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Microsoft Says It Never Meant To Knock Cryptome Offline
CWmike writes "Microsoft withdrew on Thursday its demand that Cryptome.org yank the 'Microsoft Global Criminal Spy Guide' document from the site, and said it had never intended for the whistleblower's domain to be knocked off the Web. 'In this case, we did not ask that this site be taken down, only that Microsoft copyrighted content be removed,' said a Microsoft spokeswoman. 'We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document's removal.' The document, a 17-page guide to law enforcement on how to obtain information about users of Microsoft's online services, including its Windows Live Hotmail, the Xbox Live gaming network and its Windows Live SkyDrive storage service, was published by John Young, who runs Cryptome.org, on Feb. 20. Earlier this week, Microsoft demanded that Young remove the document from his site, citing the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. When Young refused, his Internet provider shut down the site, and Network Solutions, the registrar of Young's domain, put a 'legal lock' on the domain name. The last prevented him from transferring the URL to another ISP. Computerworld blogger Preston Gralla dug into the document today in his 'Leaked Microsoft intelligence document: Here's what Microsoft will reveal to police about you' post."
>>>In any case, when Microsoft saw how this was about to go all Streisand on them, they decided correctly that it wasn't worth the fight.
I had clicked "reply" and was going to say the same thing but you beat me to it. - MS is not acting honorably, so much as seeing it blow up in their face with bad publicity and they decided they'd better retreat.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it." - historian Evelyn Beatrice Hall
Wow, I got modded as a troll for that?
Really guys, WTF? The document was copyrighted, that is really hard to dispute considering that it takes nothing more than literally putting "Copyright 2010" on a document for it to be LEGALLY copyrighted. Young was not given permission to distribute that document, which put him in violation of copyright law, period. The DCMA was created for just this purpose to where copyrighted materials could be forced to be pulled down. Microsoft asked him to stop copying it (making it available for download), and he REFUSED. Just because you feel it's inappropriate for a company to "hide" information, doesn't make it right to break copyright laws. He could have simply paraphrased what most of the document said, and avoided the whole issue.