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MS Dirty Tricks Archive Trickles Back Online

Posted by kdawson on from the light-of-day dept.

networkBoy writes with word that The Register is following up its story about the Microsoft dirty tricks archive going offline. It appears that several individuals have the pieces to the puzzle and are looking for hosting resources. From the latter article: "The 3,000 document archive from the Comes antitrust trial, which disappeared from the web abruptly when Microsoft settled the case last week, is beginning to trickle back into view. A week ago the site was placed under password protection, Microsoft withdrew its own account of events, and so-called internet 'archive' archive.org apparently also pulled its mirror."

26 of 83 comments (clear)

  1. Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by gurps_npc · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information. It seems to be there reason for existence.

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    1. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by cperciva · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information. It seems to be there reason for existence.

      The people who run archive.org aren't immune from copyright law. The legality of their archive is questionable at best, but if the copyright owner for some documents or web sites asks that they be removed, the legality is no longer questionable.

      --
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    2. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by Shakrai · · Score: 5, Interesting

      The people who run archive.org aren't immune from copyright law.

      Isn't anything entered into evidence in a civil or criminal proceeding automatically part of the public domain?

      --
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      We are the United States Government! We don't do that sort of thing.
    3. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by Animats · · Score: 4, Informative

      I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information.

      Anyone have the Internet Archive URL involved?

      Most likely, though, is that the site added a restrictive "robots.txt" file. The Archive obeys the "robots.txt" file retroactively. If you put one up, the Archive will disallow access to all the files that would have been blocked in the past according to the "robots.txt" file.

      The data isn't gone from the Archive, though. Access has just been disallowed. You can ask that it be re-allowed given the legal justification that the information is a public record.

    4. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by BeProf · · Score: 4, Informative

      IANAL, and I'm not familiar with the details of the case, but...

      When a case was settled out of court and a common feature of such settlements is that the complainant agree to shut their yaps in return for a large financial settlement from the respondant. And if this was an out of court settlement, none of the material in question was ever submitted into evidence and thus never became part of the public record.

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    5. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by networkBoy · · Score: 2, Informative

      Yes it is, unless sealed by the court.
      To that end, since the register article says someone has a copy and needs a sympathetic host, I'll host all I can :)
      Anyone else have bandwith and space to spare? I'm thinking just torrent the whole tarball or rar and distribute it far and wide. Once the cat's out of the bag and multiplied it's gonna be hard to put back. As long as only one person has a copy though, it will be easy to quash.
      -nB

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    6. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by Pantero+Blanco · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Isn't that the tactic that the Church of Scientology uses to shut up its critics? Using copyright law to prevent critical discussion of their materials?

      I don't think that copyright is the issue here, though; court records and submitted evidence wouldn't be covered by that, if I understand correctly.

    7. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by sabt-pestnu · · Score: 2, Informative

      Groklaw.com and its viewers have archived the documents and the host is preparing a permanent page for the Comes vs Microsoft trial documents.

      agreed. Data in one place is vulnerable to deletion. Data in many places is less so. ... noise might be an issue, though.

    8. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by sabt-pestnu · · Score: 3, Informative

      I believe you are thinking of the settlement details, which are usually not part of the court documents. Thus the "out of court" part of the name.

      As other posters note, as soon as it is ordered by the court or submitted to the court, unless it is sealed, it's part of the court (and thus public) record - put into the public domain. Witness the SCO vs IBM, SCO vs Novell, etc. documents published on Groklaw. Those cases are still in pre-trial motions (not necessarily still in pre-trial discovery, even if SCO would wish it so).

      Regardless, Comes vs Microsoft was actually in the trial phase. There were jurors and everything!

      IANAL as well.

    9. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by Jon_S · · Score: 3, Informative

      According to MathFox on Groklaw (sitting in for PJ during her health break - we hope that's all it is),

      "These documents are all public domain materials by order of the judge in the case."

    10. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by Animaether · · Score: 2, Funny

      shhh... quit confusing the conspiracy theorists with things that are logical.

      It wouldn't surprise me if a similar policy exists for sites that are put entirely behind passwords, such as the site involved here: www.iowaconsumercase.org .

    11. Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? by BeProf · · Score: 2, Informative

      > Regardless, Comes vs Microsoft was actually in the trial phase. There were jurors and everything!

      In that case they should be public record unless sealed. Feel free to call the court in question and ask them for information on how to get those records.

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  2. Relax, theres no conspiracy by Timesprout · · Score: 4, Funny

    MS were just uploading all their documentation to Google Apps.

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  3. As John Gilmore (from EFF) wisely said by vivaoporto · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "The internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it"

  4. MS Dirty Tricks by rhets · · Score: 5, Funny

    Is that packaged with Vista Ultimate?

  5. some of archive on piratebay by wherrera · · Score: 5, Informative

    Seach PirateBay for a torrent called 'iowa'

    1. Re:some of archive on piratebay by L.+VeGas · · Score: 4, Funny


      Seach PirateBay for a torrent called 'iowa'


      I would, but I would probably get sued by RIAA for supposedly downloading Iowa State Marching Band songs or something.

      --
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  6. I have 1.6GB of the best stuff by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    where shall i send it, and by what means?

    $ du --si
    23M ./attachments
    11M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011207
    154M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/0000
    108M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/1000
    93M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000
    173M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/3000
    265M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/4000
    152M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/5000
    118M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/6000
    126M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/7000
    119M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/8000
    94M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/9000
    1.5G ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607
    12M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607p2
    619k ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/01162007
    13M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011707
    5.8M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011807
    3.8M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011907
    1.2M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/012307
    10M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/012507
    1.6G ./www.iowaconsumercase.org
    1.6G .

    1. Re:I have 1.6GB of the best stuff by shudde · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Personally I'd put it on the darknets, Tor and Freenet both have sites dedicated to preserving unpopular/threatened/censored information. I'd imagine that I2P would have similar resources although I'm not personally familiar with it.

      While darknet sites aren't reachable by the average computer users, this allows the more technically-minded to repopulate the mainstream net with the content when torrents or public hosts are taken down.

    2. Re:I have 1.6GB of the best stuff by shudde · · Score: 2, Informative

      Slight correction: Tor isn't technically a darknet.

  7. Please, for the love of Pete by vyrus128 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Forget hosting and start Bittorrenting the documents! They're almost certainly public record at this point, so it's not like MS can prosecute you for it. If you're really worried about that, dump them on Freenet. These documents are critical historical records -- they need to be distributed as widely as possible.

  8. is this it? by metroplex · · Score: 5, Informative

    This appears to be it http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/hashtorrent/36201 52.torrent/iowa.3620152.TPB.torrent 2.58 Gb rar archive split in 31 parts.

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  9. GrokLaw has it by HaeMaker · · Score: 4, Informative

    Groklaw has the entire archive.

    http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200702200 83801959

  10. MS Dirty Tricks? by BoRegardless · · Score: 2, Interesting

    That is news? Ballmer blasting companies that say or post things he doesn't like is news?

    This is starting to sound like Anna Nicole in a way, but it is neat to see Slashdotters responding with their own caches of materials & Ballmer will not be able to do a cover up.

    Managing MS must be a real pain for Ballmer at this point. He & Billy Gates probably spend far more time trying to fend off issues & competition than they ever spend on "innovations".

  11. Offtopic - really... by djupedal · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I've harbored strict disdain for MS's penchant for rewriting history for many years. That's my opinion & I'm sticking to it blah, blah, blah... Who but MS would be behind pushing to take 'dirty tricks' offline? Why is it they retain their stripes and heavy-handedness in today's flash-react internet where a corporations' past is never more than a few clicks away? When will MS learn to stop pulling stunts and take the high road? Rhetorical questions, all, and one of the main reasons behind my brief and opinionated comment.

    So I was brief - big deal. Sorry if brevity of opinion ticks off the MS crowd (not), but I see nothing in the rules that says brevity is cause for being modded down - fp or no. Do I feel pain for the slackjaws that need everything spelled o u t? Ummm..not today, sorry.

    Mod how you like, but slapping 'offtopic' on something that isn't, is weak...really weak. So go right ahead. Waste your mod points, I'll wear 'em like a badge :)

  12. Watch out now... by BlueScreenOfTOM · · Score: 2, Funny

    networkBoy writes with word
    See, there's your problem right there... writing about Microsoft conspiracies with Word...