Sonic.net & CEO Dane Jasper Fought Secret WikiLeaks Court Order – “Dane vs Goliath”

Dane Jasper Sonic.net CEO (Source: bohemian.com)

ISP Sonic.net & Dane Jasper fought secret WikiLeaks court order! In a “Dane vs. Goliath” twist of the WikiLeaks saga, the Wall Street journal today reported that  California-based ISP Sonic.net, led by CEO Dane Jasper, has put up an expensive fight against a secret US court order aimed at the contacts of Jacob Appelbaum. The order sought to require the ISP Sonic.net to turn over the emails and contacts of WikiLeaks volunteer and noted internet technologist Jacob Appelbaum. While unsuccessful in their legal response, Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper commented that their costly investment in protecting the privacy of Sonic.net customers was “the right thing to do.”

As the WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning story unfolds, there are a tremendous number of smaller stories emerging which highlight important issues, raise key legal questions and will also find a place in the memory of society, culture and law. These powerful stories may in fact be just as interesting to Wikileaks movie and film fans as Julian Assange and WikiLeaks. The include politicians such as Birgitta Jonsdottir and the outspoken creatives including WikiLeaks Truck Driver Clark Stoeckley and “wikivisionist” Michael Parenti (aka @exiledsurfer). And now, as some large companies appear to be relatively compliant with regards to WikiLeaks-related court orders, we are beginning to see smaller organizations such as Sonic.net and their CEO Dane Jasper mount vigorous defenses against legal tactics they feel impede the rights of internet users and citizens. While they may be unsuccessful in the short term against such mammoth foes, these principles-based stands may help the courts and policy-makers address the overarching, longer term questions related to consumer internet rights and freedoms.

The U.S. government has obtained a controversial type of secret court order to force Google Inc. and small Internet provider Sonic.net Inc. to turn over information from the email accounts of WikiLeaks volunteer Jacob Appelbaum, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.

Sonic said it fought the government’s order and lost, and was forced to turn over information. Challenging the order was “rather expensive, but we felt it was the right thing to do,” said Sonic’s chief executive, Dane Jasper. The government’s request included the email addresses of people Mr. Appelbaum corresponded with the past two years, but not the full emails.

Continued at: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203476804576613284007315072.html

Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper w/ Leo LaPorte (Wikileaks)

Sonic.net and its CEO Dane Jasper has a track record of defending the online internet privacy rights of account holders and customers. In a provocative and interesting Sonic.net CEO Blog post from August 1st, 2011 Dane Jasper writes:

A panel of the U.S. House of Representatives has just moved forward legislation that would force ISPs to retain logs about your online activities for one full year. I urge you to write to your representatives in hopes of preserving your right to privacy online.

Today we retain most IP allocation logs for just two weeks; we don’t need them beyond that period, so they are deleted. Storing logs longer presents an attractive nuisance, and would potentially make our customers the target of invasions of privacy. Any lawyer could simply file a Doe lawsuit, draft up a subpoena and request a customer’s identity. It’s far too easy.

Do the wheels of justice – or investigation – move too slowly, and should data be retained for a long time to allow for legitimate investigation? No, there are already tools in place that law enforcement can easily use to ask ISPs to preserve log information of real online criminals. The 1996 Electronic Communication Transactional Records Act allows law enforcement to require an ISP to keep data for 90 days upon law enforcement request, giving time for a legitimate search warrant to be reviewed by a judge and issued. But, keeping data on every online user for a full year presents far too much potential for abuse.

Continued at: http://corp.sonic.net/ceo/2011/08/01/help-us-protect-your-privacy-online/

To learn more about Jacob Appelbaum please read this post: “The Most Dangerous Man in Cyberspace” Jacob Appelbaum — By Michael Parenti, aka @exiledsurfer

For those of you interested in the background of  Sonic.net and Dane Jasper we would like to point you to a few interesting YouTube videos..

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Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper, Wikileaks | “Broadband Alternatives”

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Sonic.net CEO Dane Jasper, Wikileaks | “Triangulation 5″

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“Thank You” to Wikileaks-Movie.com Fans & Supporters

Thank you for your interest in this post about Sonic.net, CEO Dane Jasper and their fight against the recent US Government court order to reveal WikiLeaks’ activist and technologist Jacob Appelbaum’s email contacts. This Wikileaks-Movie.com post builds on our ever-expanding library of “Edutaining” and informative articles and interviews related to all things Wikileaks including pieces on and by @exiledsurfer, James Spione’s “Incident in New Baghdad,”Greg Mitchell, The Ireland Cables, the PBS LulzSec Hack and Guantanamo Bay (Gitmo). It continues our tradition of highlighting relevant Wikileaks and Julian Assange news and events as well as the many movies, films, DVD, televised specials and documentary film projects about this important story. Additionally, make sure to check in with Wikileaks-Movie.com with our massive “Go To” resource archive for online videos, film clips, trailers on Wikileaks as well as Julian Assange, Bradley Manning, Birgitta Jonsdottir, Lulz Sec, Juice Media’s own Dekade-Z & Anonymous.