Press release from the Seattle Independent Media Center announces its pyrrhic victory in the government’s case against it, about which I previously wrote here.

“Today, in a case involving internet press freedom, the US Government withdrew a previously-issued court order

directing the Independent Media Center in Seattle to hand over computer server logs. The April 21 order instructed

the IMC, a not-for-profit internet-based news organization, to hand over logs and other records pertaining to the

IMC’s coverage of anti-globalization protests in Quebec City. The government’s retreat represents a victory for the

IMC, where volunteers and a national legal team had been preparing to challenge the order in court.”

The release goes on to describe that the Government made its case (about the theft from Canadian police of documents detailing George Bush’s travel itinerary around the Summit of the Americas in Quebec in April) without the server logs from the IMC’s site, where an anonymous journalist had posted the documents. Nevertheless, they allowed the order to stand, continuing to absorb the organization’s volunteer legal resources, only withdrawing it on the eve of the IMC’s planned court filing in response.