[WSIS CS-Plenary] FYI : FBI Seizes Indymedia Servers in the UK

[Stephane Koch]

FBI Seizes Indymedia Servers in the UK
http://docs.indymedia.org/view/Global/WwwFeaturesWorkpad
Indymedia 7th October

Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace
ordering them to hand over information hosted on Indymedia web servers to
the FBI. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20
Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied by turning over two
Indymedia servers to federal authorities, effectively removing those sites
from the internet.

Indymedia, a global network of independent non-corporate media
organizations, had been asked last month by the FBI to remove a story about
Swiss undercover police from one of the websites hosted at Rackspace. It is
not known, however, whether Thursday's order is related to that incident
since the order was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia. According to
Rackspace, they "cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the
order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent
them from informing concerned parties about what is happening.

It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside US
jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.

The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the
US Federal Government. In August, the Secret Service used a subpoena in an
attempt to disrupt the New York City Independent Media Center before the
Republican National Convention by trying to obtain their IP logs from ISPs
in the US and the Netherlands. Also, in the past month, the FCC shut down
community radio stations throughout the US. Despite these setbacks,
Indymedia and other independent media organizations have enjoyed recent
victories against Diebold and the Patriot Act.

The list of local media collectives affected by the FBI seizure includes
Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes,
Lilles, Marseille, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West
Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza,
Italy, Brazil, UK, and Germany. Additionally, several streaming radio
stations, a Linux distribution site, and other services hosted on those
servers were also affected. 

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Regards
stephane koch
internet society geneva