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FBI Seizes IMC Servers in the UK<br><br>
Indy Media - Oct 7, 2004<br><br>
<a href="http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/111999.shtml" eudora="autourl">http://www.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/111999.shtml<br><br>
</a>Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal order to
Rackspace<br>
ordering them to hand over Indymedia web servers to the requesting
agency.<br>
Rackspace, which provides hosting services for more that 20
Indymedia<br>
sites at its London facility, complied and turned over the
requested<br>
servers, effectively removing those sites from the internet.<br><br>
Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia,
the<br>
reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to<br>
Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot provide
Indymedia<br>
with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag
orders<br>
in similar situations which prevent them from updating the
concerned<br>
parties on what is happening.<br><br>
It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the
US<br>
jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.<br><br>
At the same time an additional server was taken down at Rackspace
which<br>
provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux
distro),<br>
and a handful of miscellanous things.<br><br>
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by
the<br>
US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in
an<br>
attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP
logs<br>
from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut
down<br>
community radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI
requested<br>
that Indymedia takes down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo
of<br>
some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited
by<br>
the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, Indymedia and other<br>
independent media organisations were successfull with their victories
for<br>
example against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however, the US<br>
authorities shut down IMCs around the world.<br><br>
The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia,
Uruguay,<br>
Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles,
Marseille<br>
(all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West<br>
Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague,
Galiza,<br>
Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and the global
Indymedia<br>
Radio site.<br><br>
<br><br>
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522 Valencia Street<br>
San Francisco, CA 94110<br>
(415) 863-9977<br>
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