“Microsoft’s fight against the US position that it may search its overseas servers with a valid US warrant is getting nasty,” David Kravets reports for Ars Technica.
“Microsoft, which is fighting a US warrant that it hand over e-mail to the US from its Ireland servers, wants the Obama administration to ponder a scenario where the ‘shoe is on the other foot,'” Kravets reports. “‘Imagine this scenario. Officers of the local Stadtpolizei investigating a suspected leak to the press descend on Deutsche Bank headquarters in Frankfurt, Germany,’ Microsoft said. ‘They serve a warrant to seize a bundle of private letters that a New York Times reporter is storing in a safe deposit box at a Deutsche Bank USA branch in Manhattan. The bank complies by ordering the New York branch manager to open the reporter’s box with a master key, rummage through it, and fax the private letters to the Stadtpolizei.'”
“In a Monday legal filing with the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals, Microsoft added that the US government would be outraged,” Kravets reports. “‘This case presents a digital version of the same scenario, but the shoe is on the other foot,’ the Redmond, Washington-based company said in its opening brief in a closely watched appeal… Other companies in the tech sector are siding with Microsoft, too. Apple, AT&T, Cisco, and Verizon all agree with Microsoft… Apple and Cisco said that the tech sector is put ‘at risk’ of being sanctioned by foreign governments and that the US should seek cooperation with foreign nations via treaties, a position the US said is not practical.”
Read more in the full article here.