Judge says nothing wrong with Wikileaks
A federal judge in San Francisco said on Friday that he would withdraw an order that shut down the Web address for 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
Comments(27)
You can always count on a judge in San Francisco to pass a ruling that compromises the security of the U.S., just like you can always count on the commie-loving NY Times to applaud when it happens.
You know, you can always count on some wacko commie to post some wacko commie comment about a court ruling that AFFIRMS the TRUE security of the United States: Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of happiness. It decision is a step in the right direction for freedom and liberty in the US and around the world. Its a same that some people hide their fascism behind patriotism!
lol@dork Captain America, keep on waving your flag and singing the national anthem while the country continues to laugh at you neocons. You guys are just about finished.
Why is America playing world police again???
There is nothing wrong with government control, oh, did anyone say, government control is terrorism!!!
Thats ridiculous!!!
Im German and still want to access that site!!!
hey noone,
do you undestand at all what this article is about? i’m sure you are “ex” east gearman, one of the bloody leeches of Germany and you bowed down before your goverment in the 80s. Right? long live honecker, eh? Do you miss the wall?
ive lost track of the score but this was definetly a win for internet rights.
+1 for teh interweb tubes
Nice one Yanks, shut off access to a site that criticises world government, then shut down newspapers and other news outlets that crticise you. Next are bloggers, then those hippie stupid, useless actors and actresses in Hollywood. After that come the mass demonstrators and the rioters (if the brainwashed masses of the USA ever take to the streets that is because demonstrations are a threat to national security) and then anyone who says a word against government policy. Oh wait… we’re halfway there already.
Nice one Captain moron, keep posting your NeoNazi propaganda. Now go cry to that redneck in the Whitehouse that I insulted your useless nation.
http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks
this is the less human-friendly numerical address.
I can see how the US can feel threatened by that site. Well I can see how any government, including the Swedish government, can feel threatened by that site.
It’s terrible for political secrets and classified information, and great for democracy… The site is going to be shut down eventually.
put aside the US for a moment, this site can be a useful outlet for countries who actually need problems to be addressed to or at least let the outside world know about.
it says on the page:
“Our primary interests are in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Latin America, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East”
so don’t ya worry america!
lol, you can tell the writer of this piece, has no idea about, well anything internet related:
Quote: “Registrars provide Web addresses to site operators for a monthly fee.”
Has anyone ever paid a monthly fee for a domain name?
Cool! We never have heard of this site until now. Nice win for the people!
never heard of it before, but going to check it out now!
The way you guys add one or two sentences to the actual story making it seem like you wrote the entire article. Granted you added “Source: NY Times” at the end but you still sullied the article by adding your comments to the very article you quoted. Rather than adding your comments in a seperate paragraph. It’s downright wrong and it’ll come back to bite you guys in the ass if you continue to do it.
you have an ad that showed up the website name is blinkx. because when i clicked on comments the ad showed up. were you suppose to have ads coming up??
What the hell…way to read the article people, nobody shut down any site, they got rid of the domain, then gave it back.
havinf it blocked in the first place should have judges recinding the order anyways.
Sean (18) you’re right, I didn’t know sites could be accessed without their domains. You learn something new everyday, or not.
It’s sad that people think you protect your nations security by lying and keeping secrets. Like someone else said true patriots believe in freedom of speech, life, love and liberty. THE REAL PRINCIPALS OF THIS COUNTRY NOT THE BS THIS FAKE GLOBALIST GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN FEEDING US. Please wake up the United States is UNDER ATTACK from within. Our founding fathers would be so ashamed of us right now.
You people are pitiful. China blocks access to any site that it does not agree with and you remain silent. Canada has blocked access to numerous sites in Germany and Russia, yet not one peep from you. Australia is getting ready to block access to some sites by info posted right here at RSLog, and still not one peep of complaint. England has blocked access to sites in Russia for music, and still no complaints from you. France has blocked ALL access to the majority of western sites, and that seems to be ok with you. Brazil has actually SHUT DOWN some ISP’s, and still nothing from you. Chavez has blocked access to all sites unless they are from socialist or communist countries, where are your cries of outrage?
The US blocs ONE site on a temp basis and you people act like it is the end of the world. Tell you what yankers, why dont you clean up your OWN back yard before trying to tell someone else that their yard is dirty, or is that too damn hard for you cyber kiddies to understand?
@ dan the reason there isnt as much noise about the opt out! ( should be opt in the gits!) filter the aussie government is going to put in is because we know it will completely screw things up and it will have be removed anyway.
goatman
March 2nd, 2008 | 12:22
@ dan the reason there isnt as much noise about the opt out! ( should be opt in the gits!) filter the aussie government is going to put in is because we know it will completely screw things up and it will have be removed anyway.
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Thats NOT the point goatman and you know it. The point is that all these whiners blasting the US for placing a TEMP hold on this site, and not saying sh#t about other countries actually blocking sites and closing ISP’s that dare to allow access to them after the countries “government” ordered them to block access.
Australia may well indeed have to remove the filter after they place it…but the whole jist is that THEY ARE GOING TO PLACE IT and it is not intended to be a temporary placement. So where exactly is the same hue and outcry against these actions that I see these cyber babies whining here about the US doing on a temp basis??
Bloody hypocrits!!!
Calm down Dan. The reason people cry over things in the U.S. is because it’s the most looked at for “conspiracy”. It’s basically the hub where all of these “conspiracies” happen. When in truth the internet is made of mostly young people thinking everyone with authority is out to get them and there really isn’t that much to worry about.
There is a reason for everything, not worth spewing hateful words. That’s the opposite out-come of your indirect achievements.
IMHO the whole USA-bashing is absolutely inappropriate. The reason that the judge issued the order was that Julius Bär, a Swiss bank and private person with no affiliation whatsoever to the US Government, requested the order. Such orders are typically issued super-provisional basis, which means that they are issued before the affected party can present their arguments against the order.
This means that one can tell the judge just about anything and for the judge it is almost impossible to tell what exactly is true. It has nothing to do with state-sponsered censorship and nothing to do the US; it is an instrument that can be found in just about any western country. The only difference is how excessive the judges grant these orders; and the US judges are not the worst by far. That honor is IMHO reserved for the Germans (anyone remember how a German judge shut down wikipedia, because of one article?).
LC
March 2nd, 2008 | 20:12
Calm down Dan. The reason people cry over things in the U.S. is because it’s the most looked at for “conspiracy”. It’s basically the hub where all of these “conspiracies” happen. When in truth the internet is made of mostly young people thinking everyone with authority is out to get them and there really isn’t that much to worry about.
There is a reason for everything, not worth spewing hateful words. That’s the opposite out-come of your indirect achievements.
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Nope I was not spewing anything I was stating the facts and if the truth hurts then so be it. I am getting pretty damn sick and freaking tired of these childish twits bashing and complaining about the US when their countries are doing the exact same thing and sometimes far worse, yet they see no need to say squat about that.
I said it before and I will say it again, these low intelligence basement bunnies need to look to their OWN governments and have them clean up their yard before peeking over the fence and commenting on someone elses yard. If that is too hard for them to understand, then maybe owning a computer is also too hard for them to understand.
Dan the reason why there’s no outcry on RLS log is because you’ve missed it. When the story about the Aussies blocking the world was posted here there was an outcry of several pages but because you didn’t see it there was no outcry.
Also we know the UK is blocking more and more but that’s to be expected from a fascist country. Your outrage about Russian music sites is funny.
China has always blocked and even executed bloggers, solution: proxy.
France blocking ‘ALL’ websites?
Now sites in France featuring recipes for building explosives, terrorist propaganda, racial invective and incitement to hatred and violence will soon join child pornography on the ‘blacklist” of Internet sites prohibited in France.
Also one report by Reporters Sans Frontier, who are on the Pentagons payroll, and a very reliable source of NecoCon propaganda if NeoCon lies is what you enjoy.
Candan blocks German websites? All I found was Telus blocking Union sites which has nothing to do with the government unless Telus is state owned in which case a suit should be brought against the government.
In the name of morality, child pornography, terrorism and security our so called civilisations will lock up, torture and murder anyone who dares speak against our own governmentsn. What is proposterous is that we dare tell China not to do what we do ourselves.
As for dan’s claims: thank you, keep posting nonsense.