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MS Dirty Tricks Archive Trickles Back Online

Posted by kdawson on Thu Feb 22, 2007 11:55 AM
from the light-of-day dept.
The Courts Microsoft
networkBoy writes with word that The Register is following up its story about the Microsoft dirty tricks archive going offline. It appears that several individuals have the pieces to the puzzle and are looking for hosting resources. From the latter article: "The 3,000 document archive from the Comes antitrust trial, which disappeared from the web abruptly when Microsoft settled the case last week, is beginning to trickle back into view. A week ago the site was placed under password protection, Microsoft withdrew its own account of events, and so-called internet 'archive' archive.org apparently also pulled its mirror."
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  • Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:5, Insightful)

    by gurps_npc (621217) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:01PM (#18110088)
    I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information. It seems to be there reason for existence.

    • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:5, Insightful)

      by cperciva (102828) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:06PM (#18110144) Homepage
      I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information. It seems to be there reason for existence.

      The people who run archive.org aren't immune from copyright law. The legality of their archive is questionable at best, but if the copyright owner for some documents or web sites asks that they be removed, the legality is no longer questionable.
      [ Parent ]

      • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:5, Interesting)

        by Shakrai (717556) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:17PM (#18110296) Journal

        The people who run archive.org aren't immune from copyright law.

        Isn't anything entered into evidence in a civil or criminal proceeding automatically part of the public domain?

        [ Parent ]

        • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:4, Informative)

          by BeProf (597697) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:27PM (#18110436)
          IANAL, and I'm not familiar with the details of the case, but...

          When a case was settled out of court and a common feature of such settlements is that the complainant agree to shut their yaps in return for a large financial settlement from the respondant. And if this was an out of court settlement, none of the material in question was ever submitted into evidence and thus never became part of the public record.
          [ Parent ]

          • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

            by sabt-pestnu (967671)
            I believe you are thinking of the settlement details, which are usually not part of the court documents. Thus the "out of court" part of the name.

            As other posters note, as soon as it is ordered by the court or submitted to the court, unless it is sealed

            • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

              by BeProf (597697)
              > Regardless, Comes vs Microsoft was actually in the trial phase. There were jurors and everything!

              In that case they should be public record unless sealed. Feel free to call the court in question and ask them for information on how to get those records.

        • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

          by networkBoy (774728)
          Yes it is, unless sealed by the court.
          To that end, since the register article says someone has a copy and needs a sympathetic host, I'll host all I can :)
          Anyone else have bandwith and space to spare? I'm thinking just torrent the whole tarball or rar and

          • Re: (Score:2, Informative)

            by sabt-pestnu (967671)
            Groklaw.com and its viewers have archived the documents and the host is preparing a permanent page for the Comes vs Microsoft trial documents.

            agreed. Data in one place is vulnerable to deletion. Data in many places is less so. ... noise might be an issue,

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by rbanffy (584143)
            We need to MD5 and SHA1 the files so they can't be tampered with (or, at least, we can easily show which ones were).

            Better yet, do it with the files themselves and then with the archive, so nobody can spread fake versions.

        • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:4, Informative)

          by Jon_S (15368) on Thursday February 22 2007, @01:02PM (#18110984)
          According to MathFox on Groklaw [groklaw.net] (sitting in for PJ during her health break - we hope that's all it is),

          "These documents are all public domain materials by order of the judge in the case."
          [ Parent ]

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by burndive (855848)

          Isn't anything entered into evidence in a civil or criminal proceeding automatically part of the public domain?

          Public record, yes, at least by default. A judge can seal evidence. Public domain, no. Using copyrighted material as evidence in a trial d

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jackbird (721605)
            The evidence submitted to the court as part of a motion or transcript is public domain, not the items themselves. Otherwise any copyright could be nullified simply by initiating a lawsuit, and any rights holder that sued would automatically nullify their

      • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:4, Interesting)

        by Pantero Blanco (792776) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:32PM (#18110522)
        Isn't that the tactic that the Church of Scientology uses to shut up its critics? Using copyright law to prevent critical discussion of their materials?

        I don't think that copyright is the issue here, though; court records and submitted evidence wouldn't be covered by that, if I understand correctly.
        [ Parent ]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by omeg (907329)
      They're not a multi-billion dollar international. They rely on donations from the public and don't make a single dime of profit. As such, what makes you think they have the ability to get into a lawsuit? Microsoft might not have won if they did go to court

    • Re:Is there someone at Archive.org we can ask why? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Animats (122034) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:25PM (#18110406) Homepage

      I would love to know what 'excuse' Archive.org gave for removing such essential internet history information.

      Anyone have the Internet Archive URL involved?

      Most likely, though, is that the site added a restrictive "robots.txt" file. The Archive obeys the "robots.txt" file retroactively. If you put one up, the Archive will disallow access to all the files that would have been blocked in the past according to the "robots.txt" file.

      The data isn't gone from the Archive, though. Access has just been disallowed. You can ask that it be re-allowed given the legal justification that the information is a public record.

      [ Parent ]

      • Re: (Score:3, Funny)

        by Animaether (411575)
        shhh... quit confusing the conspiracy theorists with things that are logical.

        It wouldn't surprise me if a similar policy exists for sites that are put entirely behind passwords, such as the site involved here: www.iowaconsumercase.org .

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by gojomo (53369)

      The Internet Archive's Web Archiving Blog [archive.org] has a post, "Confusion at The Register and Slashdot about the Wayback Machine [archive.org]", which addresses some of the concerns in this article and thread.

      [Just a pointer; my posts here are me speaking as myself, and not f

  • Relax, theres no conspiracy (Score:5, Funny)

    by Timesprout (579035) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:04PM (#18110114)
    MS were just uploading all their documentation to Google Apps.
  • "The internet interprets censorship as damage, and routes around it"

  • MS Dirty Tricks (Score:5, Funny)

    by rhets (892663) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:05PM (#18110130)
    Is that packaged with Vista Ultimate?
    • ... "MS" and "Dirty Tricks" should always be in the same sentence.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Dr Caleb (121505)
      No, it's packaged with "Windows Vista: Total World Domination" edition.
    • Vista Ultimate comes with everything.

      Hell, if I buy fifty of those limited-edition Bill Gates-signed numbered copies, I'd probably get a nymphomaniac Alessandra Ambrosio clone and a pony for free, rush-delivered.

      (hey, at the total price, it might even be
  • They know what P2P is... don't?

  • some of archive on piratebay (Score:5, Informative)

    by wherrera (235520) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:11PM (#18110226)
    Seach PirateBay for a torrent called 'iowa'

    • Re:some of archive on piratebay (Score:5, Funny)

      by L. VeGas (580015) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:18PM (#18110318) Homepage Journal

      Seach PirateBay for a torrent called 'iowa'


      I would, but I would probably get sued by RIAA for supposedly downloading Iowa State Marching Band songs or something.
      [ Parent ]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by teh_chrizzle (963897)

        I would, but I would probably get sued by RIAA[...]

        go for it, the odds of getting pinched for a torrent on TBP are about as good as the odds of winning the lottery.

  • I have 1.6GB of the best stuff (Score:2, Interesting)

    by Anonymous Coward
    where shall i send it, and by what means?

    $ du --si
    23M ./attachments
    11M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011207
    154M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/0000
    108M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/1000
    93M ./www.iowaconsumercase.org/011607/2000
    173M ./www.iowaconsumerc

    • Re:I have 1.6GB of the best stuff (Score:5, Interesting)

      by shudde (915065) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:28PM (#18110454)

      Personally I'd put it on the darknets, Tor [eff.org] and Freenet [freenetproject.org] both have sites dedicated to preserving unpopular/threatened/censored information. I'd imagine that I2P [i2p.net] would have similar resources although I'm not personally familiar with it.

      While darknet sites aren't reachable by the average computer users, this allows the more technically-minded to repopulate the mainstream net with the content when torrents or public hosts are taken down.

      [ Parent ]

      • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

        by shudde (915065)

        Slight correction: Tor isn't technically a darknet.

  • Please, for the love of Pete (Score:3, Insightful)

    by vyrus128 (747164) <gwillen@NOsPAm.nerdnet.org> on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:17PM (#18110304) Homepage
    Forget hosting and start Bittorrenting the documents! They're almost certainly public record at this point, so it's not like MS can prosecute you for it. If you're really worried about that, dump them on Freenet. These documents are critical historical records -- they need to be distributed as widely as possible.

  • is this it? (Score:5, Informative)

    by metroplex (883298) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:28PM (#18110450) Homepage
    This appears to be it http://torrents.thepiratebay.org/hashtorrent/36201 52.torrent/iowa.3620152.TPB.torrent [thepiratebay.org] 2.58 Gb rar archive split in 31 parts.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by LordSnooty (853791)

      2.58 Gb rar archive split in 31 parts.
      Haha, it's just a repost from Usenet.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by hcdejong (561314)
      A bit OT, but..

      Why, oh why, do people RAR and split an archive, then offer it as one big download anyway ?

      The only upside I can see is that when StuffIt decodes the RAR I get to see its 'estimated time to unpack the archive' of 2938757659 hours (an amusing

  • GrokLaw has it (Score:5, Informative)

    by HaeMaker (221642) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:33PM (#18110526) Homepage
    Groklaw has the entire archive.

    http://www.groklaw.net/article.php?story=200702200 83801959 [groklaw.net]

  • MS Dirty Tricks? (Score:3, Interesting)

    by BoRegardless (721219) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:39PM (#18110628)
    That is news? Ballmer blasting companies that say or post things he doesn't like is news?

    This is starting to sound like Anna Nicole in a way, but it is neat to see Slashdotters responding with their own caches of materials & Ballmer will not be able to do a cover up.

    Managing MS must be a real pain for Ballmer at this point. He & Billy Gates probably spend far more time trying to fend off issues & competition than they ever spend on "innovations".

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by calciphus (968890)
      Neither of them spend any time on "innovations" - they're in management.

  • networkBoy writes with word

    See, there's your problem right there... writing about Microsoft conspiracies with Word...
  • What are you talking about? We have ALWAYS been allied with Redmond^H^H^H^HEastasia. You should hand-deliver these purported documents to the Records Department for proper archival.
  • Knowing that Microsoft has overcharged me on it's products due it's monopoly, and the fact that it uses anti-competitive tactics to keep it's monopoly has made me insistent on not buying it's products unless it's absolutely necessary.

    That's a major reason
    • Last time I checked, MS did not produce food, water, or shelter. When they do, it'll probably be awhile before they're the *only source of those things...
  • I'd consider hosting it, at least on a dreamhost shared hosting account. Cost is minimal, and I've got a separate account for my personal stuff, and ~2 TB of monthly bandwidth, which should be plenty for text ;-)

    Send me an e-mail at moornblade at gmail dot
  • If the Internet Archive did this, I'll never trust them again as either impartial, or accurate. And I'd surely never give them any money.
    • IA is notorious for whimping out. They let the Scientologists bully them. xenu.net has the dope on that.
  • Here you go:

    http://thepiratebay.org/tor/3620152/iowa [thepiratebay.org]

    I am seeding. Please make the swarm bigger.

    --
    BMO

    • Offtopic - really... (Score:5, Insightful)

      by djupedal (584558) on Thursday February 22 2007, @12:50PM (#18110790)
      I've harbored strict disdain for MS's penchant for rewriting history for many years. That's my opinion & I'm sticking to it blah, blah, blah... Who but MS would be behind pushing to take 'dirty tricks' offline? Why is it they retain their stripes and heavy-handedness in today's flash-react internet where a corporations' past is never more than a few clicks away? When will MS learn to stop pulling stunts and take the high road? Rhetorical questions, all, and one of the main reasons behind my brief and opinionated comment.

      So I was brief - big deal. Sorry if brevity of opinion ticks off the MS crowd (not), but I see nothing in the rules that says brevity is cause for being modded down - fp or no. Do I feel pain for the slackjaws that need everything spelled o u t? Ummm..not today, sorry.

      Mod how you like, but slapping 'offtopic' on something that isn't, is weak...really weak. So go right ahead. Waste your mod points, I'll wear 'em like a badge :)
      [ Parent ]

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by kabocox (199019)
        I've harbored strict disdain for MS's penchant for rewriting history for many years.

        Oh, come on anyone with enough power/money/social status has history rewritten to their benefit when they know that their is an account out their that puts them in a negati

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by djupedal (584558)
          "What's the big shock that MS is trying to do what every human org has always done?"

          Did I say it was something new to mankind? Did I say I was aghast? Talk about rewriting history - thanks for the demo :)

          Problem is, MS, uses it as a primary business
      • Microsoft has rereleased the WGA notification program for XP. It went live yesterday. It is masquerading as a security critical update again. This time it has an installer so you are prompted and can cancel but you'll continuously be prompted unless you
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