[Quick Refresher: The Ohm Project is a site providing information about threats to Internet privacy and freedom along with advice and tips about how to fight back against these encroachments. Last week, about 10,000 unique visitors came to the site, mainly through two diaries on the "Recommended" list at dailykos.com, reddit.com and numerous other sites.]
The Ohm Project (ohmproject.org) was knocked off the Net yesterday. The site has been hosted on a German server run by E-Tunnels, a VPN provider and sponsor of The Ohm Project.
Both The Ohm Project and E-Tunnels went dark on Wednesday about midday Central European time. No notice whatsoever was provided to either party prior to shutdown. When an inquiry was made to the service provider, he said that "the German police" had made three complaints beginning about a month ago about unspecified "abuse" originating from one of the IP addresses assigned to E-Tunnels.
The service provider, welcome2inter.net (support@welcome2inter.net), claimed that he had been prohibited by the authorities from relaying the complaints to E-Tunnels even though they were the only party able to respond to the situation or correct it.
He has also refused to give either E-Tunnels or The Ohm Project any access to the site so that they can retrieve backups, logs or any other data, saying that:
I can´t tell you anything and/or give you any data from vps [virtual private server] in that case, without getting in trouble, because the requests are official ones.
E-Tunnels staff found the sudden shutoff especially puzzling because welcome2inter.net had offered to sell them additional IP addresses on Tuesday afternoon, less than 24 hours before the shutdown.
If the service provider is telling the truth, the methods of the German Polizei are nearly identical to those employed by the American FBI's "national security letter" program. National security letters are issued without warrants to banks, ISPs, libraries, credit card companies and telecoms. They demand personal information about customers and patrons, and prohibit the recipient from telling the "target" of the letter or anyone else that the information has been requested.
The ACLU says this about "national security letters:"
Through NSLs the FBI can compile vast dossiers about innocent people and obtain sensitive information such as the web sites a person visits, a list of e-mail addresses with which a person has corresponded, or even unmask the identity of a person who has posted anonymous speech on a political website. The provision also allows the FBI to forbid or "gag" anyone who receives an NSL from telling anyone about the record demand. Since the Patriot Act was authorized in 2001, further relaxing restrictions on the FBI's use of the power, the number of NSLs issued has seen an astronomical increase. The Justice Department's Inspector General has reported that between 2003 and 2006, the FBI issued nearly 200,000 NSLs. The inspector General has also found serious FBI abuses of the NSL power.
In March, 2007, the Washington Post broke its policy against publishing anonymous letters to the editor to print a missive from the president of a "small Internet access and consulting business" who had received a NSL. In contrast to our provider, this brave soul refused to turn over the information and retained an ACLU attorney to fight the FBI. Even though the FBI dropped the request, he was still under a gag order three years after receiving the letter.
Fundamental to the concept of due process of law is notice of the charges that serve as the basis for the government's punitive action. Without such notice, it is obviously impossible to defend one's self or to take needed corrective action. The FBI's National Security Letters and the tactics of the German police in our case grossly violate the due process guaranteed by both the U. S. and German Constitutions and put companies like E-Tunnels in an impossible situation. It basically becomes a crime to host a VPN (Virtual Private Network).
Lack of notice also has a chilling effect on free speech. We are personally left wondering if our widely read pieces from last week were a factor in this shutdown. Did our "in your face" attitude toward government snoops and corporate extortionists like the RIAA constitute the "abuse" that caused the shutdown? Without some communication from the authorities, we cannot possibly know for sure.
Governments are teaming up with corporations worldwide to erase individuals' zone of privacy and stifle free speech. The Treasury Department and GoDaddy disappear a British travel agency advertising trips to Cuba for Europeans. The EU Parliament engages in the same under-the-table horse trading with Big Telecom and Big Content as is common practice in the U. S. with a resulting loss in privacy and rights for EU citizens. Yahoo hands over identifying information about dissidents to the Chinese government.
Oh yes. FISA and the telecoms.
I remember how hard it was to find unfiltered, unbiased information as recently as the 2000 post-election fight. Since then, the rise of sites like DailyKos has provided an indispensable alternative to Big Media, but that phenomenon is by no means appreciated by many of those in power. They are working day and night to change laws and control access to the Internet both from the provider and the consumer end. Their first targets are the "little guys" whose passing is barely noticed, but they will soon be ready to take on even the most noted outlets in the new public square.
If we do not do all we can to resist now, those sources of information upon which we now rely will dry up and those venues where we as citizens still have an opportunity to express our views will disappear.
We are currently hanging out in exile at http://ohmproject.blogspot.com. Unless Interpol comes crashing through the door and grabs our computer, we'll be back with more in a day or two.