U.S. orders shutdown of Web site specializing in corporate and government leaks
Freedom's just another word...
In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a U.S. federal judge in San Francisco has ordered the disabling of a Web site devoted to disclosing confidential information.
The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” by corporations and governments. It has posted documents said to show the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual for the operation of the prison at Guantánamo Bay and evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing…
The order had the effect of locking the front door to the site - a largely ineffectual action that still kept back doors to the site available to sophisticated Web users who knew where to look…
The feebleness of the action suggests that the bank, and the judge, did not understand how the domain system works, or how quickly Web communities will move to counter actions they see as hostile to free speech online.
The site is still available at its IP address and mirror sites.
Posted: Thu - February 21, 2008 at 06:19 AM