FC: German railroad threatens Indymedia over links to "Radikal" site

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu Apr 25 2002 - 13:21:26 PDT

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    Politech archive on ongoing dispute over "Radikal" site:
    http://www.politechbot.com/cgi-bin/politech.cgi?name=radikal
    
    And:
    "German nat'l railroad readies linking-suit against Google, Yahoo"
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-03406.html
    
    Some "Radikal" mirror sites:
    http://web.archive.org/web/20020208065004/http://www.xs4all.nl/~tank/radikal/
    http://www.cyberpass.net/radikal
    http://www.ecn.org/radikal/
    http://www.contrast.org/radikal/
    
    ---
    
    Date: Thu, 25 Apr 2002 16:48:37 +0200
    To: declanat_private
    From: Maurice Wessling <mauriceat_private>
    Subject: Indymedia threatened by German Railroads
    
    [The German Railroads are threatening Indymedia in the Netherlands with a 
    lawsuit to remove links to mirrors of the magazine Radikal. Previously the 
    Railroad company succeeded in forcing ISP xs4all.nl to remove the original 
    Radikal site and threatened Google with a lawsuit to remove the links from 
    their database.]
    
    http://www.indymedia.nl/2002/04/3508.shtml
    
    Indymeda.nl refuses to remove links to Radikal site despite being summoned
    indymedia.nl, 24.04.2002 21:39
    
    Press release
    
    Indymeda.nl refuses to remove links to Radikal site despite being summoned 
    to do so by Deutsche Bahn (German Rail)
    
    Tuesday 23 april the newsmedium Indymedia NL has received a letter from a 
    lawfirm representing Deutsche Bahn AG demanding the removal of an internet 
    page. The page in question contains some links to mirrors of the -long 
    defunct- german periodical Radikal. Two articles contained in those mirrors 
    have been the subject of a lawsuit last week.
    
    DB objects to these articles because these contain instructions on how to 
    obstruct the heavily critized German nuclear transports. By way of a 
    judicial procedure, Internet provider XS4ALL has been ordered to remove 
    these pages from the homepage of one of its subscribers. After this 
    removal, many mirrors have sprung up all over the world. If the Indymedia 
    page containing links to th7ese mirrors is not removed immediately, DB will 
    sue, their letter states.
    
    Indymedia NL adamantly refuses to comply with DB´s demand to remove the 
    links for the following three reasons:
    
    Firstly the links in question do not directly lead to the disputed 
    articles, but to mirrors in which the articles are contained. The articles 
    therefore are at least three "clicks" away (from indymedia to the mirror 
    and from the mirror to the content page of the Radikal editions and from 
    there to the articles). Complying with this request would mean jeopardizing 
    the fundaments of the internet, since links are the esence of this medium.
    
    Secondly, Indymedia NL is part of a worldwide independent news network, 
    entirely produced by volunteers. Using the open publishing system, anyone 
    can freely publish his or her news in the form of text, audio, video or 
    photos. Principally Indymedia.nl does not want to censor or prevent people 
    from placing links to news sources. We believe that everyone has the right 
    to place links, notwithstanding the content available through these links.
    
    Thirdly, Indymedia NL thinks that conforming to the demand would jeopardize 
    the national and international freedom of the press, which is the basis of 
    every democratic system. The possibility for censorship of hyperlinks in 
    this way would have severe negative consequences for relevant provision of 
    information in all layers of society (media, education, etc). Indymedia NL 
    therefore calls for support in this very fundamental issue. Indymedia 
    stresses that the issue is about references to freely available pages which 
    are outside of Indymedia´s responsibility.
    
    Updates on this case will be posted on
    http://www.indymedia.nl
    The disputed webpage is at
    http://www.indymedia.nl/2002/04/3281.shtml
    
    Monetary donations can be directed to Dutch bank account 56.03.59.349 on 
    behalf of Stichting SBIP, Amsterdam. Any form of legal expertise is also 
    very welcome.
    
    More information:
    infoat_private
    
    
    
    
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