“It’s not every day you see Microsoft and Apple or Fox News and NPR going to bat for the same team — but that’s exactly what’s happening now, in a case that could have big consequences for American tech and media companies,” Alex Fitzpatrick reports for TIME Magazine.
“Last December, a Federal judge granted U.S. investigators a warrant to access a Microsoft user’s emails, stored in a data center in Dublin, Ireland, in relation to an investigation. Microsoft said no way, arguing the U.S. government has no right to issue a warrant for emails stored abroad,” Fitzpatrick reports. “Microsoft has good reason to reject the government’s demands here: If would-be Microsoft customers outside the U.S. start thinking their emails are subject to U.S. warrants, they might think twice about becoming Microsoft customers. Indeed, top tech firms have already lost big overseas contracts over fears that American services are subject to National Security Agency snooping.”
“Rival tech companies like Apple, Amazon and HP, as well as news organizations from across the political spectrum like CNN, Fox News, NPR and The Guardian, have all signed amicus briefs supporting Microsoft’s fight to keep its users’ emails away from the U.S. government,” Fitzpatrick reports. “It may seem weird for these companies to work together on just about anything else, but it makes sense here: technology companies have a business interest in keeping users’ communications private, while media outlets don’t want their reporters’ messages to fall into the government’s hands.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The only reason Apple doesn’t work with Microsoft more is because Apple has taste – and we don’t mean that in a small way, we mean that in a big way.
Visit the Apple-backed reformgovernmentsurveillance.com today.
Original headline: “Why Microsoft, Apple, Fox News and NPR Are Suddenly Working Together”
What’s the point of omitting NPR?
I was thinking more along the lines of “Why still list Fox News?” Moving Apple to the front, and including Small&Limp made sense. But Fox and NPR are both less meaningful on MDN.
Because Fox News espouses MDN’s political philosophies, and NPR’s existence is antithetical to MDN’s political philosophies. Simple as that.
Once you recognized that MDN is run by biased people who will find ways to express their bias whenever they are given the opportunity, even when it is meaningless (such as in this case), it gets easier to just brush off these incidents.
You imply that National Petroleum Radio is somehow left of center, which would be wrong. NPR has fully embraced Villager Think (what passes for CW inside the Beltway) and has heavily moderated it’s tone to keep those advertisers- a.k.a. underwriters- writing those checks.
It is the home of false equivalence and East Coast Media Navel Gazing.
Few Things Considered is as Right Wing Biased as the Sunday Talk Shows on the broadcast nets. If it’s Sunday- it must be John McCain on Meet The Depressed.
You do mean the same type of bias WinTel-Blackberry-Palm & Dell & THE US GOVERNMENT etc…. crammed down our throats for over 20 years?! What are you are missing? OH YEAH! MDN provides TRUTH in their tech reporting. You…. dicwallaby….. can’t handle the truth. Superior innovation, along with quality products and exceptional customer service is Apple. Affordable Healthcare Act? Yup.. an act alright…. There is NOTHING AFFORDABLE when it comes to OBlahBlah Care. What part of … The US Government is the epitome of corruption…do you not understand? I bet you really believe that the US government knows more about technology than Apple or for that matter, Microsoft. You, dicwallaby, are the problem with this country, not the solution.
Go play with your blocks in the corner; adults are trying to have a conversation.
Headlines are designed to create interest. The only things NPR creates are naps.
I remember when Apple last worked with Microsoft on something significant, when Apple almost went bust! I can almost here the boo’s still echoing around the hall when Steve J announced the partnership. As for the taste thing, Apple’s can be rotten ya know.
Apple’s what can be rotten? You are missing a noun there, so we don’t know what you wanted to say. Apple’s staff? Apple’s principles? Apple’s style…?
You have to think that little bit harder and you will get it.
Well, the sentence says:
Apple’s [missing noun] can be rotten.
It is a fairly simple (if incomplete) sentence, and there’s not much to think, so, unless there was a misused apostrophe, the sentence is still missing a noun.
Actually the another main headline in this is Apple actually working AND co-operating with other businesses! Merry Christmas Apple!
“Politics makes strange bedfellows.”
But this makes sense legally speaking. This group of businesses are, in my opinion, correct for protecting the rights of foreign users from US government intrusion. I believe there should be limits to how far the US government can tread in another country’s domain and affairs.
That is all. I have spoken. Or something like that.
If I read the article right, Microsoft is arguing that emails between, say, two domestic employees, are protected as long as the servers lie overseas. That, if true, doesn’t sound right.