Update on the Wikleaks Case

As CMD recently reported, a federal judge ordered the Wikleaks website shut down. The site allows whistleblowers to post documents anonymously. Lawyers for a dozen news and public interest organizations, including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, American Civil Liberties Union and Public Citizen, asked the judge to rescind his order. On February 29, Judge Jeffrey White reversed the ruling, reports the New York Times. The judge "acknowledged that the bank's request posed serious First Amendment questions and might constitute unjustified prior restraint." He also criticized the ability of online technology to evade legal jurisdiction, saying that "people can do some good things and people can do some terrible things without accountability." Thanks to the reversal, Wikileaks is again available via its U.S. web domain, Wikileaks.org.

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The Julius Baer bank has dropped its lawsuit against Wikileaks, reports [http://www.reuters.com/article/bankingFinancial/idUSN052610820080306 Reuters]:

The bank dismissed the lawsuit against the Web site, Wikileaks.org, and Dynadot LLC, the site's registrar, without explanation in a filing in U.S. district court in San Francisco. It left open the possibility of filing another lawsuit in the same or in a different court.

A Baer spokeswoman said the company had nothing to say beyond the court filing dismissing the case.