FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK.

[G_j]

Here: http://www.ucimc.org/feature/display/20764/index.php
and here: http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml


FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK. The
FBI issued an order to Rackspace (Indymedia's provider with office in the US
and London) to remove physically Global Indymedia servers (backup servers
are now in place). The order was so short term that Rackspace had to give
away the hard drives, both in the US and the UK.

The servers hosted numerous local IMCs.

The reason for the seizure is not known.

The FBI's latest anti-free-press actions began at the beginning of October
when they visited Indymedia's ISP demanding the removal of identifying
information from photographs of undercover police officers that was posted
on the Nantes Indymedia website. When asked what the US government was doing
requesting the removal of information from a French-run website that
contained information about Swiss police actions, the FBI stated that this
was a "courtesy" to the Swiss government. The FBI agents stated that no laws
had been broken, and no crimes had been committed. However, because no
identifying information was posted on the website in question, it was
unclear what actions the FBI was requesting.
---------------------------------

Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency. Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the requested servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.

Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the concerned parties on what is happening.

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

At the same time an additional server was taken down at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a handful of miscellanous things.

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 NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, Indymedia and other independent media organisations were successfull with their victories for example against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however, the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.
<snip>



The article in question is/was posted here:

http://nantes.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=3910

[ElsewheresDaughter]

1. holy crap!...this is scary shit!...please keep us abreast G_j

[G_j]

5. The list of affected local media collectives

The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia,
Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes,
Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country),
Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade,
Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany
site, and the global Indymedia Radio site.

It is ironic that that this happens now, just days before Indymedia
is due to participate in the European Forum on Communications Rights
being held alongside the European Social Forum and several other days
of discussions about electronic civil liberties and community media.
For more information on these events see www.efcr2004.net
---------------------

Some people have called Rackspace but the answer seems to be 'we don't know anything about this.'
Not surprising since it sounds like they are under a gag order.

[bicentennial_baby]

9. Yeah, us Western Massholes are reeeeeal scary!

Jeebus H. Christ. :eyes:

[el_gato]

2. this is bad news

They are trying to destroy any ability we have to comminicate the truth.

[Karenina]

3. Kick!

:kick:

[LibLabUK]

4. Hmm..

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

It can't without the correct procedures being followed in the foreign country.

However, it looks like the hosting company handed over the UK server without questioning the request... so did so voluntarily.

[G_j]

6. ** Story at truthout.org & Rackspace Statement

http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100904W.shtml

FBI Seizes Indymedia servers
By Online Satff

Friday 08 October 2004

The FBI has issued an order to hosting provider Rackspace in the US, ordering it to turn over two of the servers hosting the Independent Media Centre's websites in the UK, a statement from the group says.

Rackspace has offices in the US and the UK. Independent Media Center, which is better known as Indymedia, was set up in 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) protests in Seattle.

Rackspace complied with the FBI order, without first notifying Indymedia, and turned over Indymedia's server in the UK. This affects over 20 Indymedia sites worldwide, the group said.

Indymedia said it did not know why the order had been issued as it was issued to Rackspace. Rackspace told some of the group's volunteers "they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the parties involved on what is happening.

..more..
-------------------
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/100904W.shtml



Rackspace Statement Regarding Indymedia
By Annalie Drusch
Director, Corporate Communications
Rackspace Managed Hosting

Friday 08 October 2004

In the present matter regarding Indymedia, Rackspace Managed Hosting, a U.S. based company with offices in London, is acting in compliance with a court order pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. Rackspace responded to a Commissioner's subpoena, duly issued under Title 28, United States Code, Section 1782 in an investigation that did not arise in the United States. Rackspace is acting as a good corporate citizen and is cooperating with international law enforcement authorities. The court prohibits Rackspace from commenting further on this matter.

For additional information on the MLAT, please visit findlaw.com

[crispini]

7. This is truly frightening

What would a good response be?

More here:
The FBI yesterday seized a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, after serving a subpoena in the US on Indymedia's hosting firm, Rackspace. Why or how remains unclear.

Rackspace UK complied with a legal order and handed over hard disks without first notifying Indymedia. It's unclear if the raid was executed under extra-territorial provisions of US legislation or the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Provisions of RIPA make it a criminal offence to discuss warrants, so Rackspace would not be able to discuss the action with its customer Indymedia, or with the media.

Rackspace US has issued a statement which says that the investigation "did not arise in the United States", but which sheds very little light on the whys and the wherefores.

(continues.... )

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/08/fbi_indymedia_raids/

[G_j]

8. more from this article:

-interesting to note how protesters are constantly photographed, but when it is the other way around it becomes a problem.


(thanks)

<snip>
While Indymedia is not exactly sure what prompted the action, the group does have one strong idea. A French Indymedia site last month posted photos of what it believed to be undercover Swiss police officers photographing protesters at a French event. Indymedia received a request from the FBI to pull those photos down, as they "revealed personal information" about the undercover police, said Indymedia press officer Hep Sano.

Rackspace appeared to confirm that the photos were an issue with the FBI.

"I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been trying to get a hold of the FBI agent I spoke with before, but haven't been able to at this time," wrote a Rackspace official to Indymedia earlier this week, according to Sano. "As the request originated with the Swiss police, I can only speculate on what they saw or what they were concerned about. However, at this time, I have received no further communications from either the FBI or the Swiss authorities, so I feel like we can close this this issue."

Still, Indymedia has never sorted out the matter with the FBI.

"They never clarified what they meant by personal information," she said. "The photos were taken on a public street."

<snip>

[G_j]

10. some interesting discussion here:

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/10/08/7852628

<snip>
Can someone tell me where they saw "online accounts of a recent visit by FBI agents to the Seattle IMC surfaced late last night?" I see nothing about it on the Seattle IMC or Portland IMC..."recent" as in months ago or days ago?

-

Seattle Indymedia info posted Fri8 on //.
http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/04/10/07/204217.shtml?tid=153&tid=219

Background information. (Score:5, Informative) by sunbird (96442) <`ude.nilrebo.dlrow' `ta' `dribnus'> on Friday October 08, @01:08AM (#10467286) . I was visited by two FBI agents last Friday (10/1/04) because I am the registered agent for the Seattle Indymedia Center . The agents informed me that they were here on a "courtesy visit" on behalf of the Swiss government based on a series of photographs posted on a French indymedia site (http://nantes.indymedia.org) . The agents informed me that the post contained personally identifying information about the officers including their home address and phone number.

I asked them what the US government's interest was in Swiss police and French websites. They informed me that no law had been violated but they were just requesting on behalf of the Swiss government that the identifying information be removed. I clarified that their concern was with the identifying information, and not with the photographs, because taking pictures of someone in a public forum is not objectionable. They agreed with me and said that their only concern was the identifying information.

I asked them for the URL of the offending post. They did not know what a URL was. I asked them what the address was for the post-- "the address you would type into your internet browser." They looked confused, consulted their notes, and stated that they weren't sure, but they thought it was http://natz.indymedia.org (in fact, the correct address is nantes.indymedia.org). I informed them that it would be very difficult to track down the post considering that there are thousands of posts on indymedia sites everyday.

I told them that the Seattle Indymedia Center has no authority regarding the Nantes Indymedia Center and that they should probably direct their request directly to the Nantes Indymedia Center. They left.

I pulled up the Nantes site. On the front page of the site, at the very top, was a large logo of the FBI, and an article regarding how their ISP (Rackspace) had received a request from none other than the FBI to remove a certain post...

Nothing happened for a few days, and then today the server is gone. This is what we know for a fact:

* Rackspace received a subpoena requesting certain information. * Rackspace decided to turn over our entire server. * Rackspace has refused to provide a copy of the subpoena on advice of counsel (most likely because the subpoena contains a gag order) * When we inquired of Rackspace, this was their response: "Unfortunately, we have received a federal order to provide your hardware to the requesting agency. We are complying at this time. Our datacenter technicians are building you a new server which will be online as soon as possible. Your account manager will notify you once the new server is online and available. I apologize for abruptness of this. However, we are required to comply with all federal orders of this nature. Please let us know if there is anything that we can do to make this easier on you."

Indymedia is working on a press release on this matter and is working with EFF to assess its legal options.


<snip>