secrecy rather than intrinsic robustness (it's a truism among security professionals that "security through obscurity" does not work).
A King County, Washington court has granted a temporary restraining order against Muckrock, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation has agreed to represent the service in their fight to publish the documents.
Although MuckRock has complied with the order, we disagree with the court's decision and are confident that ultimately we will vindicate our right to publish the documents that Mr. Mocek lawfully obtained.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a non-profit digital rights group, has agreed to represent MuckRock in our fight against the order and will be acting as our counsel.
Court grants Temporary Restraining Order forcing removal of MuckRock documents
[Michael Morisy/Muckrock]
(Image: Squeezing out toothpaste!, Hey you :P, Youtube)
