The controversial decision to issue an injunction on the wikileaks website has been dissolved. Just a little over a week ago, ZeroPaid covered the original decision. Now, the best possible outcome to the circumstance has occurred for the website.The websites .org domain was shut down due to an injunction issued by a Californian judge. The reason an injunction was issued was because Swiss bank Julius Baer said that some confidential documents about them were published on the site. They complained to the judge and successfully got an injunction on the domain. On February 27th, the Electronic Frontier Foundation issued a press release, announcing that they would intervene in this case. The EFF was joined by the American Civil Liberties Union in the case. "Dynadot's private agreement to disable access to its customer's domain name -- and the court's endorsement of that agreement -- raise serious First Amendment concerns," EFF Senior Staff Attorney Matt Zimmerman at the time. "This unwarranted injunction should remind everyone who hosts critical information on the Web that such information may only remain accessible as long as your service provider or registrar is willing to stand up for you against obviously overreaching legal attacks." Today, a new press release by the EFF was published on the case was issued announcing that the original injunction was dissolved by a court thanks to the help of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), and the American Civil Liberties Union Foundation of Northern California and the Project on Government Oversight (POGO). "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." The domain for Wikileaks.org has returned. On the front page, it quotes Emile Zola, J'accuse from 1898 whom said, "The action I am taking is no more than a radical measure to hasten the explosion of truth and justice. I have but one passion: to enlighten those who have been kept in the dark, in the name of humanity which has suffered so much and is entitled to happiness. My fiery protest is simply the cry of my very soul. Let them dare, then, to bring me before a court of law and let the enquiry take place in broad daylight!" The permanent injunction was dissolved as well as a restraining order lifted. The restraining order said that the access to the 14 documents in question must be permanently disabled. "On Feb 14 Wikileaks was unconstitutionally censored!" The Wikileaks websites homepage said while asking for donations, "Take action! Help Wikileaks fight to get the truth out and change the world for the better." The court documents have been posted (PDF) on EFFs website. A webpage dedicated to the case was also posted. The webpage features many court documents and reading materials. |
 
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