[WSIS CS-Plenary] Indymedia Summary of Facts on Seizure

[Adam Peake]

Associated Press have picked up on the Indymedia server takedown. 
Likely lead to more coverage.

Adam



Web Server Takedown Called Speech Threat
Tue Oct 26, 3:05 PM ET

By ELLEN SIMON, AP Technology Writer

Devin Theriot-Orr, a member a feisty group of reporter-activists 
called Indymedia, was surprised when two FBI ( news -web sites ) 
agents showed up at his Seattle law office, saying the visit was a 
"courtesy call" on behalf of Swiss authorities.

Theriot-Orr was even more surprised a week later when more than 20 
Indymedia Web sites were knocked offline as the computer servers that 
hosted them were seized in Britain.

The Independent Media Center, more commonly known as Indymedia, says 
the seizure is tantamount to censorship, and civil libertarians 
agree. The Internet is a publishing medium just like a printing 
press, they argue, and governments have no right to remove Web sites.

The case, which involves an Internet company based in Texas, photos 
of undercover Swiss police officers and a request from an Italian 
prosecutor investigating anarchists, raises questions about the 
circumstances under which Internet companies can be compelled to turn 
over data.

"The implications are profound," said Barry Steinhardt of the 
American Civil Liberties Union, calling the Indymedia activists 
"classic dissenters" and likening the case to "seizing a printing 
press or shutting down a radio transmitter."

"It smells to high heaven," he said. (rest of the article at 
<http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=562&u=/ap/20041026/ap_on_hi_te/web_server_seizure_3&printer=1>)