Rackspace, Indymedia, and the FBI

chill writes "Remember when Indymedia hard drives were seized as part of an international 'criminal terrorism investigation'? Rackspace pulled the whole hard drive and shut down a dozen websites, and the Slashdot community cried 'Say it ain't so!' It ain't so. The documents have been unsealed and CNet is reporting that Rackspace made a mistake. The government wanted only copies of logs, not entire hard drives. It seems the week of downtime wasn't really necessary. Oops!"

Comments

Mistake

[Knome_fan]

Ah, if it's only a mistake than it's no problem.

After all, everybody makes mistakes from time to time...

Knee Jerk Reactions...

[__aaclcg7560]

I guess when the government asks someone to jump, no one bothers to ask how high. Some people just assume that jumping out the window is a correct response.

Re:Knee Jerk Reactions...

[Ubergrendle]

Ever dealt with Law Enforcement? There's always what they ASK you do to and what the IMPLY you should do... unlike normal people doing normal jobs, Law Enforcement officers are trained never to rationalise, never to second guess, and to always assume that they're right. There's good reasons for this, but sometimes it has bad results.

ISP:"We won't give you our records without a court order."
Police officer:"Well, if I get a court order I'm going to ask for your whole ISP to be shut down. Don't make me waste my time."
ISP:"Oh crap! Here's not just the logs but the harddrives! Please don't shut us down..."
(10 minutes later) ISP Lawyer:"Call me first next time, this cop was yanking your chain."

A very likely set of events IMHO.

Zealotry is bad, no matter who does it

[ReformedExCon]

Rackspace, in their desire to stay on the good side of the law went far overboard in their zeal to help the police. This is a common theme in many cases.

The law specifically protects people from incriminating themselves and also from unreasonable search and seizure. It does not protect them from turning themselves into the authorities, nor does it protect them from others doing it for them.

You would like to think that companies would consult with their lawyers that could advise them on their legal rights and responsibilities before they took drastic, unnecessary steps like turning a lot of personal/private documentation over to the police.

Hanlon's Razor

[GozzoMan]

Never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.

(From TFA: "A Rackspace employee mistakenly used the word 'hardware' to describe the contents of a federal order,")

Re:Guess about what really happened.

[vector0319]

I feel our government is as corrupt as you say and I feel you are right-on about the intimidation, but I think you are wrong about this being a Christian country. It's stopped being a Chrisitan country long before they took prayer out of schools.

See an Anabaptist (Christian) perspective here: http://www.brfwitness.org/Articles/2003v38n3.htm Here is small part that explains it all:

"America is not a Christian nation. It never was and it never will be. This is not to say that America was not founded on some biblical principles. It was established on some Bible truths. ... But America is a nation in the world and it behaves like a nation in the world. The United States Constitution does not contain the words "Christian" or "Jesus" or "Bible." Many of the founding fathers were deists. The power of the United States government rests in the 11 consent of the governed," not in the Word of God."