The Morning Wrap

Foiled: "The National Security Agency is winning its long-running secret war on encryption, using supercomputers, technical trickery, court orders and behind-the-scenes persuasion to undermine the major tools protecting the privacy of everyday communications in the Internet age, according to newly disclosed documents," The New York Times reports. In other surveillance news: The Justice Department is planning to release hundreds of pages of documents, including Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court opinions. POLITICO has this report on the government's plan. Scanned: From today's Recorder, a report on Google's defense of email snooping. "As lawyers for Google Inc. fought to dismiss a spate of privacy claims, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh pressed them to explain how scanning messages sent through Gmail to target advertisements falls under the company's "ordinary course of business" as an email provider," according to the report. The Los Angeles Times has more on the story here. Streamed: A Washington federal trial judge late Thursday handed an early victory to major network broadcasters in their fight against a service that provides streaming television online. The BLT has this report. More here in Reuters. Read the judge's ruling here. Snapped: The authorities have charged a man with voyeurism for a series of photos he took at the Lincoln Memorial, The Washington Post reports. The defendant reportedly told police he didn't think taking photos of underwear was illegal. Bitten: From the Associated Press: "In Pivotal Test, N.Y. Judge OKs Bite Mark Evidence." The AP reports: "Bite mark evidence that may connect a murder suspect to his alleged victim will be allowed at his trial, a judge decided Thursday, disappointing those who hoped the case would help get the forensic technique banished from the nation's courtrooms." Doubted: The New York Times reports today: "After a murder defendant took the stand and accused a Brooklyn homicide detective, Louis Scarcella, of beating a false confession out of him, the detective had someone important vouch for his trustworthiness to the jury: the prosecutor." Lost: Baltimore City prosecutors have lost three separate rape cases that each featured the same defendant--who testified each time. "The case also highlights the difficulty of prosecuting sex crimes, particularly in cases where a defendant faces separate trials on similar charges," The Baltimore Sun reported. Jailed: "In a dispute that just keeps getting more unusual, suspended Galveston County jurist Christopher Dupuy has been sentenced for 45 days in jail, after a state district judge found Dupuy in contempt and also ordered Dupuy to undergo a mental competency evaluation," The Texas Lawyer reports.

Put the internet to work for you. via Personal Recipe 5016098