Saturday, February 23, 2008

Julius Baer's court order springs a leak

From http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2008/feb/20/news.usa

Julius Baer's court order springs a leak


Elana Schor in Washington
guardian.co.uk,
Wednesday February 20 2008
Article history ·
Contact us
Contact usClose
Contact the Technology editortech@guardian.co.uk
Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
Advertising guide
License/buy our content
About this articleClose
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday February 20 2008. It was last updated at 21:57 on February 20 2008.
The US court order shutting down the website Wikileaks today appeared to backfire on the Swiss bank that sought the legal action, as bloggers and other fans of the site gave new life to leaked documents the bank was working to suppress.
In addition to international Wikileaks versions that were unaffected by the shutdown order, "mirror" copies of the website sprouted like weeds thanks to supporters of its mission. Run anonymously, Wikileaks aims to publish sensitive documents that often prove incriminating for governments and corporations.
Swiss-based Bank Julius Baer obtained the order on Friday to stop Wikileaks from disseminating internal company documents that purported to show the bank's Cayman Islands branch involved in money laundering and tax evasion.
But the overwhelming online response to Wikileaks's demise made the bank — and the documents themselves — the talk of the internet.
"Clearly, the court and Bank Julius Baer underestimated the ingenuity of the web development community," the whistleblower protection group Project on Government Oversight wrote on its blog.
David Ardia, director of the Citizen Media Law Project at Harvard University, said the situation had "gone 180 degrees wrong for the bank".
"What this is done is, it's really struck a chord for publishers, both online and offline," Ardia said. "If a federal judge in California can, on the arguments of one party, order that an entire website be taken down, that's a very scary proposition. What if these documents weren't on Wikileaks [but] they were on YouTube, MySpace or Facebook?"US district court judge Jeffrey White, appointed in 2002 by George Bush, ordered the San Francisco-based web server for Wikileaks to block the domain name during an "ex parte" hearing, with the website not represented by counsel. The web server company, Dynadot, said today that it is remaining neutral on the bank's lawsuit.
"However, if Julius Baer is concerned with the posting of its confidential documents on the wikileaks.org web site, it could have sought a more narrow remedy than seeking to have the entire wikileaks.org web site shut down," Kathryn Chow-Han, in-house counsel for Dynadot, said in a statement.
The next hearing in the case is scheduled for February 29, although Ardia said Wikileaks could move for an earlier court date after presenting new legal representation. The bank has retained Los Angeles lawyers Lavely & Singer, the favourite firm for celebrities aiming to quash publication of unwelcome photographs.
Printable version
Send to a friend
Share
Clip this
Contact us
larger smaller
ShareClose
Digg
reddit
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! My Web
del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
livejournal

BlinkList
EmailClose
Recipient's email address
Your name
Add a note (optional)

Contact usClose
Contact the Technology editortech@guardian.co.uk
Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
Advertising guide
License/buy our content
More on
Technology

World news

Printable version
Send to a friend Share
Clip this
Contact us
Article history
ShareClose
Digg
reddit
Google Bookmarks
Yahoo! My Web
del.icio.us
StumbleUpon
Newsvine
livejournal

BlinkList
EmailClose
Recipient's email address
Your name
Add a note (optional)

Contact usClose
Contact the Technology editortech@guardian.co.uk
Report errors or inaccuracies: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Letters for publication should be sent to: letters@guardian.co.uk
If you need help using the site: userhelp@guardian.co.uk
Call the main Guardian and Observer switchboard: +44 (0)20 7278 2332
Advertising guide
License/buy our content
About this articleClose
This article was first published on guardian.co.uk on Wednesday February 20 2008. It was last updated at 21:57 on February 20 2008.
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)