Flit

SURELY THE FEDS HAVE SOMETHING

SURELY THE FEDS HAVE SOMETHING BETTER TO DO

The FBI "persuades" the ISP that hosts Ogrish.com to take down its widely seen copy of the Danny Pearl video:

FBI spokeswoman Sandra Carroll called Wired News to say the bureau was merely giving advice to websites hosting the Pearl video -- and was not threatening prosecution. She said: "Apparently the conversation with [FBI agent] Jay Kanetkar has been similar to other conversations with other website hosts, appealing to have various of those photos removed. Apparently there is another website here in the U.S. which Jay did not name, both of which were more than happy to voluntarily remove the photos without question."

There is no conceivable legal reason behind the FBI's "appeal," of course. But as we saw so many times before when I covered the computer game industry, the brittle link in free speech protections on the Internet is the weak-kneed ISP... in this case, Pro Hosters of Virginia pulled the plug at the FBI's urging. Something to keep in mind, all you bloggers moving off of Blogspot... I've been an internet journalist for years, and I've yet to write the story, "ISP stands up to bullying, defends customer's first amendment rights." I actually doubt I ever will.

NB: It was Dow Jones, the owners of Opinion Journal and former employers of Pearl, that pushed the FBI to take action.