Thursday, October 07, 2004

 

FBI Confiscates Indy Media Servers in the UK

They must have done something bad...

So now they are talking about encryption, decentralisation and failover hosting to avoid this happening again. Though I can't see the point of encrypting the contents of a public website. Methinks the tin-foil hat is restricting blood-flow to the brain.

Anyway, here's a much easier idea guys: Don't break the law!

Slashdot Discussion here.
Little Green Footballs discussion here Update: with an interesting thought:

Rackspace has hosted a number of Jihadist websites as well as Indymedia - this has not gone unnoticed, see here and here...

It could be that this seizure has nothing to do with Indymedia, but rather has everything to do with the jihadi sites hosted thereon. It was reported on Indymedia because they happened to share the same server as the jihadis, but that doesn't mean the seizure was because of Indymedia.


Still, you can tell some people by the company they keep - Material present in other sites hosted within the same systems.

I'd link to the offending Indy Media Site, but well.... It's kinda 404...

Update: This "Press Release" demonstrates the deliberate denial of any responsibility by Indy Media.

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.


Despite referring to recent activity by law-enforcement, the whole article specifically gives no indication of the rationale or accusations behind prior seizures despite these being common knowledge.

Denial and dishonesty.


Comments:
Lets go over the absurdity of your post:

"So now they are talking about encryption, decentralisation and failover hosting to avoid this happening again."

They = ? Perhaps random people on slashdot, or in comments on the indymedia article. Indymedia has been decentralized for a long time, and we are always looking at fail-over scenarios to keep things online.

"Though I can't see the point of encrypting the contents of a public website. Methinks the tin-foil hat is restricting blood-flow to the brain."

I can't either, but the "tin-foil" hat comment is an obvious allusion to where your opinions about indymedia come from, LGF. Indymedia isn't talking about encrypting anything. you have pulled information from random places and made it into something that Indymedia said, and you don't quote your sources. When I say this, my tin-foil hat is not on, its over there on the table re-charging for tomorrow.

"Anyway, here's a much easier idea guys: Don't break the law!"

Didn't!

If someone posted something to the site that was against the law, WE wouldn't be breaking the law, the person who posted it would be. If I posted something here right now that was illegal, would YOU be breaking the law? No. If someone posted something to Indymedia that broke the law, you would think that the government would ask Indymedia to do something about it, instead of just charging in and taking things.

" Rackspace has hosted a number of Jihadist websites as well as Indymedia - this has not gone unnoticed, see here and here..."

Ah LGF, as batty as they come with no facts or citations, just bizarre assertations. Rackspace is a company, people pay to have things hosted there, thats what Indymedia does, if some Jihadist websites do that too, well... so? Republicans shop at my deli, that doesn't mean anything, if a Jihadist came in and bought a salami, so what? What I find interesting is the logic jump that you make to equate indymedia with just another jihadist website.

" It could be that this seizure has nothing to do with Indymedia, but rather has everything to do with the jihadi sites hosted thereon."

I can't believe your website, which claims to be about truth and watching for the facts etc. can make such grave errors. You said yourself that Rackspace (NOT indymedia) hosted jihadist websites, but here you are saying that there are jihadi sites hosted on the indymedia server? Pass the crack pipe man!

"It was reported on Indymedia because they happened to share the same server as the jihadis, but that doesn't mean the seizure was because of Indymedia."

Maybe the Linux User group is what you mean by Jihadis? What is this nonsense about sharing a server with jihadis? You live on a different planet, or your hatred is causing you to distort the truth even to yourself, there is no evidence of anything of the sort.

I was intrigued by your site at first, but now that I see that you are a LGF wanna-be, borrowing their catchy phrases (Moonbat, nazimedia anyone?) you aren't anything but the same drivel.

ps. posting as anonymous because I couldn't bother registering and waiting 3 minutes for the process, not because I have anything to hide. if I did, I would have encrypted this post and scattered the words throughout the internet in a decentralized, fail-over way.
 
I think you need to calm down.

If you read the Indy Media page I linked to, you'll see in clear text the comment about encryption etc. Yes, it may not have been an Indy Media moderator or administrator, but it was evidently a regular visitor to the site, and (in my humble opinion) a nut for reasons outlined earlier.

Secondly, it's interesting that you believe (as indicated by your dismissal of comments on Indy Media sites) that no one within Indy Media is accountable for the content of the site ("we wouldn't be breaking the law" etc.) Therein lies the problem. A wholesale failure to take responsibility for what is clearly a big problem.

If you owned a firearm and didn't take proper steps to secure it, and a child was shot as a result, would you say it wasn't your fault?

Explain the difference then with a website whose administrators make no effort as a policy and strategy, to either verify the content of posts, or remove them when they are definitively shown to be untrue, libellous, fraudulent, racist or criminal.

Saying "you can't blame the site for the behaviour of its visitors" when you continuously do NOTHING to moderate them, becomes just a poor excuse.

As much as Indy Media likes to condemn the mainstream media, the reality is, at least they are accountible for their actions.

As for summarily writing my opinions off based on your attitude towards another blog (Little Green Footballs) I think you should try this: http://www.google.com/search?sourceid=mozclient&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&q=Indymedia+tinfoil

You'll find I am not the only one who regards many of the Indy Media regulars as conspiracy theorist nuts. The difference, is most people walk away from the site in the same manner you'd walk away from a pile of rotten garbage on the street rather than try to clean it up. Some of us start a blog about it.

You can disagree with me and are welcome to criticise me or my opinions. I am a passionate advocate of free speech and democracy. The Indy Media project however has seen free-speech abused as a trojan horse for bigots, Nazis, trolls and yes, conspiracy-theorists. As such, it has failed. Badly.

You can continue to fight me, or you can take a long hard look at Indy Media. The day Indy Media cleans its act up and becomes a benefit to society rather than a cesspit, I will happily close this site down and tell my friends about the wonderful Indy Media. In the meantime, I'm not holding my breath.

As for your other arguments about my post vis a vis Jihadists, servers and so forth, suffice to say you have misread my commentary in content and context. I was quoting another author. Indeed he made the point that Indymedia might not be to blame, so I suspect you actually agree with him/me and just don't know it. In any case, I'll avoid a meta-argument with you and let my few readers decide for themselves.

Thanks for visiting.
 
What do we have here... the photos of Swiss cops posted on another (gasp!) US university server?!

http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/user/mtoups/nantes/copsinnantes.htm

(linked from the Basque indimedia server: http://euskalherria.indymedia.org/es/index.shtml)
 
I'm still not sure whether the FBI et al raids were to do with 'those' photos or something else entirely.

Regardless, you can see from your example that the 'responsible' Indy Media types are essentially saying: "Look, we can intimidate and harrass people against the law and there's nothing you can do to stop it".

I'm not really sure WHY they are trying to make such point... They will also be the first to cry foul when there are consequences from such provocation of the law.
 
You are a truly sad sad man.

I thought there may be persons such as yourself out there. Now I know its true.

How anyone could be so unashameably right wing and conceited, I do not know.

This blog's days are numbered.
 
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Please remove copyrighted content from:

http://www.coastguides.com/r4/r4.html?http%3A//www.coastguides.com/r4/r4intro.html

You have been warned.
 
The troll posted a series of texts pulled from some site who obviously take their copyright seriously. I removed it simply because it was long and irrelevant. The source URL is still visible in the 'fair warning' posted from the same person.

I presume step 2 was to contact the third-party site posing as a 'concerned citizen' hoping they would unleash fury upon me.

Step 1 really should have included reading up on copyright law, or even courtesy.

What a truly pathetic way of showing your opinion.
 
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Cool sweet as. Nice site by the way!
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
 
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