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There is something that is missing, however. In their seizures, the FBI has also seized the servers of several innocent business owners. In our case, the FBI indiscriminately removed and entire server cabinet from the facility where we host our server. A cabinet houses approx. 50 servers and the livelihoods of THOUSANDS of websites. While the facility that owns most of the equipment objected, the agents cited the USA PATRIOT Act as justification for their actions. Before the PATRIOT Act, this would have been illegal seizure. The FBI is currently searching through all of the servers in the rack, including ours, to see if they can identify any additional violations. Before the PATRIOT Act, this would have been an illegal search. What they have done is tantamount to shutting down an entire downtown office building where a criminal has occupied a single office that he is operating an illegal business from.
The sad thing is we operate a business that was formed to help very small businesses make a name for themselves in this world of mega-global corporations. We facilitate their needs through open-source solutions and give business owners a chance to peddle their talents in the somewhat level playing field of cyber-space. We don't have a lot of money; we don't have any clout. We just try to get by and help as many people as we can along the way. Now the government has seized our possessions: equipment that we worked very hard to afford and even harder to maintain. When they removed our server without warrant or cause, they shut our business down with no reason. They also closed the businesses of all of our clients. Now they are sifting through all of our information, most of which is personal and all of which we had assured our clients would be protected and confidential.
We have done nothing wrong. They will dissect our server and realize that and return it. In the meantime, my virtual office is sitting in an electronic forensics laboratory in Chicago waiting to be released. We were not informed of WHEN the equipment will be returned to us. We have only been told that the FBI "realizes how important it is to return the equipment in a timely manner." Perhaps more incidents like this will push people to become more aware of the implications of becoming a nation under surveillance.