Justice Dept. Asked For Broad Swath of IndyMedia's Visitor Records

DesScorp writes "In a case that tests whether online and independent journalism has the same protections as mainstream journalism, the Justice Department sent Indymedia a grand jury subpoena. It requires a list of all visitors on a day, and further, a gag order to Indymedia 'not to disclose the existence of this request.' CBS reports that 'Kristina Clair, a 34-year-old Linux administrator living in Philadelphia who provides free server space for Indymedia.us, said she was shocked to receive the Justice Department's subpoena,' and that 'The subpoena from US Attorney Tim Morrison in Indianapolis demanded "all IP traffic to and from www.indymedia.us" on June 25, 2008. It instructed Clair to "include IP addresses, times, and any other identifying information," including e-mail addresses, physical addresses, registered accounts, and Indymedia readers' Social Security Numbers, bank account numbers, credit card numbers, and so on.' Clair is being defended by the Electronic Frontier Foundation."

Comments

Don't hang onto visitor stats

[j_presper_eckert]

Whaaaaat, Your Honor??? Sorry, I can't hear you over the sound of how awesome my 24-hour-data-retention-policy is!
Fuck that subpeona.
In the ear.
With a Siberian ice dildo.

Re:Don't hang onto visitor stats

[dangitman]

With a Siberian ice dildo.

Well, OK. As long as it's Siberian. Do you have your import papers in order for that item? Of course, the court acknowledges that's it's *a* Siberian ice dildo, not *your* Siberian ice dildo.

Re:And why are websites still keeping this info?

[Wowsers]

Dear website admin,
You are now ordered to supply us with a printout of all information in /dev/null

http://www.infoworld.com/t/tech-industry-analysis/court-rules-content-ram-memory-discoverable-705

In what some are calling a "rogue" decision, the Los Angeles District Court ruled on May 29, 2007, in Columbia Pictures Industries v. Bunnell, that data stored in a computer's Random Access Memory --that's correct you read it right, in its RAM -- is discoverable.

Re:And why are websites still keeping this info?

[ColdWetDog]

Here, have a dump:

100110010111010100100101101001110101010101
100110101110010101010100000000110110101010
001011010010100101100110011010000000111110
000000000000000100101110110100011010010100

I'll send you some more as soon as I finish formatting it.

Re:And why are websites still keeping this info?

[fahrbot-bot]

...data stored in a computer's Random Access Memory --that's correct you read it right, in its RAM -- is discoverable.

Sure Officer, you can have the RAM and its contents. Let me turn off the system and pull out those modules for you...

Re:And why are websites still keeping this info?

[fahrbot-bot]

Honest, your Honor, the information was there when I shut off the system and gave the RAM modules to the Officer. I'm sure I instructed him to hold them upside down all the time to prevent the data from leaking out the pins...

Re:That's change I can believe in

[Anonymous Coward]

I thought NASCAR always turned left...

Re:And why are websites still keeping this info?

[blueg3]

Maybe your problem is that you shop at Best Buy for humor?

Re:I don't get it

[rho]

Or as P.J. O'Rourke says, "The Democrats are the party that says government will make you smarter, taller, richer, and remove the crabgrass on your lawn. The Republicans are the party that says government doesn't work and then get elected and prove it."

Re:The date

[Anonymous Coward]

It was one year to the day before the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson.
Coincidence, I think not.