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

[Steve Buckley]

...global internet governance??

press release today from Indymedia...

-espanol abajo -

7 October 2004

FBI Seizes Indymedia Servers in the UK

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." ISP's 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 ISP's 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.

For more information, please contact Hep at 415-867-9472 or email
press at indymediaSTOPSPAM.org. Additional information about Indymedia is
available at http://www.indymedia.org/.

-espanol-

El FBI se incauta del servidores IMC en el Reino Unido
Javier Uruen 07 Oct 2004 23:33 GMT ([general.translatedby])

En la mañana del jueves, las autoridades estadounidenses entregaron una
orden federal a Rackspace requiriéndoles la entrega de los servidores web de
Indymedia a la agencia demandante. Según lo dicho a los voluntarios de
Indymedia, Rackspace afirmó que "ellos no podía dar más información a
Indymedia con respecto a la orden". Los ISPs han recibido órdenes para
acallar en situaciones similares en las cuales se les dió ordenes de no
mantenter informadas a las partes pertinentes de lo que estaba ocurriendo.

Indymedia no tiene claro cómo y porqué un servidor que se encuentra fuera de
la jurisdicción americana puede ser requisado por las autoridades de ese
país.

Al mismo tiempo un servidor adicional fue desconectado en Rackspace, este
servidor proporcionaba radio en streaming a alguna emisoras, BLAG (linux
distro), y un montón de cosas diferentes.

En los últimos meses se han visto numerosos ataques sobre los medios
independientes llevados acabo por el gobierno federal de los EE.UU. En
agosto, el servicio secreto usó un requerimiento judicial en un intento de
desbaratar el IMC de NYC antes del RNC intentando obtener registros de IP's
de un ISP en los EE.UU y en Holanda. El pasado mes el FCC desmanteló varias
emisoras de radio en los EE.UU. Dos semanas atrás el FBI solicitó que
Indymedia eliminara un post en el IMC de Nantes que tenía la foto de algun
policiía secreto suizo y los voluntarios de IMC en Seattle fueron visitados
por el FBI para indagar sobre el mismo asunto. Por otro lado, Indimedia y
otras organizaciones independendientes de medios tuvieron éxito con sus
victorias contra, por ejemlo, Diebold o el Patrioct Act. Hoy sin embargo,
las autoridades estadounidenses han desconectado IMCs por el mundo.

La lista de colectivos locales afectados incluye Ambazonia, Uruguay,
Andorra,
Polonia, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille , Euskal
Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen
Belgrade, Portugal, Praga, Galicia, Italia, Brasil y Reino Unido.

For more information, please contact Hep at 415-867-9472 or email
press at indymediaSTOPSPAM.org. Additional information about Indymedia is
available at http://www.indymedia.org/.