The FBI was curious what someone was doing wth the Wayback Machine at archive.org.
“Archive.org Defeats FBI’s Demand For User Information”
“Although we don’t know what they were after due to the settlement, a gag order was just released that kept Internet Archive member Brewster Kahle quiet. The FBI had issued a national security letter to them under the Patriot Act. Kahle fought it. Hard. The EFF came to the aid of his lawyers and what resulted was one of the only three times an NSL has been challenged: all three have been rescinded. The FBI agreed to open some of the court files now for it to be public.
Let’s see if they can keep up with searches relating to Jack the Ripper at Old Bailey.
http://www.nytimes.com/idg/IDG_852573C40069388000257442004ECECE.html?ref=technology
“FBI Assistant Director John Miller issued a statement about the case Wednesday. “The information requested in the national security letter was relevant to an ongoing, authorized national security investigation,” he said. “National security letters remain indispensable tools for national security investigations and permit the FBI to gather the basic building blocks for our counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations.”
***
Kahle’s lawyers declined to talk about the nature of the FBI investigation or reveal the identity of the targeted user.
The NSL sent to the Internet Archive asked for a user’s name, address, length of service, e-mail header information and activity logs. The FBI investigation was “relevant to an authorized investigation to protect against international terrorism or clandestine intelligence activities,” according to the FBI letter.
The Internet Archive provided the FBI some information that was publicly available on the site, but could not comply with the FBI request because the site does not track user activity or record IP (Internet Protocol) addresses, said Kurt Opsahl, a senior staff attorney with the EFF. The site asks only for an unverified e-mail address when users register.”
Comment: The Wayback Machine is the single most useful investigative tool available to someone with no budget. http://www.archive.org It’s amazing. It lets you see how websites looked years ago. I block my website from being seen as it existed in the past. Ed and TrebleRebel don’t.
For example you can go back in time and view Ed’s website as accessed on particular dates here:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.anthraxinvestigation.com
TrebleRebel’s website as archived on past dates is here:
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.anthrax2001.blogspot.com/
But I blocked my website from being viewed. I didn’t know how to do it with software code so I had to threaten to sue them. ;)
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.anthraxandalqaeda.com/