

Dallas data center raided by the FBI based on false claims by former employee - shalmanese
http://uwwwb.com/FBIRaid.html

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jrockway
I think the problem is the lack of accountability on the govenrment's part. If
the leaders of FBI field offices routinely went to jail for raiding data
centers unnecessarily (etc.), you can bet that they'd be more careful. But
since there is no punishment for ruining someone's life, they are just going
to continue to ruin lives. The false negative rate doesn't matter, as long as
they occasionally stop a real crime, everyone gets promotions.

(That's my understanding anyway.)

Also, it is unacceptable that nobody will represent this guy in court. As far
as I know, the Constitution guarantees a trial and representation at that
trial. If he can't get either, then his civil rights are being illegally
violated. (Judges may not understand the Internet, but they do understand the
Constitution. Well, except for a few people on the SCOTUS that really need to
learn how to read...)

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jacquesm
I think a _lot_ of people will be moving their hosting out of the US because
of this.

Unbelievable abuse of power and a total lack of understanding of the nature of
this business.

To do this much damage without a shred of evidence is absolutely unforgivable.

The fact that the guy basically assumes that he'll go to prison because he
refuses to admit guilt to stuff that he didn't do is quite telling. So much
for justice.

This reminds me of the Steve Jackson Games raid.

~~~
wmf
If your servers are hosted overseas, the FBI can probably ask local law
enforcement (via some treaty) to seize everything.

<http://www.eff.org/cases/indymedia-server-takedown/>

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pyre
Depends on _where_ you are hosted overseas. I'm sure a host in Iran wouldn't
be so eager to comply with the FBI.

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cema
Are you saying your data would be safer in Iran?

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missile
Seems like a bit of a toss-up, really.

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cema
Hacker News is really not the right place for a serious conversation on this
topic, and jokes would only lead to a flame war, so I will rather abstain.

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solson
If you own an apartment building and you are suspected of committing crimes,
the government cannot search or sieze the entire building without a warrant
for each individual apartment. Each renter has 4th amendment protection and
the courts have consistently ruled this way. So if I'm a renter, and you're
the police or FBI, you can't get a warrant to seize my property from a judge
until you can convince a him that you have probable cause to believe I am
involved in a crime (the fact that another renter in the building or the
property owner is a suspect is not justification). This same premise applies
to storage lockers and other rented space. You can't simply seize an entire
rental property. Co-location data centers should function the same way. Our
servers are in locked cabinets at our co-lo. We have an SLA and a contract
lease with the host. The property in that space is legally ours. Let's hope we
never have to convince a court of that.

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jcromartie
Lesson: The US Government can and will completely fuck you over for any
arbitrary reason at any time with no possibility of recourse. I'm sure that's
exactly what the founding fathers had in mind.

~~~
caffeine
Lesson: Do not live in the US. Just Don't Do It.

~~~
dkersten
Agreed. That story sucks.. :-(

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jsares
It sounds like the FBI "acted stupidly" but the guy was no saint. In this
thread he gives customer service that actually makes AT&T look good:

[http://voip.yuku.com/reply/421/t/Re-premiervoice-net-aka-
pvo...](http://voip.yuku.com/reply/421/t/Re-premiervoice-net-aka-pvoip-net-
FRAUD.html)

~~~
jrockway
I don't think his post is that bad. Not _nice_ , but sometimes you need to
fire your bad customers.

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pmorici
If this is a clear cut case of an innocent victim why not call the eff this
seems like it is right up their ally?

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jongraehl
His story is, sadly, very plausible. Has anyone made a serious case that he's
lying?

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dave_au
Some of the (extensive) reddit comments on the story cast a reasonably amount
of doubt on his claims. Unfortunately there's just too many of them for me to
be able to quickly summarise the various bits and pieces.

On a side note, I only stopped by to see if reddit had reached digg parity -
not there yet, but I'm increasingly glad that I left.

(I nearly used "e-migrated" instead of "left" - and that's just from 5-10
minutes of exposure)

~~~
rbanffy
"e-migration" is a form of migration done over data lines, right?

Sorry. Couldn't resist.

~~~
dkersten
No, its a form of migration done when high on E.

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ErrantX
It'd be nice to see the "other side" of the story first. Perhaps that is just
the cynic in me :)

It does seem an extreme approach!

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TriinT
This was on Wired last April:

<http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/04/data-centers-ra/>

