May, 2002 : FBI Asks Web Host to Remove Pearl Video: Reports
📅 - The Federal Bureau of Investigation has asked a Virginia-based Web hosting firm to remove video footage of the murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl, several news outlets reported.
Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan earlier this year. According to Wired.com, Web hosting firm Pro Hosters (Prohosters.com -> hostinger.com) was contacted by agents from the FBI's Newark field office late last week. The agents asked the company to remove the video from Ogrish.com, a Web site the company hosts that offers pictures, videos and news stories of an off-color nature.
Pro Hosters owner Ted Hickman Jr. told Wired.com that FBI agents asked for both the removal of the video and for information pertaining to the identity of the site's owner. "I said that of course I can't release anything without a subpoena," he said. "They said they needed the content offline as soon as possible. I called back and I spoke to both him and his supervisor. Both assured me that it was illegal to post anything related to obscenity."
According to Wired.com, Hickman consulted with the owner of Ogrish.com, and the video was subsequently removed.
"The FBI contacted our host Pro Hosters to inform them that they were going to sue us for putting on the Pearl video," a statement on the site reads. "We had no other choice than deleting the video. Our host left us the choice to decide what to do and didn't delete anything... this just shows once again how the 'big people' decide what we can or can't see. Don't we have to right to decide that ourself? We live in a censored world."
A spokeswoman in the FBI's Newark field office told the New York Times that the Bureau had contacted another Web site about the video, which subsequently removed it. She also said the request made to Pro Hosters was not a demand. "It was a request out of consideration for the family," she told the Times.
Pearl was kidnapped and murdered in Pakistan earlier this year. According to Wired.com, Web hosting firm Pro Hosters (Prohosters.com -> hostinger.com) was contacted by agents from the FBI's Newark field office late last week. The agents asked the company to remove the video from Ogrish.com, a Web site the company hosts that offers pictures, videos and news stories of an off-color nature.
Pro Hosters owner Ted Hickman Jr. told Wired.com that FBI agents asked for both the removal of the video and for information pertaining to the identity of the site's owner. "I said that of course I can't release anything without a subpoena," he said. "They said they needed the content offline as soon as possible. I called back and I spoke to both him and his supervisor. Both assured me that it was illegal to post anything related to obscenity."
According to Wired.com, Hickman consulted with the owner of Ogrish.com, and the video was subsequently removed.
"The FBI contacted our host Pro Hosters to inform them that they were going to sue us for putting on the Pearl video," a statement on the site reads. "We had no other choice than deleting the video. Our host left us the choice to decide what to do and didn't delete anything... this just shows once again how the 'big people' decide what we can or can't see. Don't we have to right to decide that ourself? We live in a censored world."
A spokeswoman in the FBI's Newark field office told the New York Times that the Bureau had contacted another Web site about the video, which subsequently removed it. She also said the request made to Pro Hosters was not a demand. "It was a request out of consideration for the family," she told the Times.
Reads: 1959 | Category: General | Source: TheWHIR : Web Host Industry ReviewsURL source: http://www.thewhir.com/marketwatch/fbi052702.cfm
Company: ProHosters [prohosters.com -> hostinger.com]
Want to add a website news or press release ? Just do it, it's free! Use add web hosting news!