|
Comment on this article |
View comments |
Email this Feature
|
|
News :: Civil & Human Rights : Government Secrecy : Media : UCIMC |
|
Global Indymedia Servers Returned -- Reasons Unknown. |
Current rating: 0 |
by Sascha Meinrath
Email: sascha (nospam) ucimc.org (unverified!) |
13 Oct 2004
Modified: 01:57:20 PM |
|
In a huge initial victory for Indymedia, the two servers recently seized by the FBI were returned this morning to Rackspace (the hosting service where the servers were first taken from). Indymedia is now weighing additional legal options after this illegal seizure of its servers. |
Content from http://jebba.blagblagblag.org/
***
From Rackspace:
I know that you have gone through more than I can possibly understand. I was just told that the court order is being complied with and your servers in London will be online at 5pm GMT.
I will pass along anymore information that becomes available and that I am allowed to.
Again, I do not have the words to understand nor express the feelings and emotions you have endured since this began.
Regards,
Jason Carter
Business Development Consultant
jcarter (at) rackspace.com
****
From Jeff:
I also spoke to rackspace (Jacques) on the phone waaaaay too early this morning. ;)
So rackpace is ready to power the boxes up now. We are in a brief holding pattern before we have them flip the switch. We will treat the boxes as compromised (cracked/hacked) servers.
It is believed that the original data is on the drive, but we haven’t been able to verify this yet. That is a loooooooooooooooooooooong process.
Rackspace did say that the drives were the originals (so the gov’t probably cloned them). |
This work is in the public domain. |
|
Re: Global Indymedia Servers Returned After Indymedia Goes to Court! |
by Olive
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
13 Oct 2004
|
|
Details? Which court? Where did the servers go, who had them? Which court ordered them returned? |
|
Re: Global Indymedia Servers Returned After Indymedia Goes to Court! |
by chip
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
13 Oct 2004
|
Indymedia has not gone to court.
This is not very helpful.
The case against Indymedia remains unanswered. |
|
More info: |
by Sascha Meinrath
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
13 Oct 2004
|
From Jeff:
They [Rackspace] powered on the servers to check the RAID configuration in the bios, but did not boot the operating system, according to Jacques. I had earlier sent them a request to not boot the operating system, if/when things were returned.
I asked about the “court order” mentioned above, but haven’t received an answer. Which court? Which country? Which planet? No word (see whodunnit? …)
I have no more information as to who seized the drives, who had them, why, etc. That info is still stored in the memory hole.
***
In answer to some of the above questions -- lots of information is still being kept from Indymedia's lawyers. The identity of whoever took the servers (and the reasons why) are still under a gag order (as is the definitive reason why they were returned). This is a case where we _still_ do not know why the servers were taken, what laws were supposedly broken, who started the seizure process, who carried the seizure out, etc. etc. etc. The Indymedia legal team is attempting to get answers to all these questions (and more) as quickly as we can. |
|
Re: Global Indymedia Servers Returned -- Reasons Unknown. |
by EFF via Sascha Meinrath
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
13 Oct 2004
|
October 13, 2004
Indymedia Servers Mysteriously Reappear, But Questions Remain
San Francisco, CA - Rackspace Managed Hosting, the San Antonio-based company that manages two Indymedia servers seized by the US government last Thursday, said yesterday that the servers have been returned and are now available to go back online. Immediate access to the servers, which host Indymedia's Internet radio station and more than 20 Indymedia websites, will be delayed so that the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) can ensure that the servers are secure and take steps to preserve evidence for future legal action.
Now that the servers have been returned, the question still remains: who took them, and under what authority? Citing a gag order, Rackspace would not comment on what had happened both in the original seizure of the servers or their return. All that is known at this point is that the subpoena that resulted in the seizure was issued at the request of a foreign government, most likely with the assistance of the United States Attorney's Office in San Antonio. Although initial reports suggested that the FBI had taken the servers, the FBI has now denied any involvement.
The seizure, which silenced numerous political news websites for several days, is clearly a violation of the First Amendment. "Secret orders silencing US media should be beyond the realm of possibility in a country that believes in freedom of speech," said EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl. "EFF was founded with the Steve Jackson Games case fourteen years ago, and at that time we established that seizing entire servers because of a claim about some pieces of information on them is blatantly illegal and improper. It appears the government forgot this basic rule, and we will need to remind them."
EFF will take legal action to find out what really happened to Indymedia's servers and ensure that Internet media are protected from egregious First Amendment violations like this in the future.
Contacts:
Kevin Bankston
Attorney, Equal Justice Works / Bruce J. Ennis Fellow
Electronic Frontier Foundation
bankston (at) eff.org
Kurt Opsahl
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
kurt (at) eff.org
Posted at 03:11 PM |
