Just a couple of weeks ago, Wikileaks.org was yanked off the internet by its web host Dynadot in response to a lawsuit brought by bank Julius Baer. The bank first went after Wikileaks directly, after someone posted confidential bank documents that allegedly prove the bank participates in money laundering and tax evasion. The bank wanted those documents removed from the site, but Wikileaks refused to comply.

The bank went on to sue Dynadot, trying to force them to remove the site from the web. Sure enough, Dynadot rolled over and sold out its customer, agreeing to not only shut down the site, but also lock the domain name so it couldn’t be transferred elsewhere and give up the IP addresses of people using/accessing the site. Continue reading

Wikileaks wasn’t really ever gone, but a very unusual case in which a bank sued the web host of Wikileaks resulted in the U.S. version of the site being pulled offline for a couple of weeks. The controversial site’s domain was wikileaks.org. The site’s purpose is to allow whistleblowers to anonymously post incriminating information and documents that show evidence of wrongdoing.

Someone posted some very incriminating information about Bank Julius Baer on Wikileaks. The documents allegedly prove that the bank helps very rich customers hide assets, launder money, and evade taxes. The bank got upset because the documents were deemed confidential, and they tried to get the site owner to take down the documents.

After being unsucessful, Julius Baer took the unusual step of suing the web host, Dynadot. And instead of fighting the case, Dynadot decided instead to agree to completely shut down the site, make it so the site owners couldn’t transfer the domain name anywhere else, and turn over all data collected by the web host, including IP addresses of users. How outrageous! Continue reading