Indymedia - Rackspace news?
Dove | 17.05.2006 12:39 | Indymedia | Technology | Sheffield
I'd like to know whether all avenues of complaint were pursued, or if any action is currently 'live' regarding Rackspace UK voluntarily passing Indymedia's data to a foreign law enforcement agency. I see that the EFF page was last updated in August 2005.
As Indymedia's front page still shows the 'Seize the media, Not the servers' logo/link, indicating that they consider it an important issue that it wants us to keep in mind, it would be nice to know that someone has bothered making an official complaint to any relevant bodies (IE Information Commissioner) after all the effort of getting the court orders unsealed, etc. I would be happy to do so myself, but it would probably be a waste of time as I would not be considered an Interested Party.
Even if a complaint resulted in an official decision that no offence/misconduct had occured, at least then I could be confident in stating that companies in the UK are not legally restrained from voluntarily handing their customer's data to foreign authorities.
Alternatively, it may turn out that Rackspace's contract with Indymedia (which I assume was their standard one as discussed @
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2004/12/302431.html?c=on#c106805 ) allowed this to happen, but if this is the case at least we would know that such contracts override any legalislation (if any exists) intended to prevent companies from sharing their customer's data in this manner.
Mike's points re. business entities ( http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2004/12/302431.html?c=on#c106785 ) also need addressing so that we can make informed choices, and give informed advice, about which companies to give our business to. Even if it makes no difference whether a company is a subsidiary or not, people need to be able to know whether their data has any legal protection and if this can be nullified by a contract, in order for them to know whether they need to seek out companies that specifically promise NOT to share their customers data unless required to do so by a valid UK court order.
Even if a complaint resulted in an official decision that no offence/misconduct had occured, at least then I could be confident in stating that companies in the UK are not legally restrained from voluntarily handing their customer's data to foreign authorities.
Alternatively, it may turn out that Rackspace's contract with Indymedia (which I assume was their standard one as discussed @
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2004/12/302431.html?c=on#c106805 ) allowed this to happen, but if this is the case at least we would know that such contracts override any legalislation (if any exists) intended to prevent companies from sharing their customer's data in this manner. Mike's points re. business entities (
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/london/2004/12/302431.html?c=on#c106785 ) also need addressing so that we can make informed choices, and give informed advice, about which companies to give our business to. Even if it makes no difference whether a company is a subsidiary or not, people need to be able to know whether their data has any legal protection and if this can be nullified by a contract, in order for them to know whether they need to seek out companies that specifically promise NOT to share their customers data unless required to do so by a valid UK court order.
Dove
Additions
a few quick notes
18.05.2006 19:19
Quickie version (from memory not notes--sorry time is short):
Basically, Rackspace UK sent the ahimsa* hard drives to their Texas office where they were cloned and handed over to the FBI.
Italy had requested via MLAT access to the logs due to an anarchist post that appeared on italy.indymedia.org. The post had also been snail mailed to the mainstream press. IIRC, the post was about blowing up (setting fire to?) some garbage can near an Italian politician's (Prodi?) house.
The EFF pursued the case for awhile. See: http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Indymedia/
It's clear that Rackspace violated UK laws. At the time, there really wasn't much legal support in the UK for pursuing such cases, but that has changed and more legal contacts have been made (mostly due to this case). It's pretty much been in limbo since then.
Interestingly, the lawyers for the EFF that pursued the case are the ones that have filed the class action lawsuit against AT&T for spying on gringos with the NSA.
-Jeff
Basically, Rackspace UK sent the ahimsa* hard drives to their Texas office where they were cloned and handed over to the FBI.
Italy had requested via MLAT access to the logs due to an anarchist post that appeared on italy.indymedia.org. The post had also been snail mailed to the mainstream press. IIRC, the post was about blowing up (setting fire to?) some garbage can near an Italian politician's (Prodi?) house.
The EFF pursued the case for awhile. See:
http://www.eff.org/Censorship/Indymedia/ It's clear that Rackspace violated UK laws. At the time, there really wasn't much legal support in the UK for pursuing such cases, but that has changed and more legal contacts have been made (mostly due to this case). It's pretty much been in limbo since then.
Interestingly, the lawyers for the EFF that pursued the case are the ones that have filed the class action lawsuit against AT&T for spying on gringos with the NSA.
-Jeff
jeff
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