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Second Indymedia Server Seized in UK Within a Year
GarconDuMonde writes "For the second time within the past year, an Indymedia server has been siezed in the United Kingdom. This time it is the Bristol Indymedia server (currently redirected to the United Kollectives IMC site); this follows on from the Ahimsa siezure last October.
The current siezure was carried out using a search warrant by the UK police at approximately 16:30GMT on June 27th, 2005. This was despite being warned by lawyers "that this server was considered an item of journalistic equipment and so subject to special provision under the law" (press release). Bristol Indymedia is currently being supported by the National Union of Journalists (NUJ), Liberty and Privacy International. Other media organisations have declared their support."
That's absolutely ridiculous - but gives (to me personally) credibility that Indymedia is seen as a force of change.
Word has it that they're going to move to Sealand/Havenco - Take that UK!
Dada Mail - Program, Art Project or Absurdity?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indymedia All hail the wiki.
While we may think this is terribly wrong from a moral/ethical standpoint, it may well be completely legal in the U.K.
Remember, I'm not saying this is right, but if you post a comment where you judge its legality by U.S. standards, you may be very wrong.
Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
In fact, that just encourages scurrilous rumor mongering -- which is diametrically opposed to good journalism.
"One cannot hope to bribe or twist,
Thank God, the British journalist.
But seeing what the man will do
Unbribed, there's no occasion to."
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
Fool me once, shame on you...
:)
Fool me twice, use an encrypted filesystem fool...
Was that so hard? And random bits are so much fun
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Thanks for the heads up, but perhaps it's a good idea to mention the reason for these seizures alongside the fact that it just happened.
For those of you left wondering by the initial post these seizures are apparently related to an investigation of a bit of vandalism that cost somewhere around a hundred grand...
That's a little background, it's not like some evil government was seizing their servers simply because of a difference of opinion (although, depending on who you listen to, that may be the case)...
Someone commits a crime, and boasts about it on IndyMedia. The police haul in their server, probably hoping to arrest the dickwads who dropped concrete from a bridge onto a train, endangering lives in the name of "protest".
I'll bet you $100 dollars this has been seized for evidentiary purposes, in an attempt to trace the IP addresses of these hooligans, so they can be arrested. And I say "good", because the sort of cocksuckers who drop concrete weights onto trains deserve to go to prison.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
The police nabbed the server because someone boasted of violent criminal behaviour on it, and the police want to trace them.
Suppose a kidnapper used my typewriter to write a ransom note. Would my freedom of speech be curtailed if the police took it down the station to dust it for prints?
Don't get your panties in a wad, folks.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.
But all the links lead to either Indymedia or pro-Indymedia sites.
It would be nice to get an unbiased source of this news, especially since Indymedia can't be expected to report on itself without bias.
Why are practically all the links to indymedia itself? What about having links to some other news sites so that we can get, like, more view points into this?
Long story short, it's a worldwide network of internet resources for communists and anarchists usually located around local indymedia pages. They use these resources to organize social events and stuff like that. Sometimes I participate of such events, they are mostly orientated to civil rights and antiglobalization stuff.
Apart from that, they also provide hosting solutions to social and radical groups, specially local Hacklabs on which I partitipate frequently.
Your head a splode
And given they could easily build their own server for PEANUTS that would at least be able to get the minimum news out the door, they would have done this kind of redundancy the day after the last time this happened.
I'd be inclined to call them Stupid Hippies, but they're not Hippies or Stupid. I just guess they don't have the few hundred pounds per node to set up a back up server somewhere.
RS
Shoes for Industry. Shoes for the Dead.
Did anyone else notice the timing co-incidence here?
From Indymedia.com: "The UK Indymedia site will be facilitating independent coverage of the actions and events. - G8 summit is running 6th-8th July.
Now I don't want to sound paranoid or suggest a conspiracy, but come on, the timing of this seizure is extraordinary. And there's about 0.00% chance of getting the server back before G8.
Nowhere in the article does it highlight the reason the server was taken, which can eventually be found buried in the links, but the response by Indy is: "As the G8 summit approaches, threats to our freedom of expression, and action, appear to be increasing rapidly." So, Indymedia contacted the Police in the firstplace, and now something is being done, they're crying about it.
If you agree with their ideas then go ahead and listen to them, if not then keep watching FoxNews.
I don't get it. Why does it have to be either indymedia or foxnews? Why impose the arbitrary limit?
IMO it can certainly be neither.
Both indymedia and foxnews are equally nutty.
indymedia is full of cranks and wild-eyed woo-woos, but at least they dont try to hide their bias (honest cranks? heh.)
The police nabbed the server because someone boasted of violent criminal behaviour on it, and the police want to trace them.
It is not necessary to seize anything to do this. At most all they need to do is mirror the drive, which can be done without even removing it. In the previous case all they really needed was the cooperation of Rackspace in supplying the needed data.
Seizing of computer equipment not actually needed for evidence is very simply a means of discomfiting and intimidating the owner and the case of the siezure from Rackspace itself illustrates that they only really need the drive at most, not the entire computer, as only the drive contains the evidence in question.
Would my freedom of speech be curtailed if the police took it down the station to dust it for prints?
Why don't they just dust it where it is? They're perfectly capable of doing the job. In any case, as per above, this particular case is more like they impounded your typewriter, your desk, everything in it, all of your files and all of your customer's files.
KFG
Come on, sending in the commandos would be an illegal invasion of a sovereign nation. Would the UK seriously contemplate such action?
Err..
K.
Suppose the Police seized the printing presses of the Sun newspaper because a letter to the editor contained some nasty words
We can live in hope...
Choose the BBC. It's not perfect, but it's a huge amount better than the alternatives. The World news site does indeed cover many stories that aren't otherwise in mainstream attention.
Having the stories edited professionally is a big plus. Also, while some stories can be biased, one is likely to see differing points of view, particularly in the editorials, and ever-increasing comments sections. The "Have your say" articles are perhaps more interesting because all comments aren't published, but rather a selection of differing views from people in different locations.
They are quite accountable, with a "Newswatch" section where corrections and responses to criticism are published. Readers can email and offer comments on or corrections to any story - indeed I have done so in the past myself, and the response (changing the article) has been swift.
For a mainstream news organisation, that hails from one country, I don't think you could expect anything of a higher standard than this.
-- *~()____) This message will self-destruct in 5 seconds...
Perhaps we should try and persuade google to link "WTF is" with "define:" on google. Would make it a lot more natural.
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
"leftist media stations of the US"
Most Americans don't seem to realise that they have one of the most right wing societies in the west. You 'liberal' democrats would be considered rather right wing in most European countries. Just like most of your media. This is most likely the same with your 'leftist' stations.
"the sole purpose of pushing leftist heart string stories to gain the support of the global public. This kind of manipulation outrages me."
I don't really see how a heart string story can be considered left or right. If a newspaper prints a story about Timmy losing his pet cat, does that make it leftist? Similarly, if a website wants to print the views of ordinary Iraqis or Afghans, that does not instantly make it a leftist website?
I take it your outrage at manipulation doesn't stop there. You must hate any sort of biased media. Given that, do you watch Fox News?
I'm not stressed. I'm just terribly, terribly alert.
But yes, many of us believe its much more honest to be up front about our biases.
And EVERYONE has them.
Everyone might have them, but it's what you DO with them that makes you who you are. That's why Fox News is horrible and indymedia (huge generalization) is just as bad. If you could seperate your bias from your journalism then you'd be...a professional.
You'll have that sometimes...
If you agree with their ideas then go ahead and listen to them, if not then keep watching FoxNews.
Only the Sith deal in absolutes
And what unbiased source are you going to use to tell you whether or not your sources are unbiased?
eh?
What you are asking for is bias that is too hard for you too see.
If thats all you need, just close your eyes and everything will be ok, eh?
Sam
blog.sam.liddicott.com
Seland claims they are a nation, that doesn't make it so. What is and is not a nation is partly in what the world agrees on, and partly what you can enforce. If you have the might to break off from another nation and enforce that right, you can become a nation. This is pretty much how the USA started (though they also had help from France). They beat off their founding nation and thus established themselves as independant. In contrats the Confedracy (the states that broke off and rebelled during the American Civil War) failed to do that and are now again part of the USA.
It's also partly in what others recognise. There are a number of nations that are incapable of self defense, yet are widely recognised as legit and have countries ready to go to bat for them. The Vatican is such a country. It is a small district, entirely contained in Italy and without any sort of defense, save that provided by the Swiss. However it is internationaly recognised as a soviregn state and any attempt to conqure it would lead to a massive backlash from most of the world.
Well, Sealand has neither of these. It has no military, no security force to speak of. A division of regular troops from just about any nation would be sufficient to conquer it. Nor does it have any diplomatic status. Nobody appears to recognise it as a legit nation.
Thus if Britan took it over, I imagine most would view it as a recapturing of a military installation they built in the first place and legitimately own.
A footnote in the Evening News today hints that the server was suspected of being used to organise 'civil disorder' in Edinburgh during the G8 summit. Living in Edinburgh and watching the City bracing itself for full on riots, offices and shops closing, wide spread road closures, non critical surgery being canceled to deal with possible injuries, local - family run businesses going to the wall, supermarkets saying they may not be able to sufficently stock their shelves with food.... I'm happy at any steps being made towards limiting the anarchy that some groups are planning.... Even Edinburgh Castle (realy nothing more than a tourist attraction now...) is stepping up security. How would you like it if the world Invaded (and I use that word deliberatly) YOUR town, shutting it down for a week, potentaly destroying a large part of it and making the residents lives hell? Everyone seems to assume that everyone that claims to support freedom of speech should also have freedom to do whaterver they dam well please... With Freedom comes responobility, Freedom to state your views also comes with the need to consider the concequences of those views on others... If you incite a riot you must accept to be held accountable....
[The Universe] has gone offline.
The real problem with Moore is not where he is on the political spectrum, its the fact that he is almost as sloppy with facts as the likes of Rush Limbaugh.
Being sloppy with facts is even worse when the majority of the facts are on your side. Take the whole memogate incident. The evidence that Bush went AWOL from the national Guard is overwhelming but when CBS introduced one piece of evidence from a source that nobody in their right mind should ever trust the GOP was able to pretend that the whole story must be fake. (Contrast this with the media treatment of the Smear Boat Liars for Bush who were repreatedly proven to have lied and contradicted their own contemporary accounts)
Ideological zealots like Bush or Moore can be very popular for a short while. After a time however people tend to tire of them and when they do the result is usually that the party that embraced them is out of office for a very very long time. Bush is not worthy to lick the boots of Margaret Thatcher or Clement Atlee but once the country tired of them they turned against their party for more than a decade.
Ideology is a very effective tool for mobilising your base, it also cuts you off from everyone who is not part of your base.
The indymedia crew appear to be a bunch of hard left zealots whose only real common platform is that they hate everything about the current political scene.
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