6 ms·

Not especially shocking. The Gov'ts proposed theory of the All Writs Act as the legal equivalent of "sudo do whatever I want" was pretty damn tenuous.

taylorwc 11y ago
> sudo do whatever I want What a fantastic way of putting it. Makes the point and good for a chuckle.
- gpvos 11y ago
  Just in case someone doesn't get the reference: https://xkcd.com/149/ https://xkcd.com/149/
  - j_koreth 11y ago
    I think this stands without being a reference
    - banku_brougham 11y ago
      Non-tech people read this site too. What % of the general population knows what sudo is? My auto-correct changes 'sudo' to 'Audi'. The real problem is that the xkcd reference doesn't explain what sudo means.
      - extesy 11y ago
        There's a site dedicated to explaining various xkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/149:_Sandwich https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/149:_Sandwich
        thesimpsons1022 11y ago
        we shouldn't be explaining something using the xkcd which doesn't illuminate the topic at all and further needs to be explained.
        techabuse 11y ago
        Oh boy. Turtles all the way down.
      - taylorwc 11y ago
        You're right that a tiny portion of the general population would know what sudo is, but surely among HN readers there is a huge base that would understand, or at least grok what it is after a quick search. Not advocating that HN isn't for non-tech-people, just saying that neither the reference nor the xkcd were out of place for this audience.
      - crucialfelix 11y ago
        This is tech site. If you are see something you don't understand, you should just google it. As a tech person I encounter things every day that I don't know about, and I google many of them. Why should "non-tech" people be protected from the chore of googling ? Isn't that why people come here – to encounter things that they don't know about ?
        banku_brougham 11y ago
        Not trying to "protect" anyone. Thing is, even googling sudo doesn't give someone who has never sudo'ed the insight behind the comic. So, yep.
  - runholm 11y ago
    It's not really a reference. It's just the same joke. I am pretty sure I have saw "sudo <real life action>" as a joke around the internet long before xkcd did it.
paulddraper 11y ago
+1 sudo indeed
clamprecht 11y ago
It seems easy to rule out the "do whatever I want interpretation". If this were true, the Constitution becomes unnecessary. This is a contradiction. QED
- dragonwriter 11y ago
  The government's actual interpretation wasn't quite broad enough to allow that dismissal: the proposed interpretation was essentially that AWA allows courts to order anything so long as neither the Constitution nor laws passed by Congress explicitly forbid it.
  - acqq 11y ago
    > AWA allows courts to order anything so long as neither the Constitution nor laws passed by Congress explicitly forbid it. And that interpretation the judge considers absurd: "the government's construction of the AWA produces absurd results in application. If, for example the President sent to Congress a bill explicitly authorizing a court to issue the kind of order the government seeks here, and if every single member of the House and Senate were to vote against the enactment of such a law citing the kinds of data security and personal privacy concerns that Apple now embraces, the government would nevertheless describe the order sought here as permissible because Congress had merely rejected the bill – however emphatically, and however clear its reasons for doing so – rather than affirmatively passing legislation to prohibit the executive branch's proposal. Yet in such circumstances, it would be absurd to posit that the authority the government sought was anything other than obnoxious to the law." And there's the related law in which Congress explicitly didn't oblige the companies: CALEA.
    - ikeboy 11y ago
      Wouldn't the same argument apply to any time congress delegates authority? I.E. They allow some agency to decree certain things with the force of a law. Whatever that agency decides within the bounds of the constitution is law, even if congress debated that point and didn't expressly permit it.
GunboatDiplomat 11y ago
`sudo rm -rf /privacy`

taylorwc 11y ago

> sudo do whatever I want What a fantastic way of putting it. Makes the point and good for a chuckle.

gpvos 11y ago
Just in case someone doesn't get the reference: https://xkcd.com/149/ https://xkcd.com/149/
- j_koreth 11y ago
  I think this stands without being a reference
  - banku_brougham 11y ago
    Non-tech people read this site too. What % of the general population knows what sudo is? My auto-correct changes 'sudo' to 'Audi'. The real problem is that the xkcd reference doesn't explain what sudo means.
    - extesy 11y ago
      There's a site dedicated to explaining various xkcd: https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/149:_Sandwich https://www.explainxkcd.com/wiki/index.php/149:_Sandwich
      - thesimpsons1022 11y ago
        we shouldn't be explaining something using the xkcd which doesn't illuminate the topic at all and further needs to be explained.
        techabuse 11y ago
        Oh boy. Turtles all the way down.
    - taylorwc 11y ago
      You're right that a tiny portion of the general population would know what sudo is, but surely among HN readers there is a huge base that would understand, or at least grok what it is after a quick search. Not advocating that HN isn't for non-tech-people, just saying that neither the reference nor the xkcd were out of place for this audience.
    - crucialfelix 11y ago
      This is tech site. If you are see something you don't understand, you should just google it. As a tech person I encounter things every day that I don't know about, and I google many of them. Why should "non-tech" people be protected from the chore of googling ? Isn't that why people come here – to encounter things that they don't know about ?
      - banku_brougham 11y ago
        Not trying to "protect" anyone. Thing is, even googling sudo doesn't give someone who has never sudo'ed the insight behind the comic. So, yep.
- runholm 11y ago
  It's not really a reference. It's just the same joke. I am pretty sure I have saw "sudo <real life action>" as a joke around the internet long before xkcd did it.

paulddraper 11y ago

+1 sudo indeed

clamprecht 11y ago

It seems easy to rule out the "do whatever I want interpretation". If this were true, the Constitution becomes unnecessary. This is a contradiction. QED

dragonwriter 11y ago
The government's actual interpretation wasn't quite broad enough to allow that dismissal: the proposed interpretation was essentially that AWA allows courts to order anything so long as neither the Constitution nor laws passed by Congress explicitly forbid it.
- acqq 11y ago
  > AWA allows courts to order anything so long as neither the Constitution nor laws passed by Congress explicitly forbid it. And that interpretation the judge considers absurd: "the government's construction of the AWA produces absurd results in application. If, for example the President sent to Congress a bill explicitly authorizing a court to issue the kind of order the government seeks here, and if every single member of the House and Senate were to vote against the enactment of such a law citing the kinds of data security and personal privacy concerns that Apple now embraces, the government would nevertheless describe the order sought here as permissible because Congress had merely rejected the bill – however emphatically, and however clear its reasons for doing so – rather than affirmatively passing legislation to prohibit the executive branch's proposal. Yet in such circumstances, it would be absurd to posit that the authority the government sought was anything other than obnoxious to the law." And there's the related law in which Congress explicitly didn't oblige the companies: CALEA.
  - ikeboy 11y ago
    Wouldn't the same argument apply to any time congress delegates authority? I.E. They allow some agency to decree certain things with the force of a law. Whatever that agency decides within the bounds of the constitution is law, even if congress debated that point and didn't expressly permit it.

GunboatDiplomat 11y ago

`sudo rm -rf /privacy`