If you think this post would be better suited in a different community, please let me know.
Topics could include (this list is not intending to be exhaustive — if you think something is relevant, then please don’t hesitate to share it):
- Moderation
- Handling of illegal content
- Server structure (system requirements, configs, layouts, etc.)
- Community transparency/communication
- Server maintenance (updates, scaling, etc.)
It comes down to the individual company on whether or not to fight requests for user information. A lot of precedent exists for not complying.
Wouldn’t this simply be obstruction of justice?
Not every court order is a criminal case.
Sure, but (in the USA) an investigation precedes a criminal case [2], and a court order is part of that. I directly cite, for example, 18 U.S. Code § 1509 - Obstruction of court orders [1]:
References
Would you mind citing a case? I’m curious.
NY Times vs Njalla
Njalla does comply with some requests, and was forced to shut down some pirate bay instances at one point, though. Ghost is another privacy domain seller.
Theres also a term for companies called “Bulletproof Registrars.” For example, some Malaysian Registrars apparently don’t have an address and cannot actually recieve most subpoenas.
Mostly VPNs, I don’t know too much about similar cases with server hosts or domain sellers.
Do you have an official record of them not complying with an official court-ordered subpoena? I looked into “NYT vs Njalla”, and it seems like it was the NYT making a private request to Njalla under threats of legal action, but no legal action followed [1][2].
References