5 ms·

https://www.leahy.senate.gov/download/usa-freedom-act-two-pager-final https://www.leahy.senate.gov/download/usa-freedom-act-two-pa...

jessaustin 12y ago
Wow a bill that isn't the exact opposite of what its name would imply. Admittedly I was not encouraged when I saw the phrase "USA Freedom".
- kijin 12y ago
  Names of bills nowadays have little to do with their content. Maybe we should just get rid of names altogether and refer to them by SHA hashes of their content... "Some moron amended bill f7eed03, now it's bill f5ba821. Do you know how much I had to tweak the language in order to generate a hash that looks like 'freedom'?"
  - gizmo686 12y ago
    Why not refer to the bill as H.R.3361. For anyone interested, here is the bill in question: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3361 https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3361
    - kijin 12y ago
      Hashes would make it a lot easier to detect sneaky last-minute changes.
      - dllthomas 12y ago
        At the same time, though, you lose the thread if you miss any "X is the next version of Y" update. Probably HR-number-hash would be ideal.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        or maybe just 'version numbers'. HR3361.4 HR3361.5 HR3361.6 etc Easier for everyone to understand, not just geeks...
        dllthomas 12y ago
        People get tempted to play shenanigans like reusing numbers.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        datetime? HR3361.20141106142502 almost as bad as hash, but immediately parseable and understood if a version was before or after something else.
  - uptown 12y ago
    Take a look at what New York City Council Member Ben Kallos is doing. He posts his legislation to GitHub so tracking changes is easy. https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation It's a unique approach to governing that I wish more would follow.
lazaroclapp 12y ago
"Under the bill, Internet and telecommunications companies are allowed to report publicly an estimate of: (1) the number of FISA orders and NSLs received; (2) the number of such orders and NSLs complied with; and (3) the number of users or accounts on whom information was demanded under the orders and letters." Is it just me, or the last one is a pretty big deal? Since before, "number of NSLs" could include a single letter asking for all the data on all users or really large sets of accounts. Of course, there is still always the typical loophole of "oh, it wasn't an NSL, it was data collected under a different program...", but otherwise this bill does seem to address a lot of the issues with NSA collection happening at completely secret rates, based on secret law interpreted by secret courts. Am I being too optimistic about it?

jessaustin 12y ago

Wow a bill that isn't the exact opposite of what its name would imply. Admittedly I was not encouraged when I saw the phrase "USA Freedom".

kijin 12y ago
Names of bills nowadays have little to do with their content. Maybe we should just get rid of names altogether and refer to them by SHA hashes of their content... "Some moron amended bill f7eed03, now it's bill f5ba821. Do you know how much I had to tweak the language in order to generate a hash that looks like 'freedom'?"
- gizmo686 12y ago
  Why not refer to the bill as H.R.3361. For anyone interested, here is the bill in question: https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3361 https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/house-bill/3361
  - kijin 12y ago
    Hashes would make it a lot easier to detect sneaky last-minute changes.
    - dllthomas 12y ago
      At the same time, though, you lose the thread if you miss any "X is the next version of Y" update. Probably HR-number-hash would be ideal.
      - mgkimsal 12y ago
        or maybe just 'version numbers'. HR3361.4 HR3361.5 HR3361.6 etc Easier for everyone to understand, not just geeks...
        dllthomas 12y ago
        People get tempted to play shenanigans like reusing numbers.
        mgkimsal 12y ago
        datetime? HR3361.20141106142502 almost as bad as hash, but immediately parseable and understood if a version was before or after something else.
- uptown 12y ago
  Take a look at what New York City Council Member Ben Kallos is doing. He posts his legislation to GitHub so tracking changes is easy. https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation It's a unique approach to governing that I wish more would follow.

lazaroclapp 12y ago

"Under the bill, Internet and telecommunications companies are allowed to report publicly an estimate of: (1) the number of FISA orders and NSLs received; (2) the number of such orders and NSLs complied with; and (3) the number of users or accounts on whom information was demanded under the orders and letters." Is it just me, or the last one is a pretty big deal? Since before, "number of NSLs" could include a single letter asking for all the data on all users or really large sets of accounts. Of course, there is still always the typical loophole of "oh, it wasn't an NSL, it was data collected under a different program...", but otherwise this bill does seem to address a lot of the issues with NSA collection happening at completely secret rates, based on secret law interpreted by secret courts. Am I being too optimistic about it?