Long Arm of the International Law

The Inquirer has a commentary by Wendy M. Grossman on how countries ganged up to bring an Internet site down. The prevailing myth is that being on the internet gives some intrinsic freedom from a single country's law. If for instance, you're in China, and would like to have public dissent discourse, using anonymizing websites to get your message out, gives you more freedom than your country grants. You'd be hard pressed to find most western democracies cooperating with the Chinese government to bring you down. That's not the case however, if you're on the radar screen of most western democracies -- say the US for instance -- then, it's just a matter of time before you're royally screwed -- especially if you're being hosted in the UK. It used to be impossible for a nation to extend their laws internationally -- but read Grossman's commentary and think again. Indymedia was raided and had their servers taken. Why? Indications are that their Italian arm was being investigated, and that lead to a US court order to have their UK assets seized. The British police complied. To date, Indymedia don't know why their assets were taken, who accused them, or what those accusations were. It's a scary world, when those in power in a democratic system, operate in mystery, with total disregard of the public they serve.