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FBI Seizes All Servers In Dallas Data Center
1sockchuck writes "FBI agents have raided a Dallas data center, seizing servers at a company called Core IP Networks. The company's CEO has posted a message saying the FBI confiscated all its customer servers, including gear belonging to companies that are almost certainly not under suspicion. The FBI isn't saying what it's after, but there are reports that it's related to video piracy, sparking unconfirmed speculation that the probe is tied to the leaking of Wolverine."
When a police officer seizes computer hardware from a business in the course of an investigation, they can be held civilly liable for any loss or damage caused to the business by their actions.
At least thats how it is for Pennsylvania State Police.
-jX
Don't you just love politics? It's like a comedy of errors.
This is exactly why we relocated to Chile six months ago. We had already moved to the end of a dirt road in the mountains of Mexico, but that wasn't far enough away. Now we're at the end of a much, much nicer dirt road in a country that is not ruled by mad-dog copyright censors. (And where you can rent a furnished, 5-bedroom house with cedar paneling on 2 acres of land for US$400.)
Not that we are into downloading copyrighted material; far from it, we generate our own material and publish it under a Creative Commons license. But there are such things as principles...
om namo bhagavate vasudevaya
It's actually kind of add.
Normally they get a warrant and work with the data centers. I wonder if they tried that and he refused leaving them little choice? That is , of course, speculation.
Just the man power, cost, and effort is extraordinary doing it this way.
Of course we need to remember what we have is one side of the story.
Even from a wacky government conspiracy point of view this doesn't make sense.
Of course, it doesn't look like it was a lot of servers, so that may have played into it.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
Eldred v Ashcroft holding was that a copyright law (in that example the one that extended Mickey's copyright protection) is presumed constitutional if it doesn't explicitly say it's for "infinite length" and if it maintains the distinction between idea and expression.
Although your reading -- that a copyright law is unconstitutional if it does not promote Science and the Useful Arts -- makes a lot of common sense, it just isn't the case.
In America, I mean. As presently Constituted.
My turnips listen for the soft cry of your love
Any enterprise class server has no local disk, or system disk at most. All data is stored on SAN disk. It would be hilarious if they grabbed all the servers but left the storage array.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Bottom line is people need to hold Obama accountable for these things (he sets the tone for things in the Fed gov just as Bush did before him) and stop putting him on some kind of plinth.
this is a civil contract issue right? Guy working at effects shop or whatever has contractual obligation not to steal shit from work (and probably signed an NDA with the wolverine job). Guy then breaks contract by taking a copy of the movie and then either uploads it or is careless with it and it gets uploaded.
Sure, there is some punishment in order but the guy who leaked a work print probably isnt responsible for the "billions of dollars" that the industry will say the leak cost them...he is at most responsible for one act of infringement when he uploaded it plus breaking a contractual obligation not to do so (and any punishment that shows up as too serious in a contract will just get invalidated).
Bottles.
This government has totaly grossly exceceded its mandate. I am already longing for the Bush years.. I say we tar and feather the entire Legislative branch and all the officers in the Executive president included.. Who is with me?
Repeal the 17th Amendment TODAY! Also Please Read http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.html
would a company be able to sue FBI if it had it's stuff on one of those confiscated servers but was totally unrelated to the case? or can FBI legally take them all down, sort them out later?
We, The People, already revoked copyright laws. As Robert Heinlein once wisely wrote:
"I am free, no matter what rules surround me. If I find them tolerable, I tolerate them; If I find them too obnoxious, I break them. I am free because I know that I alone am responsible for everything I do."
("The Moon Is A Harsh Mistress", 1966)
Nothing like easily broken laws and internet anonymity to set a man free...
So who's the judge who signed the warrant allowing them to take all servers?
So, this justifies pulling the 911 service servers in what way?
You see, search warrants are supposed to be narrowly tailored to those areas where it is more likely than not that they will find the evidence they are looking for. Pulling 50+ servers without even checking to see who is using those servers (we don't know how many servers, we know that 50 companies were affected) seems to be blatantly in violation of the 4th Amendment.
It is worth noting that the 4th Amendment was included partly in response to the common law larger-area search warrants which would allow police to search a string of houses because they were pretty sure that the evidence they were looking for was SOMEWHERE in that range. We require a tighter level of control than that.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
Wouldn't it be simpler to create an encrypted file system with a self-destructing key?
That way, when the FBI seized the servers, they could automatically delete all the data for you. Then when it hit court, it would be "well your honour, if the FBI told me what they were up to in advance, then I would have cooperated with them. As it is, this device prevents thieves from accessing sensitive company data. It prevents data thefts like the ones that happened at the department of defense, the CIA, the IRS, and the FBI."
The cops might be seriously annoyed with you, but you are going to be a criminal anyway ...
Do the Americans now live in a police state that is controlled by the RIAA. This may sound alarmist but when innocent companies are hurt by the use of FBI force - how far away is it?
Apparently the answer is yes.
Forget money, some data can cost lives. While rare, I have worked on databases of information that a few times a year save the lives of people in hospitals. What if that type of info is unavailable due to this type of fishing net equipment grab?
Think Deeply.
Guess you didn't read the posting on the first link: "Today at 6:00am, the FBI conducted an unwarranted early morning raid of our 2323 Bryan Street Datacenters, on the 7th and 24th floors."
Before we let run wild our confirmation biases...
We might wait on news of what the raid is actually about? Man, trotting out the partisanship at this point is pretty ugly.
Speaking of jerky behavior, the agent in charge of the raid was reported by the CEO to have said:
Geez, the CEO must be a real criminal to merit that treatment. Better pre-emptively pull out his toenails.
Politicians love power, and what President would want to limit his own? Look for Obama to amend such laws late in his first term, when it looks better, if that even comes.
But don't you think it's a bit early in his term, one encumbered from the start with heavy baggage, to begin dealing with the myriad problem laws that have been passed during the last half century?
FWIW, RICO was passed in 1970, and the Feds love its vagueness to death. Easy prediction: Obama will receive no recommendations from his cabinet or federal appointments to crimp or change it. Between RICO and Patriot, we're not going to see the end of fracked-up warrantless situations like Core IP, not until a President alters the makeup of the Supremes, and subsequent legal challenges bring down the over-broad aspects of those laws.
O lord, bless this thy holy hand grenade, that with it thou mayest blow thine enemies to tiny bits, in thy mercy.
Well, if the FBI raided my house and took all my shit because they suspected the guy next door of breaking some law, and then took months to give my stuff back, I'd sure as hell want compensation. Some collateral damage is unavoidable in some cases but that'd be beyond reasonable.
TBH I wouldn't be surprised if the difference between "cloned the hard drives and returned the hardware the next day" and "left the entire data center in a warehouse to rot for a year" is whether anyone on the paper trail has a personal beef with the company in question.
Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
I agree with you generally. But I also find somewhat odd and even disturbing that they can raid you and not tell you why? How long do they keep the computers? Do you have any recourse or compensation? Something like this could make a company go bust, so I would think the raid would have to be justified properly.
The Grey Goo disaster happened 3 billion years ago. This rock is covered in self replicating machines!
Well when Dubya was elected I was hoping he would be better than Clinton, and he was at first, but after 9/11 he turned into a War Hawk. Very disappointing. The proper response to 9/11 should have been the same as if it was a major traffic accident that killed 1500 people - mourn, rebuild, move on. NOT go out and commit mass murder against Iraqi and Afghan citizens, which makes us no better than the terrorists. (I'm glad I voted libertarian.)
As for Obama, I never expected much from him. An outstanding speaker is not necessarily a good executive. Plus he's doing exactly what I expected - spending our children and grandchildren's income. Nice job.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
By the way I might add that the largest ISP in the country, boldly displays a sign in their office window advertising no restrictions on bittorent or P2P downloads.
Living in Chile