Assange

A British court today set an extradition hearing for February 7 and 8 for Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks editor whom Swedish authorities have accused of rape.

District Judge Nicholas Evans set the date in a brief hearing today in London, using a large courtroom to accommodate more of the people interested in the high-profile case. In addition, the judge modified the terms of Assange's bail to permit him to stay in London during the hearing, according to CNET News sister site ZDNet UK.

Assange denies the Swedish accusations. According to a British police statement released when Assange was arrested … Read more

An ex-WikiLeaks volunteer has hired American lawyers to oppose the U.S. government's efforts to obtain the contents of her Twitter account, CNET has learned.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, a member of the Icelandic parliament who helped with WikiLeaks' release of a classified U.S. military video, is being represented by the San Francisco-based Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"We're looking at options and various things we can do to help our client," EFF legal director Cindy Cohn said yesterday. "She's disturbed that her information is being sought."

On Friday, Twitter notified Jónsdóttir and a handful of other subscribers … Read more

The U.S. Justice Department has obtained a court order directing Twitter to turn over information about the accounts of activists with ties to WikiLeaks, including an Icelandic politician, a legendary Dutch hacker, and a U.S. computer programmer.

Birgitta Jónsdóttir, one of 63 members of Iceland's national parliament, said this afternoon that Twitter notified her of the order's existence and told her she has 10 days to oppose the request for information about activity on her account since November 1, 2009.

"I think I am being given a message, almost like someone … Read more

The FBI has seized a server in Texas as part of its hunt for the groups behind the pro-WikiLeaks denial-of-service attacks launched in December against PayPal, Visa, MasterCard, and others, according to a report.

During a December 16 raid, agents seized a server at Tailor Made Services, a Dallas-based co-location, or server-hosting, facility, and copied two of its hard drives, according to The Smoking Gun Web site, which said it has obtained the FBI affidavit in support of a search warrant for the seizure.

It's not clear what was found on the drives, The Smoking Gun reported, saying that … Read more

Faced with mounting legal bills, Julian Assange has agreed to a $1.5 million deal to write his autobiography.

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to," the controversial WikiLeaks founder told Britain's Sunday Times yesterday. "I have already spent 200,000 pounds ($307,400) for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat."

Assange told the Times that he would receive $796,654 from Alfred A Knopf, his U.S. publisher. A deal with British publisher Canongate would bring in around 325,000 pounds ($501,… Read more

Apple has removed a WikiLeaks app from its App Store just a few short days after its release.

Launched on December 17, the $1.99 WikiLeaks App offered access to the whistleblower site and the @wikileaks Twitter stream and was described as providing "'instant access to the world's most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents," according to a Google cached version of the site provided by TechCrunch. The app was created by a third-party development firm called Hint Solutions, which lists Igor Barinov as its general manager.

But as of late last … Read more

An attorney for the two Swedish women who accuse WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual assault rejected any "conspiracy theories" surrounding the allegations, lodged a month after the embattled Web site began publishing thousands of classified U.S. government documents.

In an interview with CNET, attorney Claes Borgström said, "I'm getting e-mails where people ask me how much the U.S. administration pays me to pursue this case."

He denies any connection, emphasizing that his clients are two ordinary Swedish women who have no motive to interfere with WikiLeaks document-sharing activities, which have … Read more

There are clearly far more similarities between WikiLeaks and Facebook than might first assail the average retina.

Indeed, when Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg was asked about the two organizations, during his acceptance interview for Time magazine's Person of the Year, he replied: "Well, at a very high level some of the themes could be connected. I mean we mostly make so you can understand what's going on with the people around you because we think that that helps you connect with them more broadly."

So how could "Saturday Night Live" not examine the contrast … Read more

A contradiction emerged today over WikiLeaks' relationship with one of its suspected sources, a dispute that could influence whether Julian Assange ultimately faces conspiracy charges in the United States.

The WikiLeaks editor who was released from a London prison yesterday denied knowing Bradley Manning, the Army private who is behind held in a military brig in Quantico, Va., on charges that include leaking classified material.

"I had never heard of the name Bradley Manning before it was published in the press," Assange told ABC News today. "WikiLeaks' technology [was] designed from the very beginning to make sure … Read more