valerossi
03-01-2008, 08:48 AM
Judge says nothing wrong with Wikileaks
01.03.2008
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8274/86987mattertx4.jpg
A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for Wikileaks.org (http://www.wikileaks.org/), a site that allows anonymous posting of documents to assist “peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” At a hearing, United States District Judge Jeffrey S. White appeared at times visibly frustrated that technology might have outrun the law and that, as a result, the court might not be able to rein in information disclosed online. “We live in an age when people can do some good things and people can do some terrible things without accountability necessarily in a court of law,” Judge White said. The judge in February signed an order requiring that a company called Dynadot, a domain registrar, disable the Wikileaks.org address, making it more difficult for people to reach the site. Registrars provide Web addresses to site operators for a monthly fee.
The judge’s action drew criticism – and court filings – from numerous organizations concerned that the order violated the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. And because Wikileaks maintains copies of its site at several other Web addresses, the documents were and still are widely available, both from the United States and elsewhere. The main site, which is housed on a server in Sweden, remains accessible to those who know its less human-friendly numerical address. A lawyer for Dynadot, Garret D. Murai, said that within an hour after the judge issued a written order outlining his decision, the Wikileaks.org domain name would be re-enabled. I’m pretty sure the website will be much more popular now with all the media buzz - which seems to be right, there’s the freedom of speech for everyone.
Source: NY Times
01.03.2008
http://img528.imageshack.us/img528/8274/86987mattertx4.jpg
A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for Wikileaks.org (http://www.wikileaks.org/), a site that allows anonymous posting of documents to assist “peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations.” At a hearing, United States District Judge Jeffrey S. White appeared at times visibly frustrated that technology might have outrun the law and that, as a result, the court might not be able to rein in information disclosed online. “We live in an age when people can do some good things and people can do some terrible things without accountability necessarily in a court of law,” Judge White said. The judge in February signed an order requiring that a company called Dynadot, a domain registrar, disable the Wikileaks.org address, making it more difficult for people to reach the site. Registrars provide Web addresses to site operators for a monthly fee.
The judge’s action drew criticism – and court filings – from numerous organizations concerned that the order violated the First Amendment’s protection of free speech. And because Wikileaks maintains copies of its site at several other Web addresses, the documents were and still are widely available, both from the United States and elsewhere. The main site, which is housed on a server in Sweden, remains accessible to those who know its less human-friendly numerical address. A lawyer for Dynadot, Garret D. Murai, said that within an hour after the judge issued a written order outlining his decision, the Wikileaks.org domain name would be re-enabled. I’m pretty sure the website will be much more popular now with all the media buzz - which seems to be right, there’s the freedom of speech for everyone.
Source: NY Times