report

[Carl Malamud <xxxx@media.org>]

Hi -

I hope I got this right.  Met with two agents, Honeycut and her male  
colleague.  He didn't have a card, they both had guns.  Met for an  
hour.  "We" is "me."

1. Went over my background doing government information, including  
SEC, Patent, Federal Reserve Board, others.
2. went over the appeals court audit, letters to and from Rosenthal.   
Left them copies.

3. Went over the GPO ssn issues we uncovered.
4. Went over the preliminary and final audits to AO on PACER, left  
copies.

5. Went over the fact they ignored me, the appeals from Martin and DOJ.
6. When Ric Davis started talking FBI, I called DOJ.
7. Went over the December "third and final notices to courts", left  
them copies, plus copies of the answers from judges, clerks
8. Went over the ny times piece ("yes, it seemed substantially  
accurate), the letter from lieberman, the letter to lieberman
9. Discussed PACER access in general, explained the cookie mechanism,  
explained no IP address binding for a cookie, no decryption or  
anything necessary.
10. Said we gave you an account to upload, once we heard there were  
issues, just to be safe we cut off access.  Giving accounts if very  
rare for us.
11. Explained Pacer recycling, how I encouraged people to use public  
access program.
12. Said yes, you had contacted me and asked if I wanted more PACER  
data.  We were surprised by how much data, but then you're a bright guy.
13. Decade-long experience working with you.  Never gave you any  
money, with the one exception of the .gov audit, which you didn't do  
and returened our check.  *NO* monetary incentives whatsoever.
14. I scrubbed all documentation on PACER, including web site pages,  
PR, AO reports, etc for any indication whatsoever that this was a  
prohibited activity.  Finding there was no indication whatsoever, we  
did the audit process and released the data.
15. Appealed strongly for an opportunity to discuss these issues  
directly with the AO, we had tried numerous times, they won't talk.   
We're here to help.  We're here to help them fix their systems, even  
if we disagree on policy goals (e.g., "here's how you limit access to  
a single site if that's what you want to do).  Stressed the valuable  
public service we provided and the numerous letters of thanks we had  
received.
16. Did *NOT* talk about how you got the data and why.  Did stress  
that the process took many weeks and that nobody had contacted  
anybody, no signs, no nothing of disapproval.  Conceded the volume  
might have exceeded their expectations.  Did not specify where you  
loaded your, but we did discuss in general the lack of IP binding and  
the fact that anybody with the cookie can download.


Going to see Judiciary next, then Governmental Affairs.

Carl