OT: Isn't this ridiculous??

Renegade 13 · #1 August 3rd, 2006, 08:51 PM

Forcing webpages to close due to concerns about "homeland security"? I think someone's getting a little paranoid...

Click Here

So what if the webpage in question had information on various bombs and how to make them?? Its not like someone with evil intent couldn't find out how to make a halfways decent bomb if they felt like it anyways...

Kinda seems like censorship to me.

Captain Kwok · #2 August 3rd, 2006, 09:28 PM

A webhost can close any page they want.

Xrati · #3 August 3rd, 2006, 10:01 PM

Please don't talk about anymore bombs! I don't want them to close this site too! AND while were at it there'll be no more talk of stellar manipulations, neutron bombs, bio tech and all those evil nasty things that go boom in the da...da...da...dark!

PvK · #4 August 3rd, 2006, 11:35 PM

It's ridiculous and moronic, kinda like most of the visible US response to the "terrorist threat".

Renegade 13 · #5 August 4th, 2006, 02:23 AM

Quote:

Captain Kwok said:
A webhost can close any page they want.

I doubt the stated reason would be "for homeland security" if it was merely the webhost who wanted the page taken down... It smells like government intervention.

Jack Simth · #6 August 4th, 2006, 03:28 AM

All webhosting companies based primarily in the US are very, very eager to please anyone involved in law enforcement deeply enough to mostly write up their own warrent.

Why?

Well, electronic media is subpenable (sp?) documentation. As are the computers it is on. It is perfectly valid, the way things are written up, for a warrent for "all electronic documentation" to get issued. In which case, the police can come in and take every scrap of electronics from the specified location. If you're highly international, such as Google is, then you can prepare for it with multiple redundant backups in different countries. Otherwise, well, your backups are all taken in as possible evidence as well, and you have no access to them until long after the trial is over. Which can take years. Tell me, what happens to a business when all of it's tools, documents, and client records are taken from them for a period of years? Especially when the tools and documents taken included the stuff the customers were paying to keep protected.....

Azselendor · #7 August 4th, 2006, 05:22 AM

Jack's right. Take any common website from your run of the mill hosting company and you'll find hundreds of other websites hosted on the same server.

If one website posts something that breaks the law such as bomb instructions, sensitive government data, etc and the police seize the servers, hundreds of websites are down because one guy for as much as a week while the hosting company restores from a backup company and shuffle the other customers around to new servers.

Jack Simth · #8 August 4th, 2006, 11:08 AM

Oh, it gets worse than that.

You see, all the backups are subpenaed as well (the one little itty bitty thing they are looking for might have been deleted at some point, but still be on one of the backups). As is the equipment itself. Hard to restore from backups when the backups are in an evidence locker. Hard to restore from a remote backup when the server is in an evidence locker. In order for a smallish webhosting company to survive the police getting annoyed, it needs to have backups in a sufficiently foreign location that they can't be siezed as part of an investigation AND be able to replace all their equipment within a timeframe that means they still have customers (they have to buy the equipment, or have it out of country, otherwise, the police can sieze it). The giants (Google, Yahoo, MS, et cetera) are international already - they do their own backups in foreign countries, and have servers in foreign countries ready to go on-line at a moments' notice (not specifically because of police actions - usually, although it does work for that very well - but because of local disaster possiblities).

Parasite · #9 August 4th, 2006, 03:02 PM

Steve Jackson Games had this happen to them back in the 1980s. All their computers were taken. They were full of projects they were trying to get to market. Years later some of the equipment was finally returned with no explanation on what it had been through. It came very close to putting them out of business.

Renegade 13 · #10 August 4th, 2006, 03:59 PM

Quote:

KlvinoHRGA said:

If one website posts something that breaks the law such as bomb instructions...[snip]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but posting bomb instructions is NOT illegal in the US, as long as you aren't advocating the use of said bombs, and try to cover your arse by saying that this information is for your information only, and not to be used, etc. So if they aren't breaking the law, what reason could the law have to seize anything?

Oh, and the reason I find it hard to believe bomb making instructions are illegal in the US is because of certain other things, like the fact that it's legal for the average American citizen to own assault rifles, etc. And please do correct me if I'm wrong here, I'd like to know