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News :: Media |
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FBI Seizes IMC Servers in the UK, US |
Current rating: 1 |
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by Indy Media |
08 Oct 2004
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The FBI issued an order to Rackspace in the US (Indymedia's provider with offices in the US and London) to remove physically one of our servers. The order was so short term that Rackspace had to give away our hard drives in the UK.
The servers hosted numerous local IMCs. If you find a site is down: that might be the reason
The reason why the hard drives were taken are unknown.
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(from UC-IMC / Global IMC / NYCIMC/Wire Reports): The FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK. It appears that a court order was issued to Rackspace (Indymedia's service provider with offices in the US and in London) to physically remove the hard drives from Global Indymedia servers (backup servers are now in place). Rackspace was given no time to defend against the order before it was acted upon and turned over the hard drives, both in the US and the UK. The servers hosted numerous local IMCs, including UK Indymedia, Belgium, African imcs, Palestine, UK, Germany, Brasil, Italy, Uruguay, Poland, Belgrade, Portugal and others.
During the Republican Convention, the ISP of the NYC IMC was informed that it was the subject of a Secret Service / FBI investigation into an article submitted to its Open Newswire identifying delegates at the RNC. While the FBI has made it clear to members of the press that the investigation is ongoing, there is not necessarily a connection between events in NYC and the FBI's seizure of the Rackspace servers. Currently, much of the speculation about the reasons for the FBI's move centers around photographs posted to the IMC-Nantes website.
The FBI's latest anti-free-press actions began at the beginning of October when they visited Indymedia's ISP demanding the removal of identifying information from photographs of undercover police officers that was posted on the Nantes Indymedia website. When asked what the US government was doing requesting the removal of information from a French-run website that contained information about Swiss police actions, the FBI stated that this was a "courtesy" to the Swiss government. The FBI agents stated that no laws had been broken, and no crimes had been committed. However, because no identifying information was posted on the website in question, it was unclear what actions the FBI was requesting.
The article in question is/was posted here:
http://nantes.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=3910
On Tuesday October 5th, Indymedia received the following message from Rackspace:
"I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been trying to get a hold of the FBI agent I spoke with before, but haven't been able to at this time. As the request originated with the Swiss police, I can only speculate on what they saw or what they were concerned about. However, at this time, I have received no further communications from either the FBI or the Swiss authorities, so I feel like we can close this this issue."
Today the FBI seized Global Indymedia servers; however it is unclear if this is related to the Nantes issue or is a second FBI concern within the past week.
(14:20) Rackspace has issued a "no comment" response concerning the FBI's actions. |
See also:
http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/111999.shtml
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This work is in the public domain. |
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Re: FBI Seizes IMC Servers in the UK, US |
by paperfrog
f0rtre55 (unverified) |
Current rating: 2
12 Oct 2004
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From the Electronic Frontier Foundation's website:
October 08, 2004
Servers in UK Containing Indymedia Websites Seized by Government
United Kingdom - Acting under a court order, Texas-based web hosting company Rackspace Managed Hosting handed over two UK-based servers containing Indymedia websites to government agents yesterday morning. Indymedia is a collective of online journalists who maintain a network of independent news websites. The order was apparently issued by a US District Court and served by the FBI, on behalf of a foreign government. Rackspace has refused to comment on what information had been requested or why the servers were confiscated, citing the court order.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is currently assisting Indymedia investigate possible responses to the seizure of its information. More than 20 Indymedia-related websites, along with Indymedia's online radio, were hosted on the servers, which were dedicated machines provided by Rackspace.
"This seizure has grave implications for free speech and privacy. The Constitution does not permit the government unilaterally to cut off the speech of an independent media outlet, especially without providing a reason or even allowing Indymedia the information necessary to contest the seizure," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl.
Rackspace contends that a court order prevents them from providing a copy of the subpoena, confirming which court issued the order, or the government agency who served the subpoena.
Contacts:
Kurt Opsahl
Staff Attorney
Electronic Frontier Foundation
kurt (at) eff.org
Devin T. Theriot-Orr
Edwards Sieh Smith & Goodfriend
devin (at) essglaw.com
Mobile (206)498-9440 |
