On Thursday, October 7, 2004, two web servers which provided space to over twenty Independent Media Centers in the United States and around the world were abruptly taken offline by its Internet Service Provider, Rackspace, of San Antonio, Texas.

Rackspace was served with a Commissioner's Subpoena, most likely from the Court in the Western District of Texas.

Indymedia, and its legal representative, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, are both unsure of many of the specifics of the hard drive seizure since Rackspace has refused to provide a copy of the seizure order.

Rackspace only explained that it had received a federal order to provide the hardware to the requesting agency.

The two seized Internet servers provided space to over twenty Independent Media Centers in the United States and around the world. Independent Media Centers are a collective of independent media organizations which include thousands of independent journalists and which offer grassroots, non-corporate coverage of news events.

Indymedia content is widely read, serving over 18 million page views a month.

Indymedia's internet service provider Rackspace issued the statement that -- quote -- "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. 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."

Indymedia's services would not seem to be covered by the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty since it applies only to illegal activities like international terrorism, kidnapping, and money laundering.

Indymedia's legal representative, the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has contacted the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Departments of State and Justice, the U.S. Attorney's Office in San Antonio and the US District Court for the Western District of Texas in an effort to independently determine the origin of the Seizure Order, but no agency has accepted responsibility.

Beyond cutting off local IMCs from Western Massachusetts, Andorra,
Brazil, the Czech Republic, Euskal Herria -- or Basque Country --, Galzia,
Italy, Poland, Portugal, the United Kingdom, Uruguay, and multiple sites
from France and Belgium and popular Indymedia Internet radio
streams, the hard drive seizure is also troubling in that the seizure may have violated the United Kingdom's Confidentiality Charter.

Britain's National High Tech Crime Unit works with businesses to minimize
any "collateral damage" caused by a criminal investigative process and to
ensure that there is a properly audited, uncompromised chain of evidence, as laid down in the Confidentiality Charter.

And, in late September a New York judge threw out a USA-PATRIOT Act provision that forced ISPs to secretly co-operate with the FBI.

United States District Judge Victor Marrero quoted a 1962 Supreme Court case striking down the U.S. government's use of National Security Letters to force ISPs to give the FBI information about their subscribers.



The Independent Media Center network is currently examining two events preceding the hard drive seizure which may have some bearing.

On September 22, 2004, the FBI contacted Rackspace regarding some images and material hosted on Indymedia servers by the Nantes Independent Media Center of France.

According to Rackspace, the FBI alleged that a particular article on the website nantes.indymedia.org contained personal information and threats regarding two Swiss undercover police officers.

The Nantes Indymedia webmasters determined that the post contained neither threats nor names or address information as they found only photographs of the officers disguised as anti-globalization protesters. Nevertheless, the Swiss request was conveyed to the Nantes IMC webmasters, who then digitally masked the faces of the officers in the photos.

The FBI followed up with a visit to Devin Theriot-Orr, the registered agent for the Seattle Independent Media Center. The agents again incorrectly alleged that the Nantes article contained personally identifying information about the Swiss officers including their home address and phone numbers.

During this meeting, FBI Special Agent Eric Meuller clarified that they were not contending any laws had been broken, and that there was nothing wrong with the photos of the officers, but were rather passing on a request
from the Swiss government.

A Rackspace manager wrote to say that she received no further
communications from either the FBI or the Swiss authorities and closed the issue. Indymedia considered the matter resolved.

While the FBI inquiry and visit suggested that the Commissioner's
Subpoena could be related to Swiss concerns over the Nantes post, there
has been no confirmation that the Swiss government invoked the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty in this instance. Indeed, FBI Special Agent Eric Mueller, when contacted by the Electronic Frontier Foundation on October 12, 2004, denied any knowledge of the seizure, and inquiries with the Swiss General Attorney in Généve, Switzerland have not led to any confirmation from the Swiss.

Finally, on October 13, Morena Plazzi, a public prosecutor in Bologna,
Italy, admitted -- unofficially -- that the she requested IP address
log information from the Italy Indymedia server through the Mutual
Legal Assistance Treaty, but did not seek the seizure of the server
hardware.

In the United Kingdom, Caroline Flint, Secretary of State for the Home Department, confirmed that no UK law enforcement agencies were involved with the seizure.

This is Chris Kaihatsu reporting for the Chicago Independent Media Center.













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NO ONE WILL SUFFER ACADEMICALLY FOR SUPPORTING THEIR TEACHERS IN THEIR FIGHT FOR A FAIR CONTRACT!
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Photoillustrations by Chris Kaihatsu
community.webshots.com/user/ckaihatsu/