[rsch20]

this is old news but i'm just finding out about it.

overgrow.com was a forum dedicated to marijuana growing, in addition to the standard marijuana stuff it also had a politics and news area which is where I orginally linked to this site from.

I haven't visited it in quite a while and tried to just now, only to find that it's gone, a quick google finds a warning about how the site got busted (in canada). this is the thread:

http://www.icmag.com/ic/showthread.php?t=20499

its dated 02-04 of this year so i'm a couple months behind the action as usual. but I still think this is something noteworthy.

on the 'recording of customers internet activities' thread: http://www.peakoil.com/fortopic20701.html it was asked why the government would even track what we say on a website like this one, and I find this development to be disturbing in that light.

admittedly, marijuana is illegal in america, but overgrow has been taken down for talking about marijuana.

the topics that are discussed here are just as fringe, and while I don't think the government is going to be pounding down my door for making this post, I realistically know that I'm far too small of a cog to be noticed by TPTB, I do however make it with the assumption that it is at least being scanned by a computer somewhere. the terrorist brush has a broad stroke.

putting aside the legality for a moment, and the debate over whether marijuna is evil or not. consider that the website that has been removed had a lot of information stored in it. I personally learned nearly as much from that forum as I have from this one, and that is saying something. the forum had an amazing community as well.

All I can think is how glad I am that I learned all that I could while that resource was available, now it is gone and I can not think of a more clear modern example of 'book burning' or repression of free speech than what I have found out today.

[rsch20]

after digging through the thread a while I found this:

$this->bbcode_second_pass_quote('', 'N')EW on CC
New Information regarding Police Seizures of Overgrow.com
by Marc Emery (03 Feb, 2006) Overgrow.com, Cannabisworld.com, Heaven's Stairway Seed Company and Eurohemp.com Owners Busted in Raid

Cannabis Culture has developed a timeline of events we believe accurately account for the disappearance of overgrow.com, cannabisworld.com, Heaven's Stairway Seeds (hempqc.com), and eurohemp.

On Monday evening, Richard Calrisian, the owner of the four websites, resident of Montreal, was contacted by his web service providers in Vancouver where his servers were situated that there may be a problem regarding a police investigation. RC told his provider to shut down the websites immediately. Within hours the police, its unknown what kind of police, apparently entered the server site with a warrant and apprehended the hardware that housed the four web sites.

In the early morning of Tuesday, police in Montreal moved in and arrested RC, his wife, and family members and an unknown number of employees.

It is alleged that RC, a pseudonym, is being held at Riviere-des-Prairie (RDP) jail in Montreal, while his wife in is Tanguay jail, across the river from RDP. CC Magazine called the prison and found no one there under the name Richard Calrisian. Their bail hearing should be on Monday, but it is unusual that a bail hearing has not yet been held. Typically they are held within 24 hours of arrest, unless an investigation is ongoing and the accused are being held temporarily without bail because of the risk of the arrest news informing persons also under investigation.

Reports of a drug bust in Hearst, Ontario are not related the seizure of overgrow.com websites.

[Doly]

It's part of the game on the Internet. How many times Silicon Toad had to change site until he just got fed up with it?

(For those that don't know, Silicon Toad ran a site with lots of info on hacking)

[bobaloo]

"apprehended the hardware", god that's a classic cop-speak.

[SoothSayer]

A loty of what I hear about Canada makes it sound like a Politically Correct hellhole ... with sharp teeth.