FBI Subpoenas Registrar for Details on Anonymous Archiving Site Owner (404media.co) 38
The FBI has subpoenaed popular Canadian domain registrar Tucows, demanding information about the owner of archive[dot]today, a popular archiving site used to bypass paywalls and avoid sending traffic to original publishers. The subpoena states it relates to a federal criminal investigation but provides no details about the alleged crime.
Archive.today posted the document on X the same day. The site, also known as archive.is and archive.ph, started in the early 2010s and rose to prominence during GamerGate when users took snapshots of articles to avoid sending traffic to websites. It now has hundreds of millions of saved pages. The FBI requested the customer name, address, billing information, telephone connection records, payment methods, internet connectivity session times, and device identifiers.
Very little is known about who operates the site. A 2013 analysis by Gyrovague suggested it is "a one-person labor of love, operated by a Russian of considerable talent and access to Europe." A 2013 FAQ states the site is privately funded. A 2021 blog post said "it is doomed to die at any moment."
Archive.today posted the document on X the same day. The site, also known as archive.is and archive.ph, started in the early 2010s and rose to prominence during GamerGate when users took snapshots of articles to avoid sending traffic to websites. It now has hundreds of millions of saved pages. The FBI requested the customer name, address, billing information, telephone connection records, payment methods, internet connectivity session times, and device identifiers.
Very little is known about who operates the site. A 2013 analysis by Gyrovague suggested it is "a one-person labor of love, operated by a Russian of considerable talent and access to Europe." A 2013 FAQ states the site is privately funded. A 2021 blog post said "it is doomed to die at any moment."
no international jurisdiction (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:no international jurisdiction (Score:4, Insightful)
The FBI as zero international jurisdiction.
Since when has the U.S. acknowledged they lack jurisdiction outside the U.S. (except to violate U.S. laws themselves)?
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> Since when has the U.S. acknowledged they lack jurisdiction outside the U.S.
Here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
It's implicit, but it's there.
Re: no international jurisdiction (Score:2)
The canadians no doubt need some favour or back scratching the FBI could do for them so itll probably be a quid pro quo. Anyway, if this guy is denying these websites their revenue I wont be shedding any tears if he gets nailed.
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> Anyway, if this guy is denying these websites their revenue I wont be shedding any tears if he gets nailed
Unless he's training an LLM...
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It's possible that the contracts that allow Tucows to act as registrar for .today, .is and .ph require disclosure in certain circumstances, which might include the FBI demanding the data.
Re:no international jurisdiction (Score:4, Informative)
Tucows has a significant legal presence in the US.
From their own web site [tucowsdomains.com]:
"Can non-Canadian-based court documents be submitted?
"Yes. Tucows will accept court documents from Canada, Denmark, Germany, and the U.S.A. "
So the only one to be pounding sand is . . . you.
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I'm sure that will give their US based employees a lot of comfort, sitting in their jail cells.
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The reality is far more nuanced than that. Despite Trump's attempts to make it otherwise, the economies of Canada and the US are deeply intertwined as are our banking industries and law enforcement. As a general rule, Canadian companies and the Canadian government cooperate with American authorities on issues of copyright infringement and other intellectual property issues. The US commands a tremendous amount of extrajudicial power over its allies. You can argue whether this is out of intimidation or ou
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Good little dig at the tories there. Nice to see that the soft left are doing the usual job of making sure to slander decent conservatives at every turn.
The LPC has continuously bent over to the USA whenever there was any form of conflict. They have only paid lip service to most Canadians' reasonable concerns and mild distrust of the Excited States.
Even Diaper Diddler Donny has stated that he prefers Carney to Poilievre: He likes a pushover when he dictates "deals".
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That's hilarious calling me a soft lefty.
It's no dig by the way. It's reality. As a conservative voter I reserve my harshest criticism for them since they are ostensibly "my kind of people" and they know better. While my values in most ways align most closely with many who call themselves Conservative, I would be willfully ignorant to not call attention to their many failings as a party, as well as the rank hypocrisy that so often accompanies right-wing politics these days. I've been a party to some ver
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Even Diaper Diddler Donny has stated that he prefers Carney to Poilievre: He likes a pushover when he dictates "deals".
Garbage. He merely learned that his being against Carney and for Poilievre caused Canadians to back Carney and blocked Poilievre from becoming Prime Minister as the more Trumpskyy backed him the more his support fell. The Conservatives were a shoo in until Trumpskyy started backing them when it all fell apart. He is now saying "good" things about Carney hoping that Canadians will stop supporting him and go back to the Conservatives.
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If Tucows is a Canadian company, they can tell the FBI to pound sand. The FBI as zero international jurisdiction.
Even if that were true...
We (Canada) scrapped a tax on digital services that would've meant American companies like Google that take Canadian citizens' money had to give some of it back... because Donald said so or else he'd take his trade negotiating marbles and go home.
We're the country whose trade negotiations were aborted by Donald because he was upset we paid for an ad that played Ronald Reagan saying things about tariffs that Ronald Reagan said, and Ronald Reagan made clear by other words and acti
Re:Thanks so much (Score:5, Informative)
Amusingly, the site the story is about has itself archived the full version of the article about it, so you can view it without having to register.
https://archive.ph/https://www... [archive.ph]
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**Chef's Kiss**
NOT the 51rst state ! (Score:1, Troll)
Why would Canada cooperate with the law enforcement of a country that has threatened its sovereignty ? Fuck the FBI. And fuck Trump. And fuck the 77 millions shittards who voted twice for that miserable sack of pus that has antagonized and threatened the sovereignty of the most trustworthy, loyal, and unconditional ally the US has ever had.
Elbows up !
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Why would Canada cooperate with the law enforcement of a country that has threatened its sovereignty ?
Because they have a significant legal presence in the US, which most certainly is subject to US law, including, if necessary, criminal prosecution of employees who refuse to honor the subpoena?
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And fuck the 77 millions shittards who voted twice for that miserable sack of pus
Three times.
My dick-brained brother-in-law voted for him 3 times. And yes, he's a slow learner to put it kindly.
\o/ (Score:1)
FBI creates viral ad for Tor.
Now go after AI scrapers archives (Score:3)
The crime? (Score:3)
The establishment is probably pissed because it lets people bypass paywall content.
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Domain registrar my ass (Score:3)
Re:Domain registrar my ass (Score:4, Informative)
"They have my last name registered" - Yep, mine too. It's because they bought out an email service about 20 years ago that offered your last name within an email address: firstname@lastname.com. I was a customer of that company when TuCows bought them out. The first thing they did was raise the yearly fee considerably so I bailed, screw them. To this day they still have all those last names they sit on. It's been a long time since TuCows was The Ultimate Collection Of Winsock Software.
Re: Domain registrar my ass (Score:2)
So a famous domain squatter is sued for protecting domain owners. Karma can really be a bitch, eh?
It's a war on news (Score:2)
The FBI can just fuck off outside the US (Score:2)
Especially in a time where US separatism does not care about international treaties and obligations at all.
Fuck off, US.