New York City recently subpoenaed MIT doctoral student Edward Hirsch to gain access to text messages sent through TxTMob, a system Hirsch developed to help activists communicate via text messaging.  The system, created for protesters at the 2004 Republican Convention in New York, was designed specifically to guard their digital communications from law enforcement.  Interestingly, New York City is not asking for records in order to prosecute demonstrators but instead to defend against hundreds of lawsuits filed by people arrested during the convention.  Hirsch is fighting the subpoena on privacy grounds and the case could set a precedent for the privacy of online and digital communication.

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