http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/29017/index.php
How can the US government have the power to do this?
Obviously, it is at this time still unclear why this has been done but there must be some form of logs or something relating to major league crime. The IMC service will have suffered disruption and will probably have had a gagging order placed on them.
It would seem that anti-terrorist laws are being used to stifle free speech, not only in the USA, but in areas outside US jurisdiction.
Phanerothyme
10-10-2004, 11:49
Originally posted by Lickszz
http://boston.indymedia.org/feature/display/29017/index.php
How can the US government have the power to do this?
we gave it to them - special relationship
Nothing being done here that isn't done in many combined operations between the law enforcement organisations of different countries.
Extradition, for example, where we grab someone for deprtation to a foreign jurisdiction.
Interpol, Europol and other organistions often operate cross-boundary, using the police in one nation to do the legwork for investigators investigating a crime elsewhere.
Hacking is a classic crime for this sort of thing - hack a US computer from the UK and the UK police will work with the FBI to nab you if it's important enough - and usually they'll have the UK cops arresting you with posisble a US observer along for the ride.
Media piracy / copyright violation is another area of international cooperation - especially with Net related stuff where the media being pirated can be deliberately based outside a particular jurisdiction to avoid legal action.
Joe
Joe
Originally posted by Phanerothyme
we gave it to them - special relationship
Do you maintain by that statement that this special relationship is equal on those grounds?
And it remains to be seen how 'equal' this mutual assistance treaty is. When a UK court gets away with ordering the seizure of computer equipment in Washington, then I'll believe it's equal.
It is also interesting that governments have kept remarkably quiet about these so-called 'Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters treaties'. And with good reason, it would seem. They appear to allow a suspension of a country's sovereignty.
Originally posted by JoePritchard
Nothing being done here that isn't done in many combined operations between the law enforcement organisations of different countries.
Extradition, for example, where we grab someone for deprtation to a foreign jurisdiction.
Interpol, Europol and other organistions often operate cross-boundary, using the police in one nation to do the legwork for investigators investigating a crime elsewhere.
Hacking is a classic crime for this sort of thing - hack a US computer from the UK and the UK police will work with the FBI to nab you if it's important enough - and usually they'll have the UK cops arresting you with posisble a US observer along for the ride.
Media piracy / copyright violation is another area of international cooperation - especially with Net related stuff where the media being pirated can be deliberately based outside a particular jurisdiction to avoid legal action.
Joe
Joe
Interesting that you make a comparison with Interpol, but in fact, as I understand it, that only involves the exchange of information between police forces. It does not empower a French court to order the seizure of computer equipment in London. To do so, they would have to present evidence to an English court which would then decide whether to issue a court order to allow the seizure. Surely that is the whole basis of 'national sovereignty' which people go on about at such length.
Quite right.
Good point - but police forces do collaborate and court orders are used in the other country to legitimise the joint operation.
A similar situation exists at the moment for three British businessmen who may be busted under some of the US laws bought in after Enron.
The whole issue of where web servers live and where the law applies with regard to them is a mess. For example, in teh US an on-line supplier in New York may, if he sells something that is banned in Arkansas but is legal in NY, be busted by the Arkansa legal system. The transaction is deemed to have taken place in Arkansas. Similarily with Nazi Memorabillia on eBay and such - it's illegal to buy and sell such stuff in Germany but not in the rest of teh world. there was quite a lot of fuss about whose laws applied there.
One of the big areas of collaboration at teh moment is media piracy - if IMC are doing the dirty in such an obvious way then they'll get busted hard.
Don't forget - some months ago we were all praising the Operation Ore bods who used information grabbed from US servers to bust UK paedophiles. This is very similar.
Joe
Joe
Disco_Cat
10-10-2004, 16:26
good timingby the feds just as Indy Medai was going to be so important during ESF,
guess now i'll have to rely on the Guardian.