PayPal restores Cryptome for real
Now go away
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PayPal has finally made good on its pledge to restore Cryptome's account many hours after the firm's head of global communications told Register readers it had already done so.
PayPal told operator John Young the account had been suspended because of its stated policy:
Cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance -- open, secret and classified documents -- but not limited to those. Documents are removed from this site only by order served directly by a US court having jurisdiction. No court order has ever been served; any order served will be published here -- or elsewhere if gagged by order. Bluffs will be published if comical but otherwise ignored.
Cryptome predates Wikileaks by a decade. PayPal told Young the restrictions would continue, with Cryptome unable to withdraw funds or close the account.
Earlier PayPal's head of global communications had implied in an email to El Reg that Cryptome breached its policy that an account not be used "to encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct" others to engage in illegal activity. The email also stated the account had been restored. It hadn't.
Eventually, some nine hours after contacting Cryptome, PayPal did restore the account, "after review".
"Likely another PayPal ploy, hoping the FU will just go away, without apology, without admission of stupidity, declaring everything was done as it should have been, according to the arrogant rules of Microsoft, et al," wrote Young.
There's more on the Cryptome site, including correspondence. ®
COMMENTS
This is why
Governments and multinationals around the world are desperately trying to muzzle the Internet. There is nothing more frightening to these organisations than a well informed public.
Not spurious at all
A couple of weeks ago cryptome.org was taken off the net by Network Solutions after a DMCA request by Microsoft.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/25/cryptome_dmca_takedown/
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/25/microsoft_cryptome_dcma_withdrawl/
Nope.
PayPal is NOT a bank, at least not in the US. They walk like a bank, talk like a bank, and act like a bank in many ways. But, they have gone to great lengths to make sure that, legally, they are NOT a bank. That's how they can pull crap like this. They aren't subject to the same regulations and supervision that banks are.
They want you to think they're a bank, and to use them to store your money like a bank. But, PayPal puts your money into their (real) bank account and they get the interest from it. They charge you a fee every time money moves to your account from someone else's.
This would be the equivalent of your bank charging you a variable (depending on the amount) fee for each check you deposit. Such a bank would not stay in business very long. The only reason PayPal can pull this off is becuase they have become the de-facto standard for online payments.
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