WikiLeakS.org and their Domain Name Registrar are being sued in California by Bank Julius Baer

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WikiLeakS.org have been silent about any recent developments in the Legal Threats against the project

See the previous blog article Has WikiLeakS.org seen off the recent threats by law firms ?

However, we have stumbled across this:

Justia - Federal District Court Filings & Dockets has some details showing that Hollywood minor media celebrity spin lawyers have at least filed a writ with a Court in California and do seem to be trying to sue WikiLeakS.org

Astonishingly, the Domain Name Registrar Dynadot LLC,who originally registered the WikiLeakS.org domain name back in October 2006, is also being sued, even though they are not even providing the use of DNS servers for the WikiLeakS.org domain name !

Currently the WikiLeakS.org front end website seems to be hosted in Sweden.

Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. et al v. Wikileaks et al

Plaintiffs: Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. and Julius Baer Bank and Trust Co. LTD.

Defendants: Wikileaks, Wikileaks.Org and Dynadot LLC

Case Number: 3:2008cv00824
Filed: February 6, 2008

Court: California Northern District Court
Office: San Francisco Office
County: Outside US
Presiding Judge: Hon. Jeffrey S. White

Nature of Suit: Torts - Injury - Other Personal Injury
Cause: 28:1332 Diversity-Other Contract
Jurisdiction: Diversity
Jury Demanded By: Plaintiff
Amount Demanded: $75,000.00

It seems that the case was scheduled to be heard on Thursday 14th February 2008

10:00 AM (r)C-08-824 JSW
Bank Julius Baer, et al., v. Wikileaks, et al.,
Motion for a Temporary Restraining Order

Has this been granted or not ?

There also seems to be a scheduled hearing on Friday 29th February 2008:

09:00 AM (r)C-08-824 JSW
Bank Julius Baer, et al., v. Wikileaks, et al.,
Order to Show Cause re: Preliminary Injunction

Are WikiLeakS.org lawyers defending this, or is it all going through automatically "on the nod"?

Surely this United States Court will uphold the Defendants' fundamental right of Free Speech, under the First Amendment to the US Constitution ?

We await details of the outcome with interest.

Is this an attempt at a Denial of Service attack via the threat of a legal court case ?

If the Plaintiffs cause, either directly or indirectly, any "collateral damage" to an innocent Domain Name Registrar or to innocent Internet Service Providers, then they will face their own legal counter action, and the intense wrath and hatred of many internet users and customers.

If Bank Julius Baer and their lawyers Lavely & Singer" really are stupid enough to bring legal action against an ICANN accredited Domain Name Registrar, then they might find that they have rather more to lose than the $75,000 they are demanding i.e. their own corporate brand name internet domain names !

WikiLeakS.org Domain Name Registration details - note the new contact postal address in Nairobi, Kenya :

Domain ID:D130035267-LROR
Domain Name:WIKILEAKS.ORG
Created On:04-Oct-2006 05:54:19 UTC
Last Updated On:13-Feb-2008 01:32:30 UTC
Expiration Date:04-Oct-2008 05:54:19 UTC
Sponsoring Registrar:Dynadot, LLC (R1266-LROR)
Status:CLIENT TRANSFER PROHIBITED
Registrant ID:C-13000
Registrant Name:John Shipton
Registrant Street1:c/o WLK PO Box 8098-00200
Registrant Street2:
Registrant Street3:
Registrant City:Nairobi
Registrant State/Province:
Registrant Postal Code:none
Registrant Country:KE
Registrant Phone:+1.2026576222
Registrant Phone Ext.:
Registrant FAX:
Registrant FAX Ext.:
Registrant Email:an1984@hush.com
Admin ID:C-13000
Admin Name:John Shipton
Admin Street1:c/o WLK PO Box 8098-00200
Admin Street2:
Admin Street3:
Admin City:Nairobi
Admin State/Province:
Admin Postal Code:none
Admin Country:KE
Admin Phone:+1.2026576222
Admin Phone Ext.:
Admin FAX:
Admin FAX Ext.:
Admin Email:an1984@hush.com
Tech ID:C-13000
Tech Name:John Shipton
Tech Street1:c/o WLK PO Box 8098-00200
Tech Street2:
Tech Street3:
Tech City:Nairobi
Tech State/Province:
Tech Postal Code:none
Tech Country:KE
Tech Phone:+1.2026576222
Tech Phone Ext.:
Tech FAX:
Tech FAX Ext.:
Tech Email:an1984@hush.com
Name Server:NS1.EVERYDNS.NET
Name Server:NS2.EVERYDNS.NET
Name Server:NS3.EVERYDNS.NET
Name Server:NS4.EVERYDNS.NET

About this blog

This blog here at WikiLeak.org (no "S") discusses the ethical and technical issues raised by the WikiLeakS.org project, which is trying to be a resource for whistleblower leaks, by providing "untraceable mass document leaking and analysis".

These are bold and controversial aims and claims, with both pros and cons, especially for something which crosses international boundaries and legal jurisdictions.

This blog is not part of the WikiLeakS.org project, and there really are no copies of leaked documents or files being mirrored here.

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

email: blog@WikiLeak[dot]org

Before you send an email to this address, remember that this blog is independent of the WikiLeakS.org project.

If you have confidential information that you want to share with us, please make use of our PGP public encryption key or an email account based overseas e.g. Hushmail

LeakDirectory.org

Now that the WikiLeakS.org project is defunct, so far as new whistleblower are concerned, what are the alternatives ?

The LeakDirectory.org wiki page lists links and anonymity analyses of some of the many post-wikileaks projects.

There are also links to better funded "official" whistlblowing crime or national security reporting tip off websites or mainstream media websites. These should, in theory, be even better at protecting the anonymity and security of their informants, than wikileaks, but that is not always so.

New whistleblower website operators or new potential whistleblowers should carefully evaluate the best techniques (or common mistakes) from around the world and make their personal risk assessments accordingly.

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents

The WikiLeakS.org Submissions web page provides some methods for sending them leaked documents, with varying degrees of anonymity and security. Anybody planning to do this for real, should also read some of the other guides and advice to political activists and dissidents:

Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk

BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual, by Irish NGO Frontline Defenders.

Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide (.pdf - 31 pages), by the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - March 2008 version - (2.2 Mb - 80 pages .pdf) by Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics by Human Rights Watch.

A Practical Security Handbook for Activists and Campaigns (v 2.6) (.doc - 62 pages), by experienced UK direct action political activists

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor - useful step by step guide with software configuration screenshots by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices Advocacy. (updated March 10th 2009 with the latest Tor / Vidalia bundle details)

WikiLeakS Links

The WikiLeakS.org Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

WikiLeakS Twitter feeds

The WikiLeakS.org website does not stay online all of the time, especially when there is a surge of traffic caused by mainstream media coverage of a particularly newsworthy leak.

Recently, they have been using their new Twitter feeds, to selectively publicise leaked documents to the media, and also to report on the status of routing or traffic congestion problems affecting the main website in Stockholm, Sweden.

N.B.the words "security" or "anonymity" and "Twitter" are mutually exclusive:

WikiLeakS.org Twitter feed via SSL encrypted session: https://twitter.com/wikileaks

WikiLeakS.org unencrypted Twitter feed http://twitter.com/wikileaks

Internet Censorship

OpenNet Initiative - researches and measures the extent of actual state level censorship of the internet. Features a blocked web URL checker and censorship map.

Temporary Autonomous Zone

Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) by Hakim Bey (Peter Lambourn Wilson)

Cyberpunk author William Gibson

Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

FreeFarid_150.jpg
FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond

Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans
Data Retention is No Solution Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

Save Parliament: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

Open_Rights_Group.png
Open Rights Group

The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

Tor - the onion routing network
Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

Tor - the onion routing network
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

irrepressible_banner_03.gif
Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

anoniblog_150.png
BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

ngoiab_150.png
NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

homeofficewatch_150.jpg
Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."

rsf_logo_150.gif
Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

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Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

wikileaks_logo_low.jpg
Wikileaks.org - the controversial "uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing" website based currently in Sweden.

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