
Small Utah ISP firm stands up to ‘surveillance state’ - DiabloD3
http://rt.com/usa/utah-isp-surveillance-state-corporations-925/
======
ryankshaw
the owner of that company, pete ashdown, is an outright great guy. he even
tried to run for a senate seat last election[1] -- without PAC $ and a focus
on passing a constitutional amendment to overturn citizen's united. But
instead utah got stuck with good ol' Orrin Hatch, which was one of the chief
proponents of building the NSA datacenter in bluffdale that is going to store
all the stuff collected by PRISIM et. al. [2]

the world needs more Pete Ashdowns and more Xmissions.

1\.
[http://peteashdown.org/archive/2012/](http://peteashdown.org/archive/2012/)
2\. [http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2013/06/utah-senator-who-
pus...](http://www.nextgov.com/big-data/2013/06/utah-senator-who-pushed-
local-12-billion-nsa-data-center-now-silent/65222/)

~~~
sounds
Don't forget Hatch's "contributions" to the US run back decades.

1\. The shuttle solid rocket boosters were built in Utah. Hatch is credited
with bringing that pork to Utah. Otherwise, the boosters could have been built
somewhere along a waterway and floated down to the vehicle assembly building,
but coming from Utah they have to be built in pieces and shipped overland.
Thus the need for an O-ring where the pieces fit together. Politics
contributed to the Challenger disaster.

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disas...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Challenger_disaster)

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Boo...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_Solid_Rocket_Booster#Construction)

(I admit, all politics are debatable, and there were other contributing
factors in the Challenger disaster, but shipping the SRBs from Utah is just
stupid, in my opinion.)

2\. Pro-bailouts, pro-debt, and extremely pro-copyright:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch#Political_position...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orrin_Hatch#Political_positions_and_votes)

~~~
mistermann
Look at how powerful America is today, and imagine how powerful it would be if
it was run pragmatically every step of the way. Long term, the world might be
a better place because of people like Orrin Hatch.

~~~
sounds
What if more young people during the space shuttle era decided to be
astronauts, astrophysicists, or just take more science courses?

Maybe I don't understand your point but I think NASA has done a lot of good
for humanity as a whole, _despite the politicians_.

Should America be less powerful? I think China is growing fast and the
question will be moot soon anyway.

------
yaddayadda
In addition to the praises from @ryankschaw & @letney's, Pete is involved in a
lot of local causes and provides free internet to many organizations.

I've been with Xmission for the better part of a decade now, and the service
they provide has almost always rocked. On the rare occasion when it didn't,
their service department did rock, keeping customers informed as progress was
made - even if the problem wasn't under Xmission's control (for example, at
one point I was connected via a phone line which got cut - they actually
followed up with the phone company and would call my cell phone to give me
updates).

------
mikemoka
When I realize, after reading these stories, that I read them on "RussiaToday"
I always feel a bit sad.

A former advisor to Vladimir Putin, has labeled the channel as "the best
Russian propaganda machine targeted at the outside world"
([http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_(TV_network)](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RT_\(TV_network\)))

These news are important here, but we have to be careful not to associate
concepts like "freedom of speech" and "example of democracy" with countries
like Russia, given the actual situation the people there live under I am not
sure we can say Russia holds human rights in the highest regard in my opinion.

~~~
hondje
Attacking the source of this article and the country of its origin contributes
little to the conversation.

~~~
uchi
Russia Today is the equivalent of Fox News in America. Keep that bias in mind
as you browse their other articles and videos.

Russia Today is exceptionally critical of American politics, and their
international video newscasts are pretty much dead center criticisms of
America. They barely mention Russian affairs, if at all. Whenever I catch a
glimpse of them on MHz WorldView I have to change the channel.

~~~
fractallyte
No idea why you were downvoted, there's nothing outrageous in your comment.

Every time I watch RT, I can't help getting the impression that it's on a
mission to criticize and attack the US at every opportunity. All this, while
ignoring far more egregious crimes within Russia itself. It's blatant,
unashamed hypocrisy.

------
letney
Without reading the headline, I knew it was Xmission.com.

The founder/owner, Pete Ashdown, was the sole Democrat running against Orin
Hatch in 2006. He failed to get the democratic nomination in 2012.

Pete has long been an advocate of digital privacy and is a true Internet
pioneer.

------
vyrotek
I too came to comment about how I knew it was XMission before I clicked and
wanted to mention the great things Pete Ashdown has been up to. But, I see
others have already covered that.

While we're on the topic. Pete, please expand Utopia Fiber to Lehi! You
promised :) [0]

[0]
[http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/shuzq/iama_isp_owner_w...](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/shuzq/iama_isp_owner_who_is_running_for_the_us_senate/c4e7mo7)

~~~
xahrepap
+1 for Utopia in Lehi :)

Off topic: I see you went to Neumont University. Cool to run into a fellow
Neumie.

~~~
JRobertson
I'll third that request for fiber in Lehi and also claim some Neumont pride.

------
jlgaddis
I work for a small ISP and pretty much "run the show". Since joining the
company, I've been successful in getting approval from the owners on what I
feel are appropriate retention policies and such. There's still a lot to be
done but my hope is to someday be running our operation very similar to how
Mr. Ashdown is running his.

I think I'll sign up w/ Xmission for a hosting account for a few months (even
though I have no need for it) as a show of support.

~~~
msg
I had Xmission in Utah. They were a great ISP to boot. I miss them.

------
runn1ng
The second I hear "XMission", I remember Maddox's website
([http://maddox.xmission.com/](http://maddox.xmission.com/)).

Maybe I spend too much time on the internet.

------
onli
Read it the right way. The described behavior is the right thing to do, brave
and patriotic. But two things will happen here:

1\. It will not be forgotten. The behavior to resist those warrants will
result probably in imprisonment, and in every case it will be made sure he
doesn't get more power. Source is that case:
[http://www.atlassociety.org/brc/blog/2013/06/10/was-
telecom-...](http://www.atlassociety.org/brc/blog/2013/06/10/was-telecom-ceo-
sent-prison-because-he-resisted-nsa)

2\. The data is accessed anyway, the suggested way of doing that as far as was
disclosed to infiltrate the company, either by using a mole or a backdoor
(sure, both is possible). At least that would happen if it were an ISP outside
of the USA, I don't believe they make that distinction anymore.

------
jtsnow
As a wee lad, I uploaded my first bits of HTML onto Xmission's shared hosting
in 1997. Good memories. Thanks to them, I didn't have to succumb to Geocities
advertisements.

A few years ago, they launched a cloud platform:
[http://www.stackable.com](http://www.stackable.com)

------
magicalist
Er, so, not rolling over for bullshit requests is a very good thing (telcos
take note), but I'm not seeing a difference here from any company that doesn't
comply with improper requests, but does comply with "proper" ones, just a
matter of scale:

 _" The government began sending data requests to Ashdown 15 years ago but the
entrepreneur, who launched his business in 1993, acquiesced just once - at the
advice of his lawyer. He agreed to hand over the data only after receiving an
FBI request accompanied by a warrant from the Foreign Intelligence
Surveillance Court in 2010. Local governments and police in Utah were behind
most of the other formal inquiries that he received."_

(except that he confirms that he received and complied with a FISA order)

------
prbuckley
If you don't live in Utah how can you support this guys business? I commend
him for standing by his principles.

~~~
fsckin
Shared or VPS hosting, for one.

[http://xmission.com/hosting](http://xmission.com/hosting)

------
ChrisAntaki
I just talked to XMission's chat representative. They support Ubuntu! I'm
switching over soon.

------
sliverstorm
What do you know, it's my old favorite mirror for linux distros.

------
bound008
This is the same xmission as in
[http://maddox.xmission.com/](http://maddox.xmission.com/) a wonderful tribute
to the first amendment.

------
kennethcwilbur
I admire this man for his willingness to stand by his convictions.

