Internet service provider Burst.net took the service Blogetry offline following and FBI notice that the site was hosting terrorist materials, including a list of Americans marked for assassination and information on making bombs. The FBI did not ask Burst.net to take Blogetry offline; Burst.net did that on its own initiative, raising concerns and questions about free speech and how the FBI and ISPs deal with sensitive or dangerous information. The situation has also generated an outcry from other Blogetry.com users who, without warning, suddenly had no access to their blogs and data. Now, in a Web Hosting Talk message post, Burst.net’s CTO Joe Marr says Blogetry will get all its data back from Burst.net. Of course, at that point, it’s out of Burst.net’s hands whether Blogetry.com users get anything back.
“His data is fully intact,” Marr wrote. “We have every intention of returning it to him and are in the process of working out the details.”
Marr’s post was in response to comments on Web Hosting Talk by Alexander Yusupov, Blogetry.com’s owner. Marr also admitted a mistake was made in taking down all of Blogetry.com—which purports to have some 73,000 blogs, only one of which was apparently the subject of the FBI’s interest—but Marr stood behind the decision to terminate Blogetry.com’s service in light of the seriousness of the information in the FBI’s request and Blogetry’s alleged past violations of Burst.net’s terms of service and acceptable use policy.
Yusupov has indicated he is investigating setting Blogetry.com up again using Amazon cloud hosting services, if he does in fact receive data back from Burst.net.
