3 ms·

Shedding Light on the FISC: Court Findings from Our 2007-2008 Case

59 points by sinak 12y ago

mindstab 12y ago
Eleanor Saitta ‏@Dymaxion 6m Let's be clear in talking about that scary fine: Yahoo could pay $250k a day for a decade with cash on hand. Sorry, make that 300 years, if they wanted to push it.
- praneshp 12y ago
  It's a million dollars every 4 days, even assuming a generous 4b cash balance, 4000 days, or 11 years is what they'd have lasted. It's a pretty scary fine.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- DannyBee 12y ago
  and you think the court would not have gradually increased it? Or jailed folks?
eyeareque 12y ago
Thanks Yahoo. It's nice to see a company stand up for the rights of their users.
suprgeek 12y ago
It is laudable that while just complying and letting the U.S. Govt. get at any data would be the cheaper move business-wise, Yahoo seems to made somewhat of an effort to fight back. It is sad that that they are still unable to reveal what data was being extorted by the USG under the threat of that big scary fine.. Once again Snowden did the right thing -shine a bright light on all these nefarious dealings, and putting unauthorized surveillance front and center in the public mind.
- jahmed 12y ago
  It would be interesting how this would get reported in their 10Q and 10K. Either way investors would question what this odd charge is about. Id say take the hit and report it in a subtle but not so subtle way. It would almost act as a warrant canary.
- tedunangst 12y ago
  Too bad we already threw Yahoo under the bus the first day the PRISM slide with their logo appeared.
junto 12y ago
Out of interest, if Yahoo had continued on this path who would the USG put in prison for the noncompliance? The CEO? If so, the FISA ruling isn't that secret anymore, if the CEO of a global firm gets put in prison. Would have been fascinating to see a CEO play that out. Suicidal, but interesting nevertheless. Notably: June 18, 2007: Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang replaces Terry Semel as CEO. Assuming this process started whilst Semel was still onboard, Yang took over the reins and continued the fight.
- Vivtek 12y ago
  The CEO of a global firm did get put in prison in the telecommunications version of this sordid story - Joseph Nacchio of Qwest (a phone company that was driven into bankruptcy for refusing to play the NSA's game). All the Serious People just agreed that this was entirely normal and OK. (See http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-and-the-nsa-2013-6 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-a... for details if you haven't already heard about it. The "illegal stock trading" was selling shares in his own company while knowing about classified business with the NSA itself - which they deemed insider trading after they had a reason to punish him.)

59 points by sinak 12y ago

Eleanor Saitta ‏@Dymaxion 6m Let's be clear in talking about that scary fine: Yahoo could pay $250k a day for a decade with cash on hand. Sorry, make that 300 years, if they wanted to push it.

praneshp 12y ago
It's a million dollars every 4 days, even assuming a generous 4b cash balance, 4000 days, or 11 years is what they'd have lasted. It's a pretty scary fine.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
DannyBee 12y ago
and you think the court would not have gradually increased it? Or jailed folks?

eyeareque 12y ago

Thanks Yahoo. It's nice to see a company stand up for the rights of their users.

suprgeek 12y ago

It is laudable that while just complying and letting the U.S. Govt. get at any data would be the cheaper move business-wise, Yahoo seems to made somewhat of an effort to fight back. It is sad that that they are still unable to reveal what data was being extorted by the USG under the threat of that big scary fine.. Once again Snowden did the right thing -shine a bright light on all these nefarious dealings, and putting unauthorized surveillance front and center in the public mind.

jahmed 12y ago
It would be interesting how this would get reported in their 10Q and 10K. Either way investors would question what this odd charge is about. Id say take the hit and report it in a subtle but not so subtle way. It would almost act as a warrant canary.
tedunangst 12y ago
Too bad we already threw Yahoo under the bus the first day the PRISM slide with their logo appeared.

junto 12y ago

Out of interest, if Yahoo had continued on this path who would the USG put in prison for the noncompliance? The CEO? If so, the FISA ruling isn't that secret anymore, if the CEO of a global firm gets put in prison. Would have been fascinating to see a CEO play that out. Suicidal, but interesting nevertheless. Notably: June 18, 2007: Yahoo! co-founder Jerry Yang replaces Terry Semel as CEO. Assuming this process started whilst Semel was still onboard, Yang took over the reins and continued the fight.

Vivtek 12y ago
The CEO of a global firm did get put in prison in the telecommunications version of this sordid story - Joseph Nacchio of Qwest (a phone company that was driven into bankruptcy for refusing to play the NSA's game). All the Serious People just agreed that this was entirely normal and OK. (See http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-and-the-nsa-2013-6 http://www.businessinsider.com/the-story-of-joseph-nacchio-a... for details if you haven't already heard about it. The "illegal stock trading" was selling shares in his own company while knowing about classified business with the NSA itself - which they deemed insider trading after they had a reason to punish him.)