Judge dissolves wikileaks.org injunction

Electronic Frontier Foundation Media Release

For Immediate Release: Friday, February 29, 2008

Contact:

Matt Zimmerman
   Senior Staff Attorney
   Electronic Frontier Foundation
   mattz@eff.org
   +1 415 436-9333 x127

Judge Dissolves Wikileaks.org Injunction

First Amendment Rights of Internet Users Upheld in Today's
Hearing

San Francisco - A federal district court judge in San
Francisco today rescinded a controversial order that
disabled the "wikileaks.org" domain name which had -- until
two weeks ago -- pointed to Wikileaks, a website designed
to give whistleblowers a forum for posting materials of
public concern.

This week, the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) moved
to intervene in the case, along with the American Civil
Liberties Union (ACLU), and the American Civil Liberties
Union Foundation of Northern California and the Project on
Government Oversight (POGO).  In a hearing in federal court
today, EFF and its fellow intervenors and amici argued that
the order infringed on the First Amendment rights of
Internet users who have an interest in accessing material
of public concern on the site.  Ruling from the bench,
Judge Jeffrey White cited concerns about the First
Amendment, the effectiveness of disabling the wikileaks.org
domain name, and the court's own jurisdiction over the case
as reasons to dissolve his previous orders.

"We're very pleased that Judge White recognized the serious
constitutional concerns raised by his earlier orders," said
EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman.  "Attempting to
interfere with the operation of an entire website because
you have a dispute over some of its content is never the
right approach.  Disabling access to an Internet domain in
an effort to prevent the world from accessing a handful of
widely-discussed documents is not only unconstitutional --
it simply won't work."

Wikileaks permits third parties to post corporate and
government documents that they believe expose wrongdoing.
For example, in the past year individuals have posted
materials documenting alleged human rights abuses in China
and political corruption in Kenya.

The lawsuit began earlier this month, when Swiss bank
Julius Baer filed suit against Wikileaks for hosting
allegedly leaked documents regarding personal banking
transactions of Julius Baer customers.  Also sued was
Wikileaks' domain name registrar, Dynadot LLC.  On February
15, following a stipulation between Julius Baer and
Dynadot, the court issued a permanent injunction, disabling
the wikileaks.org domain name and preventing that domain
name from being transferred to any other registrar.

In addition to dissolving the permanent injunction, which
permits the wikileaks.org domain name to be reactivated,
the court also declined to extend a previous temporary
restraining order requiring Wikileaks to disable access to
14 disputed Julius Baer documents.

Joining the EFF, ACLU, and POGO motion to intervene was
Wikileaks user Jordan McCorkle.  The papers were filed in
consultation with and on behalf of the intervenors by
Steven Mayer of the law firm of Howard Rice Nemerovski
Canady Falk & Rabkin.  Other attorneys on the case include
Christopher Kao and Shaudy Danaye-Elmi of Howard Rice;
Zimmerman, Cindy Cohn, and Kurt Opsahl of EFF; and Aden
Fine and Ann Brick of the ACLU and ACLU-Northern
California, respectively.

For the full order:
http://www.eff.org/files/filenode/baer_v_wikileaks/wikile...

For more on the Wikileaks case:
http://www.eff.org/cases/bank-julius-baer-co-v-wikileaks

For this release:
http://www.eff.org/press/archives/2008/02/29

About EFF

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil
liberties organization working to protect rights in the
digital world. Founded in 1990, EFF actively encourages and
challenges industry and government to support free
expression and privacy online. EFF is a member-supported
organization and maintains one of the most linked-to
websites in the world at http://www.eff.org/


     -end-

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