Afraid of terrorists? Dictators with Jack booted Thugs with the authority to destroy your business at will? Is this the America you want YOUR children to live in? Is this what our countrymen have died to protect? Think about it people, government is out of control.
(from the Dallas News)
DALLAS — The FBI hauled away millions worth of computer servers from a company called Core IP Networks during a Wednesday raid in downtown Dallas.
But it affected a number of businesses that were not under investigation and about 100,000 phone customers across the country have lost part of their 911 service.
Matthew Simpson is the owner of that company. He says his home was also raided.
Simpson says the FBI is after a former client who may have used servers to pirate movies and software.
But innocent companies are also effected including AT&T, Google, which both had equipment at the building at 2323 Bryant St.
Locally, Classic Chevy lost its e-mail. A small ad agency is locked out of the internet and a small phone company– Sitcom in McKinney– says all its customers have lost service and access to 911.
“It’s like an apartment building. If you have 500 tenants and one of them has a meth lab inside his apartment, they don’t hold the apartment liable for that guys actions. But that’s what the FBI is trying to do here,” said Simpson.
Simpson also estimates 100,000 phone customers across Texas, and the country, are now without E-911 service, which provides dispatchers with information about where you’re calling from.
The FBI will not say who is under investigation.
And unfortunately for the companies who rely on those servers the FBI says it may be several days or more before their service can be restored.
4 Responses
I don’t understand. You’re pissed about what, exactly? What principle is being violated?
Should the FBI not enforce piracy laws? Is it the Bureau’s fault that criminals forced it to choose between catching them and inconveniencing innocent bystanders.
This is like bitching that you can’t go into the convenience store because it was just robbed.
What bothers me about this, and what should bother you is that they destoyed the apratment complex to kill one cockroach essentially. I have no problem with copyright enforcement, as a copyright holder I even applaud it, but not to the extent that innocent people are harmed either physically or financially in efforts to enforce anything. We both know it wasn’t necessary to shut down the entire hosting company because one customer was doing something wrong. You take out that customer, you dont take out everything, including 911 service, small businesses and whatever.
Actually, neither of us know what was and was not necessary in this case. Let alone if the crime being perpetrated was worth the level of inconvenience used to stop it.
Discussions about topics like this by people like us, who aren’t experts in the field of law enforcement, are counter-productive. What is important is to look at which, if any, fundamental principles were violated. It’s not clear that any were.
But, of course, that presupposes that we both already hold clearly defined principles; as opposed to foggy approximations.
I dont have to be an expert to know that had my company been hosted there or had I dialed 911 for a dying wife, I wouldnt be as complacent about it as you are.
I dont like the idea of a police state and thats exactly the tactics that were used.