How Italian Police Shut Down U.S. Web Servers

gessel writes: "CNN has an article describing Italian police shutting down a U.S. hosted website deemed in Italy to be illegally blasphemous. The article goes on to describe the ramifications and U.S. efforts along the same lines."

Comments

Not really a law issue.

[captain_craptacular]

Looks like some Italian cops found someones password and shut things down. It's not like they forced the U.S. based ISP's to pull the content.

Looks like a non-story to me.

Re:Not really a law issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

> Is this not a crime under US law? After all, unauthorized access was used to alter the site's contents.

The article didn't say this, it said the cops used the suspect's computer and password. *If* the suspect gave up the password, it's not an unauthorized access.

There may have been a tradeoff - password for reduced sentencing or some such. But you can't assume it was unauthorized just because the article didn't say it *was* authorized.

(Yes, it would have been better had the story had that particular detail.)

Re:Not really a law issue.

[captain_craptacular]

It's only a crime if they were unauthorized. My guess is he gave up the password in an attempt to cooperate with the authorities in exchange for "a kind word at sentencing"...

Even if the access was unathorized it seems to me that the original post made it sound like the Italians somehow forced the ISP to pull protected speech off the net, which didn't happen at all. Whether some affected U.S. citizen has a case against the Italians is another matter.

Re:Not really a law issue.

[Nutello]

And nobody seems to be remembering the whole issue that set this off in the first place: hatespeech against the Blessed Mother.

For the umpteenth time: it's not just that. Since the end of 1999, Italian law has depenalised blasphemy. And in 1995 the Italian Supreme Court ruled that cursing at the "Blessed Mother" or saints does not constitute blasphemy. Only cursing at any deity (God, Allah, Buddha, etc.) does.

The Italian government itself actually funded in large part with a grant a highly blasphemous movie.

Again, this is making the news only because it seems picturesque to "journalists" worldwide. If you want to know why the Italian Police bothered with the site, follow the money - i.e. tax fraud and what not, which of course is nothing new or glamourous. Alleged blasphemy alone wouldn't have been enough to trigger the operation: witness all blasphemous Italian sites still around.

Re:Not really a law issue.

[Anonymous Coward]

I know the story since I'm italian and I work with a group that's fighting against repression and censorship. http://www.ecn.org/sotto-accusa/
The story is: police took the machine from where the uploads were done, with the password saved in the ftp client prefernces.
Police claimed it in an official statement as "an highly techincal operation" (!) (initially they only substituted the index.html, so the site was yet fully reachable for two or three days... :DDDDD
The problem is that the main accusation done by the police is based on a law that has been decleared anti-costitutional and illegal two years ago.
Yes, it was definitely a case of censorship, just one of many that keep going on all over the world.

don't be surprised at the low technique, the only things police can do (everywhere, and even not good) is to beat and to shot.

Re:Not really a law issue.

[Hrothgar The Great]

Hate speech is protected by the First Amendment, at least here in the U.S. So what's your point?

Re:Has anyone tried to mirror the content yet?

[an_mo]

YOu're forgetting the good old
google cache that, is still showing the site as it was.

BULLS*** , Sensationalism and Slash

[CDWert]

They did NO such thing, they did NOT I REPEAT NOT ! Shut down ANY web sites. They could have but they actually DIDNT.

What they did do, was CHANGE the content in question REMOTLEY. They made no effort to have the ISP or the US goverment TERMINATE the hosting of these sites, what they did was (probably with a rubber hose and blackjack) get the username and password and altered the site.

I hate when people say something other than happened, I read the damm headline an just about panicked that they somehow did this through LEGAL channels in the US , THEY DID NOT .

What they did is no different than what a 12 year old script kiddie could have done with a username and password. they changed content, there is a HUGE difference betwwen CHANGING content and "Shutting Down" a website, if the fellow had US cronies that were willing to host it the Italians could do absolutley NOTHING about it. Im half tempted to get a cached copy and host it for the fellows. Let the meatballs try and shut it down.

Re:BULLS*** , Sensationalism and Slash

[alexburke]

They did NO such thing, they did NOT I REPEAT NOT ! Shut down ANY web sites. They could have but they actually DIDNT.

What they did do, was CHANGE the content in question REMOTLEY.

Buddy, the net result is the same -- the content is removed from the Internet.

Whether that's by deleting the virtual host in IIS metabase, or 'killall httpd', or FTPing in and blowing away the content, the net result is that people can no longer view the site in question.

I mean, really... the mechanics of how it occurred are totally moot. The site was taken down one way or the other, which was WAY out of their [the Italians'] jurisdiction. Period.

Re:We need to respect other countries extridition

[t0qer]

Eh?

Still though it doesn't matter WHERE it's hosted. What matters is who created and uploaded the content from where, and what local laws they've broken.

In italy there is hardly and seperation between church and state, the vatican pretty much runs it all. The catholic religion is a very HUGE part of italian culture and to the italians desecrating the virgin is a VERY serious thing. I know this because my family is VERY italian and despite living in the USA we still hold strong to our belief system.

The thing is, the guy was in his own country when he did the offense. He probably TOLD them his password for a lighter sentance. How is that unauthorized access? It isn't! Shit if I was facing 10 years in the slag vs. 1 year for giving up my password, well then here! **********

You really gotta understand the culture, we have extridition treaties with italy for a reason. Nothing was extridited though, it italy it's probably leagle to search someones computer. There might be a law giving the state the right to do it, we just don't know because we don't live there. If there is a law like that, it's just a part of living in italy, and being a citizen.

If american hosting companies are afraid of foriegn goverments doing this to their citizens then they shouldn't do business with them. Simple as that. They should have a big ass bold lettering in their TOS like this..

We do not provide service to accounts from Italy, Cuba, China, Russia because we do not agree with thier censorship laws"
Thing is, we're so strapped for cash right now, I think many companies are more willing to make a buck than to fight for some censorship issue.

my take on it.
Deal with it.

Re:Residence

[valkadesh]

On the other hand, the police seemed to act more like 15-year-old hackers than police. They "...used a suspect's computer and password to reach across the ocean and replace the offending images with the insignia of the special police unit that tracked him down." That really doesn't seem very professional to me.

Actually, they were following Italian laws provisions, which require the police to put their seal on materials which are under investigation.

A trend ?

[AftanGustur]

It's becoming a trend to do things you want, just if you can get away with it..

Just look at USA/UK on Iraq.

Things are getting OK, simply if you can do them without beeing punished..

Stay tuned for this becoming the norm in all aspects of society..