ISP Owner Finally Able To Admit That He Stood Up To The FBI Over Questionable Data Request

from the only-six-years-later dept

Tue, Aug 10th 2010 5:32pm — Mike Masnick

We've noted, repeatedly, that the feds have been caught abusing National Security Letters (NSLs) to try to get information they had no legal right to get. Because these NSLs usually contained an immediate gag order and no judicial review, basically the FBI could request whatever it wanted, and no one would review it and people couldn't speak out against it. So it was great to hear, about three years ago, that one ISP owner recipient of such an NSL was anonymously fighting back, specifically about the required gag order. We were disappointed last year, when a judge refused to drop the gag order, even if the actual request had been dropped by the feds.

However, six years after first receiving the NSL, Nicholas Merrill, the head of Calyx Internet Access is finally able to admit that he's the guy who's been fighting this legal battle. Prior to this, he'd even kept it secret from his fiancee, family and friends -- even when they happened to bring up the case in casual conversation. Of course, this doesn't change that it happened, and even if we keep being told that the feds have been ordered to stop abusing these processes, there's little to no evidence that anything is really being done. For every Nicholas Merrill, you can bet that thousands of others just gave in and didn't put up a fight -- even if the requests were bogus.

There is a clear legal process for obtaining information, involving warrants and judicial oversight. I have no problem with attempts to get information through such means. But when law enforcement routes around those oversight channels, and then tries to gag people from even talking about it, there's a serious problem.

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

Filed Under: free speech, gag order, national security, nsls
Companies: calyx internet access, fbi

28 Comments

If you liked this post, you may also be interested in...

Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread

abc gum, 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:03pm

The first rule of gag order club is you do not talk about gag order club
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Jay (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:14pm

I have to commend the man. He's seriously the little guy that fought a huge bureaucracy and won. How he could do that and keep it secret is truly commendable.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
rw (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:41pm

This is just one example of how close to a police state we really are.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:45pm

at least someone is fighting the good fight
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BillDivX, 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:48pm

Ummm...
"The first rule of gag order club is you do not talk about gag order club"

I do not think that sounds like what you think it sounds like.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
ChurchHatesTucker (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 6:54pm

Re:
IN SOVIET RUSSIA... no, it's pretty much the same.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Aug 2010 @ 7:04pm

How do you fight a court case without being able to identify yourself as the plaintiff? Is it illegal to say, "hello, your honor, my name is so and so"? Was this case conducted in empty courtrooms? Was he wearing a ski mask while presenting his case?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
abc gum, 10 Aug 2010 @ 7:12pm

Re:
They must have used the cone of silence
[ link to this | view in thread ]
interval (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 7:43pm

Yay.
What can one say but "huzzah" for this isp?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
BuzzCoastin (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 8:32pm

Re: close to a police state
Dude,the US is not "close to a police state" its there; just try to use the Bill of Rights, go ahead punk, make my day.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Brian (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 8:52pm

Re: Re:
No, in Soviet Russia they beat you with a club
[ link to this | view in thread ]
drkkgt (profile), 10 Aug 2010 @ 9:17pm

Re: Re: Re:
here, they beat you with a gavel
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 10 Aug 2010 @ 9:50pm

Re:
How do you fight a court case without being able to identify yourself as the plaintiff?

You can't. That's the beauty of it.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Valkor, 11 Aug 2010 @ 5:46am

Re: Yay.
This man is a hero. He needs a bronze statue of himself erected in a park somewhere. Maybe they could put it next to that stupid bean in Chicago so people would have something worth photographing.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
NAMELESS.ONE, 11 Aug 2010 @ 7:17am

no in soviet russia
they dont beat you with a club
they dont use nsls
they dont in fact do this
the usa is becoming far worse then russia and usa's abuses run all over the world
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Hephaestus (profile), 11 Aug 2010 @ 7:58am

What worries me most about this ...
Historically every country that has gotten to this level of spying, protecting entrenched players, and attempting to control its citizens has failed. It really doesn't bode well for the US government.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
aikiwolfie, 11 Aug 2010 @ 8:32am

It's reading posts like this that make me glad I don't live in America. The land of the "free"?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John, 11 Aug 2010 @ 9:10am

Way to go
If I could meet this guy I would shake his hand. He is a shining light for freedom and justice. Our Founders put together a pretty good plan to keep us free. We must be forever vigilant for those whom try to circumvent our right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John, 11 Aug 2010 @ 9:13am

Re:
Don't fool yourself, whereever you live it is not much different. America, in many ways, is still the shining light of Freedom. Once we ban the death penalty and take care of each and every one of our citizens' health needs, we will, again, be on top in every way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
John, 11 Aug 2010 @ 9:14am

Don't fool yourself, whereever you live it is not much different. America, in many ways, is still the shining light of Freedom. Once we ban the death penalty and take care of each and every one of our citizens' health needs, we will, again, be on top in every way.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve, 11 Aug 2010 @ 10:41am

Demcracy Now
I saw his interview on Democracy Now with Amy Goodman, this morning. If you think this is National Security wait until Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gets passed by Congress.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2010 @ 2:16pm

Re: Re:
America, in many ways, is still the shining light of Freedom.

HA HA HA HA HA!
Good one! Got any more?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Anonymous Coward, 11 Aug 2010 @ 6:30pm

Can I sign up with his company?
I'd like to support this guy by signing on with his business but I can't find a site for Calyx Internet Access. What I have found makes it look like they're New York based. I wonder if they provide service in Denver?
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Steve, 12 Aug 2010 @ 7:23am

Re: Can I sign up with his company?
Try finding this at www.b2byellowpages.com/company.../7625825-calyx-internet-access.html on Google
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Rlee (profile), 14 Aug 2010 @ 10:49am

Re: Re: Can I sign up with his company?
You gotta be careful how cut-n-paste from search results; you wound up with ellipses in the link as well as the text. Try this: Calyx Internet Access.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Moe, 15 May 2012 @ 7:48am

I am glad that there are companies that are standing up to the government. I would imagine that it would be really hard to do because the consequences could be very severe. Things are definitely heating up between the government and businesses right now.
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Donn C. Irving, 24 Jul 2012 @ 12:11am

FBI's sticking it's investigative nose into people's private business.
Anytime the FBI wants to sick their nose in my private business, it might be interesting to broadcast theirs in public.

DCI
[ link to this | view in thread ]
Donn C. Irving, 24 Jul 2012 @ 12:11am

FBI's sticking it's investigative nose into people's private business.
Anytime the FBI wants to sick their nose in my private business, it might be interesting to broadcast theirs in public.

DCI
[ link to this | view in thread ]