U.S. Government Sues Snowden for Gains of Memoir, Speaking Engagements

U.S. Government Sues Snowden for Gains of Memoir, Speaking Engagements

By signing these agreements, Snowden waived his rights to royalties for any media born out of his experience at the CIA and NSA. 

Violations of Nondisclosure and Secrecy Agreements Cited

His newly published memoir, Lasting Record, details this whistleblowing and also his near-seven year stint at the CIA and NSA that advised it. According to a lawsuit filed with the U.S. government, this book, and Snowden's concomitant speaking gigs, are in breach of secrecy arrangements Snowden signed while at the bureaus. It's About Power'"
Released at Tue, 17 Sep 2019 21:31:39 +0000 Notably, the U.S. government states that"[t]here's no publicly accessible information about the financial arrangement involving Snowden and Macmillan in regards to Permanent Record," citing an Associated Press article which says financial details for the book have been retained close-to-the-chest and the publishing"was itself a covert project" known just"under code names in internal records."  At the moment, it's unclear how Snowden and Macmillan ordered the book deal, and whether it ensured Snowden any exemptions or improvements in royalties at all.In its petition for relief, then the government has asked the court to recognize that Snowden breached his secrecy agreements and to"enjoin Snowden from any further violations of his contractual and fiduciary obligations" Nowhere in the document does the U.S. government say it plans to censor or halt publication of Permanent Record; rather, it seems as though it is prepared to allow freedom of speech predominate in that case and also to reap Snowden's talk of this publication's earnings. "The United States of America brings this civil action for breach of contract and fiduciary obligations against Defendant Edward Snowden, a United States citizen who previously worked as a contractor and staff worker for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and has been working as a contract worker from the National Security Agency (NSA), who published a book without submitting the manuscript for prepublication review, and it has given addresses without submitting the necessary materials for prepublication review, in breach of his secrecy arrangements and non-disclosure obligations to the United States," the debut to the lawsuit reads. Contracts meant to hush employees -- After taking a position at the CIA Snowden, and, even later, the NSA was bound to sign secrecy agreements. Snowden, having already transgressed these arrangements in fashion using his 2013 whistleblowing did not pay them much mind when writing his novel that is new and launch his tour. 
Therefore, Snowden's publisher, Macmillan Publishers, can be tangled in the suit. The U.S. government lists the New York-based publishing house for a defendant alongside Snowden, requiring the company to forfeit any royalties that it could be holding Snowden from the publication's sales. Though the government isn't suing Macmillan for its bit of the profits of the book, the government will also be seeking court injunction and a temporary restraining order to freeze any assets connected with the book that could be on account of Snowden. The same is true at the NSA for his time. 

Uncle Sam has filed a civil suit against governmental exile Edward Snowden for separating CIA and NSA secrecy arrangements by writing and speaking about his time at the bureaus. "In addition to any other treatment to which the United States Government may become entitled, '' I hereby assign to the United States Government all rights, title, and interest in all royalties, remunerations and emoluments which have resulted or may result or can result from any divulgence, publication or disclosure of data or material from me which is carried out in violation of this agreement or which entails material or information prohibited from disclosure by the terms of this agreement," the arrangement reads.  Edward Snowden, 36, has been living in asylum in Russia since he leaked highly classified files in 2013 which detailed the NSA's global mass surveillance system, a digital panopticon which gave the U.S. government accessibility to any device connected to the global telecommunications grid.  Per the lawsuit isn't looking to expunge the document, so to speak. But it does need Snowden to relinquish all of his proceeds from his speaking engagements and the memoir. The government lists his publisher, Macmillan Publishers, as a defendant, as the key is held by the business to the publishing royalties of Snowden.  "This capacity to behave without harming somebody else, this is the cornerstone of rights," Snowden said during his keynote speech at the Bitcoin 2019 conference. "When you talk about due process, right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, and freedom of faith -- whatever it is, the reason we have these rights is because they're codifying the right yourself. Privacy is that thing which says you belong to that you instead of to society" But the U.S. government says in the lawsuit which, as a condition of his job, Snowden was also"required to submit to the CIA for its review any writing or other preparation in almost any form, such as a work of fiction, so which Snowden contemplates disclosing publicly or has prepared for public disclosure, so which'contains any mention of intelligence information or activities' or'comprises any other data or material that may be based on' data obtained during the course of the CIA employment"  Blowing the lid from the most invasive surveillance strategy ever invented by a world superpower (that we know of), Snowden's whistleblowing forced civilians to confront the Orwellian effects of this era of information and ignited concerns within the right to privacy in a digital era. It was the type of fact to power that echoes the censorship-resistant qualities of Bitcoin.