Government Order Demanded Only Logs; Web Host Rackspace
Handed Over Server
San Antonio, TX - EFF last week won a motion allowing it to
access sealed court documents about the mysterious
disappearance of two web servers used to host news websites
for Indymedia, a global collective of Independent Media
Centers (IMCs) and thousands of journalists. After six
months of secret litigation, EFF obtained a copy of the
federal court order that resulted in the October 2004
handover of copies of Indymedia servers to the government
by Indymedia's web host. That handover resulted in the
silencing of more than 20 news websites and radio feeds
for nearly a week.
However, the unsealed documents reveal that the government
never officially demanded the computer servers - the
subpoena to Rackspace only requested server log files.
This contradicts previous statements by the web host that
it took the servers offline because the government had
demanded the hardware. The documents also contradict
Rackspace's claim that it had been ordered by the court
not to discuss publicly the government's demand. It
cannot be determined from the unsealed documents
whether or not the government informally pressured
Rackspace to turn over the servers.
By giving the government more data than it requested, the
company not only violated the privacy of Indymedia
journalists whose information was housed on the servers,
but also undermined the free flow of information by taking
Indymedia's websites offline. Moreover, the logs that
the government requested didn't exist, so Rackspace should
never have given the government anything at all.
"When Rackspace received a government demand to examine
logs that didn't exist, it had a responsibility to the
customer and to the principles of freedom of the press
to fight the order and resolve this without taking more
than 20 news sites off the Internet," said EFF Staff
Attorney Kurt Opsahl.
The court order served on San Antonio-based Rackspace
Managed Hosting was issued based on a treaty request
from the Italian government as part of an ongoing
criminal investigation in that country.
EFF was assisted in this case by James A. Hemphill and
W. Reid Whittliff with Graves, Dougherty, Hearon & Moody
in Austin, Texas.
For the full press release:
<http://www.eff.org/news/archives/2005_08.php#003862>
The Register: "US Court Files Reveal Italian Link to
Indymedia Server Grab":
<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/08/03/indymedia_texas_docs_unsealed/>
More about the Indymedia server takedown:
<http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Indymedia/>
