[eccr] FBI seizes indymedia (Indymedia Radio included) servers in England

>The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia,
>Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes,
>Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country),
>Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade,
>Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and 
>the
>global Indymedia Radio site.
>
>http://www.indymedia.it/press_release_en.html
>
>Press Release
>
>7 October 2004
>
>FBI Seizes IMC Servers in the UK
>
>US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace's office in the US
>ordering them to provide Indymedia's hardware located in London to
>the requesting agency. Rackspace is one of Indymedia's web hosting
>providers with offices in the US and London. Rackspace complied,
>without first notifying Indymedia, and turned over Indymedia's server
>in the UK. This affects some 20+ Indymedia sites worldwide.
>
>Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the
>reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to
>Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot provide
>Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have
>received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from
>updating the concerned parties on what is happening.
>
>It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the
>US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.
>
>At the same time a second server was taken down at Rackspace which
>provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux
>distro), and a handful of miscellanous things.
>
>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. Last
>month the FCC shut down community radio stations around the US. Two
>weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the
>Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC
>volunteers in Seattle were visited by the FBI on the same issue. On
>the other hand, Indymedia and other independent media organisations
>were successfull with their victories for example against Diebold and
>the Patroit Act. Today however, the US authorities shut down IMCs
>around the world.
>
>The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia,
>Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes,
>Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country),
>Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade,
>Portugal,
>Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and the
>global Indymedia Radio site.
>
>http://www.indymedia.org
>

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Carpentier Nico (Phd)
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Katholieke Universiteit Brussel - Catholic University of Brussels
Vrijheidslaan 17 - B-1081 Brussel - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-412.42.78
F: ++ 32 (0)2/412.42.00
Office: 4/0/18
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Vrije Universiteit Brussel - Free University of Brussels
Centre for Media Sociology (CeMeSO)
Pleinlaan 2 - B-1050 Brussels - Belgium
T: ++ 32 (0)2-629.18.30
F: ++ 32 (0)2-629.28.61
Office: 5B.454
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European Consortium for Communication Research
Web: http://www.eccr.info
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E-mail: (Nico.Carpentier /at/ kubrussel.ac.be)
Web: http://homepages.vub.ac.be/~ncarpent/
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