A federal magistrate today dismissed with prejudice a disgraceful DMCA prosecution against three young Texas men who bought a lot of cell phones while looking Arab.Adham Othman, 21, his brother Louai Othman, 23, and their cousin Maruan Muhareb, 18, were cleared of money laundering and conspiracy charges after a day-long preliminary hearing.
The three were rousted by local law enforcement in Michigan last month after they were spotted driving from Wal-Mart to Wal-Mart buying as many low-cost pre-paid cell phones as they could get their hands on.
Tuscola County authorities arrested them as suspected terrorists and made a lot of noise. Then when the case didn't pan out the feds stepped in with charges that the men conspired to violate the DMCA.
A coda to the depressing case of three Arab-Americans arrested on terrorism charges because they had a van full of prepaid cell phones. After the terror charges were dropped, the bogus DMCA charges were thrown out, too.
