[IMC-UK-Features] summary about the server seizure

[ionnek]

Hi, features,

the feature on the server seizure was published:
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419838.html

In irc, an ad-hoc press group formed and came up with a text which summarises
the facts we are aware of til now. It can be used as a press release, or to ask
advocacy groups or other people/organisations for statements of support. I copy
and paste it in here. Tomorrow, we can publish it on the newswire, when pp here
on this list had a chance to see it.

I propose to create a solidarity page similar to the one we did for the 2005
Bristol Server Seizure, put it on the newswire, and update it continuously. 

Then, I would propose to turn the present startpage special feature into an
ordinary feature, and replace it with a new startpage special which only
contains the most important links.

And finally, I propose to work on a new feature as events unfold, instead of
updating the old one.

best
ionnek

////draft info text///

Indymedia Server Seized by UK Police (again!)

Info Sheet 24.01.2009

by: imc-uk press group

On 22 January 2009, Kent Police seized an Indymedia server hosted by
Manchester-based colocation facility UK Grid and run by the alternative news
platform Indymedia UK. The server was taken in relation to postings on the
convictions in the recent Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC) trial. Seven
activists were sentenced to a total of 50 years in prison.

In the morning, Kent Police had emailed Indymedia UK, an independent online news
platform, requesting that personal information about Justice Neil Butterfield,
the trial judge, be removed from the indymedia website and that details of the
poster be retained.
Indymedia UK volunteers had already removed the information in line with the
projects own privacy policy. Indymedia UK was unable to comply with Kent
Police’s request to retain data relating to poster. As an open publishing
project, Indymedia UK does not keep logs of the server activity.

Thus no relevant data beyond the publicly visible content was stored on the
server.
Nevertheless, Police seized the machine which was handed over by the management
of UK Grid. No search warrant was shown.

The loss of a server represents a serious damage of the Indymedia infrastructure
in the UK.
Several websites including the global Indymedia documentation project, the new
website of Indymedia London, la Soja Mata (an anti-GM soya campaign focusing on
South American development), Transition Sheffield and a Canadian campaign
against the 2010 olympics were affected. Most of these websites could be
restored.

The present case is not the first time that Indymedia servers were seized in the
UK. Shortly before the opening of the European Social Forum in 2004 in London,
a main Indymedia server was seized from the hosting company Rackspace in an
operation which involved an Italian Judge, an American District Court and the
FBI.

In 2005, the server of IMC Bristol was seized under a search warrant. One IMC
Bristol volunteer was arrested on suspicion of incitement to criminal damage,
but was never charged.

Like in previous cases, Indymedia UK stayed online this time. This was possible
due to a system of ‘mirrors’, which was set up to protect the technical
infrastructure of the alternative media project. Despite the resource intensive
interruptions caused by server seizures, the DIY-media activists continue to
provide a platform for “news straight from the streets”.

Notes to the editor:

For further information, contact Imc-uk-contact at lists.indymedia.org.

Related information:

2009 Indymedia Server seizure, Indymedia UK
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/01/419838....

Summary of the Responses to the 2004 Indymedia Server Seizure by Electronic
Frontier Foundation
www.eff.org/cases/indymedia-server-take...

Responses to the 2004 Indymedia Server Seizure, Indymedia UK
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/11/300886....

About the 2005 Bristol Indymedia Server Seizure, Indymedia UK
www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2005/06/315177....






-- 
"Some people misunderstand their local right of ``freedom of speech'' to mean
that they have a legal right to use others' computers to say what they wish in
whatever way they wish, and the owners of said computers have no right to stop
them. Those people are wrong." (Brandon Kehoe)