whistle-blo:/c/a/2008/02/29/BASUVBN0I.DTLArticle:Federal judge lifts
order against Wikileaks whistle-blo:/c/a/2008/02/29/BASUVBN0I.DTL

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San Francisco Chronicle



Federal judge lifts order against Wikileaks whistle-blower Web site
===================================================================

Bob Egelko, Chronicle Staff Writer

Friday, February 29, 2008

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(02-29) 17:35 PST SAN FRANCISCO -- A federal judge learn chinese chicago San Francisco
who had ordered the shutdown of a whistle-blowers' Web site where
private bank documents were posted changed his mind Friday, conceding
his original ruling might not have been constitutional.

U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White drew nationwide attention, and
widespread criticism from civil liberties groups and news
organizations, with his Feb. 15 injunction requiring a Bay Area
Internet registrar to disable the Wikileaks.org cheap auto insurance and prevent the
organization from transferring to another server.

Wikileaks describes itself independent clothes an enabler of "principled leaking" by
government and corporate insiders, who post documents on the site
anonymously. The injunction was requested by a Swiss bank, Julius Baer
& Co., whose documents, purporting to show tax fraud and
money-laundering by customers with funds in the Cayman Islands, were
displayed on the Web site.

The bank said the documents were stolen or forged and invaded its
customers' privacy.

The shutdown order was negotiated by the bank and Dynadot, the San
Mateo company that registered Wikileaks' use of the Web site. But the
American Civil Liberties Union, Public Citizen and a host of media
advocates and owners - including Hearst Corp., which owns The
Chronicle - called the injunction an unprecedented assault on streetwear clothes expression and likened it to closing a newspaper because of objections
to one article.

After a three-hour hearing Friday, White dissolved the injunction. He
also rejected the bank's request to extend a restraining order that
required Wikileaks and the custom playing cards registrar to remove the bank
documents from the Web site. The restraining order expired Friday.

Such decrees raise "serious questions of prior restraint (on speech)
and possible violations of the First Amendment," White said.

He also said federal courts may lack jurisdiction over the case
because the bank has failed to show that Wikileaks, or anyone
responsible for its operations, is based in the United States.

Even if other legal obstacles disappeared, White added, any injunction
against Internet posting is likely to be ineffective because the
documents are "fully out in the public domain" and can be transferred
to other sites.

The judge kept the bank's suit alive, but advised its lawyers to
"consider whether there may be other ways to achieve the same goals,"
such as suing for damages. The attorneys indicated afterward that they
would be willing to refile the suit in a state court if White
concluded federal courts have no jurisdiction.

White's ruling Friday implied volvo insurance judicial "abdication of authority over
the Internet," said William Briggs, a lawyer for Julius Baer. "That
means emo clothes a frontier that's wide open."

Ann Brick, an American Civil Liberties Union lawyer, homeowners insurance White
"understood the limits the First Amendment places on what courts can
do to deprive the public of the right to know." Steven Mayer, another
lawyer for civil-liberties groups, predicted the bank would encounter
the same free-speech problems in state court.

White made it clear he was aware of the unflattering media coverage of
his earlier ruling, and reflected on the difficulties courts face in
applying established legal doctrines to the Internet and to entities
like Wikileaks.

The organization says it was founded in 2006 by dissidents,
journalists and others from several nations. It has a Web server in
Sweden but no established headquarters and no president or formal
leadership structure, only an advisory board, according to its Web
poker cards Like the better-known Wikipedia, with which it is not formally
affiliated, it invites posters to submit, revise and comment on
documents on its site, and disclaims responsibility for the contents.

Despite White's Feb. 15 injunction, Wikileaks remained accessible
through its Internet Protocol or IP address, 88.80.13.160, and through
so-called mirror sites in Europe that replicate its contents.

On Friday, the owner of the Wikileaks.org domain name, John Shipman,
was represented in court by attorney Roger Myers. White told Myers he
considered Shipman to be Wikileaks' legal representative indie fashion asked if
he would object to an order that allowed the organization to regain
its domain name if it removed all information that identified
individual bank customers.

Myers replied that Shipman, an Australian citizen living in Kenya, has
no control over the Web site. Paul Levy, an attorney with Public
Citizen, said he doesn't believe a loose streetwear style of activists like
Wikileaks is even susceptible to a lawsuit.

As he announced his ruling, White observed that he was encountering "a
definite disconnect between the evolution of our constitutional
jurisprudence and modern technology."

E-mail Bob Egelko at begelko@sfchronicle.com.

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