"It has been verified that the returned hard-drives are the originals, but the circumstances of the seizure still remain unclear: who took them, why were they taken, and under which court order?" said a statement on the main Indymedia web site yesterday.
According to US-based rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which is advising Indymedia, the initial seizure, reportedly by the FBI, was in response to a "Commissioner's Subpoena" issued under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering.
The reason for the subpoena remains a bit of a mystery. According to the EFF, the request was made by Italian and Swiss authorities, and follows on from informal FBI requests to both Rackspace and Indymedia to remove an on-line Indymedia news story that included photos of undercover Swiss investigators posing as anti-globalisation activists.
But according to a statement on the Indymedia site, "Indymedia has yet to receive any official statement or information about what the order entailed or why it was issued."
Nor has Rackspace been able to comment on the matter, as the subpoena issued to the company contains a gag order.
"The FBI can't pull the plug on more than 20 news web sites – our modern printing presses – based on a secret proceeding at the request of a foreign government. This is a flagrant violation of the First Amendment," said Kevin Bankston, lawyer with the EFF, last week. "As far as the Constitution is concerned, Indymedia has the same rights as any other news publisher. The government can't shut down the New York Times, and it can't shut down Indymedia."
The servers have now been returned, but the EFF warns that it will take legal action to find out what really happened to Indymedia's servers and ensure that internet media are protected from free speech violations like this in the future.