Indymedia.

[zotz]

Indymedia had their London server taken down yesterday due to a US court order. Further story here and speculation here.

Anyone able to say what's going on? Apart from Rackspace losing a lot of business in the near future, of course.

Comments

[taoist-goth.livejournal.com]

How the heck US secret agents can force a provider to give it someone else's kit when that kit isn't even located in the US is quite beyond me. And a gagging order preventing the provider telling its customer what's going on? Sounds perverse.

The US seems to be progressing quite nicely down the route of totalitarian overlord. I'm fairly sure Rackspace wouldn't have had to comply but the FBI probably leaned on them hard enough to scare them into it.

I wonder what would happen if MI5 told a provider to hand over servers located in the USA? Diddly-squat, I expect.

I'd love to hear what Blair would have to say about US jurisdiction over the UK.

[zotz]

The order presumably forced the US-based bosses to issue instructions to their UK subordinates, who were simply implementing company policy. This is one of the problems with foreign-owned companies - you can be knobbled by two sets of courts.

I'd love to hear what Blair would have to say about US jurisdiction over the UK.

It cuts both ways. There are anough UK-owned companies in the States, including Smith & Wesson and Southern Comfort, last time I heard.

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

It's probably an omen that I had a long, thoughtful, but slightly angry reply to this incident, and to what people are saying about it, and firefox crashed and ate it.

Feh.