To Stop a Leak

The Julius Baer Bank claimed in papers filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco this week that a fired executive stole internal documents and illegally posted them on Wikileaks, a Web site that specializes in publishing anonymous leaks and whistle-blowers. A federal judge ordered the site's Web address blocked for posting the internal documents, which accused a bank branch of money laundering and tax-evasion schemes.

It was, by all accounts, an innovative move: when threatening Wikileaks with legal action didn't get the documents removed, the bank demanded that Dynadot, the domain-name registrar, block traffic to wikileaks.org. Curious Web surfers were, as a result, not only rendered unable to access the Julius Baer documents, but everything else posted on Wikileaks, as well. (Of course, a bevy of mirror sites and alternative Web addresses--including the original numeric Internet protocol address for Wikileaks—remained available, and began rapidly multiplying after the judge's order came down.)

Laywers for both Dynadot and the Julius Baer bank declined to comment on the case. In a statement on one of its mirror sites, Wikileaks responded: "When the transparency group Wikileaks was censored in China last year, no one was too surprised. After all, the Chinese government also censors the Paris-based Reporters Sans Frontiers and New York Based Human Rights Watch ... But on Friday the 15th, February 2008, in the home of the free and the land of the brave, and a constitution which states 'Congress shall make no law... abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press,' the Wikileaks.org press was shutdown." The court has scheduled a hearing on the injunction for Feb. 29.

Dan Tynan, who writes the Gadget Freak column for PC World magazine and maintains the insidery Robert X. Cringely blog Notes From the Field for InfoWorld, noted yesterday that "the bank's solution is so mind-bogglingly stupid, you have to wonder if these guys need help getting their pants on each morning." Tynan, who also writes the Our Digital Life column for US Airways Magazine, spoke with NEWSWEEK's Brian Braiker about the Wikileaks imbroglio and what he expects to happen next. Excerpts:

NEWSWEEK: My understanding is that a judge ordered the registrar to disable the Wikileaks.org domain. Was he overreaching?
Dan Tynan: Absolutely. In many ways, he was overreaching and underreaching at the same time, actually.

How so?
He was overreaching because he ordered the site shut down when you're really only talking about a handful of documents out of more than a million. He was underreaching because all he did was turn off the domain name Wikileaks.org. He didn't turn off the Web site. Say you're operating an illegal gambling ring out of your living room. Now, to punish you I'm going to take your number out of the phone book. The number still exists. And the Wikileaks Internet protocol still exists. Not only that, but Wikileaks operates mirror sites in several countries, all of which were completely unaffected.