[WSIS CS-Plenary] Re: FBI Seizes Indymedia Servers in the UK / "extended sovereignty"

[Carlos Afonso]

A few facts on this recent stab at freedom of expression from the Empire 
to help in an eventual discussion:

- The Indymedia network is composed of "wiki-like" Web sites in which 
anyone is free to post articles and comments, and the maintainers of 
this network should be legally protected since in a free space each 
author should be legally accountable for her/his content posted in the 
sites, not the ones who maintain the services. Seizing the servers in a 
State of Law is therefore unacceptable unless the very operators were 
posting any allegedly offensive or illegal stuff.

- Besides Britain and the USA being partners in the MLAT (Mutual Legal 
AssistanceTreaty, which could be called an "extended mutual sovereignty 
treaty") which allows in certain cases to prosecute citizens from  a 
country at the request of the other country's justices, this still needs 
to be done in compliance with the legal standards of the affected 
country (in this case, Britain). Taking into account the above, it seems 
this might not have been the case.

- Indymedia in Britain hosted its servers in a USA corporation 
subsidiary - Rackspace - in Britain. Thus, the corporation is forced to 
abide by the imposition of American justice, and this includes its 
subsidiaries. The obvious question is why Indymedia took such a risk, 
when there are several other, legally less vulnerable, alternatives?

- The alleged reason seems to be the two Swiss moles (they look more 
like plain traffic cops to me anyway, but...;)) whose photos are all 
over the Internet by now. No mention of the disclosure of the Diebold 
memos, which might be the real reason for the USA cops to go after this 
and dozens of other Web sites, out of Diebold's desperation (Diebold's 
ears were even pulled in a NY Times editorial on Oct.4 after losing a 
case against students who allegedly helped recirculate the memos). This 
is very serious indeed, showing the incredible vulnerability to 
manipulation of the USA voting machines, as recognized by the Diebold 
techies themselves in the said memos. Sounds like Americans might have a 
nationwide reedition of the Florida scam in the upcoming elections...

In any case, the memos and the cops' photos are in hundreds of sites the 
world over now, which turns the apparently illegal seizure into even 
more nonsense.

Very troubling indeed, compa Bertrand.

fraternal rgds

--c.a.

Bertrand de LA CHAPELLE wrote:

>Just one comment on this very troubling story :
>
>It has often been argued that the Internet reduces the 
>sovereignty of states on their own citizens and territory 
>(up to John Perry Barlow's vision on the independence of 
>cyberspace).
>
>What the story below demonstrates is a simultaneous 
>potential trend in the exact opposite direction towards what 
>we could call "extended sovereignty" : the power a 
>government (and in particular the US government) can apply 
>to a foreign national/entity in its own country. The Patriot 
>Act being only one among the tools trying to establish this 
>extension of sovereignty.
>
>An article by John Hines details this challenge in a clear 
>way : http://www.isoc.org/pubpolpillar/juris.shtml
>
>This is a MAJOR political issue, only emerging but likely to 
>take a growing importance.
>
>Bertrand de La Chapelle
>
>
>
>---- Original message ----
>  
>
>>Date: Fri, 8 Oct 2004 17:35:49 +0200
>>From: "Stephane Koch" <president at isoc.ch>  
>>Subject: [WSIS CS-Plenary] FYI : FBI Seizes Indymedia 
>>    
>>
>Servers in the UK  
>  
>
>>To: <plenary at wsis-cs.org>
>>
>>
>>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
>  
>
[...]

>  
>