Microsoft backs down over online 'spy guide': “(Guardian)
Microsoft has been forced to backtrack after it closed down a whistleblowing website after it published a leaked version of the company’s ‘spy guide’. The American software giant took action against the Cryptome website for publishing a copy of the Microsoft Global Criminal Compliance Handbook, a document explaining how law enforcement officials can access millions of people’s private information online. Microsoft said the publication infringed its copyright and lodged a complaint with Cryptome’s web hosting company, Network Solutions. Network Solutions shut down the website entirely – a move that caused uproar among civil liberties campaigners, and led Microsoft to withdraw its complaint so that Cryptome could go back online. The company did not intend to close the site – just remove the document in question.

(Via QuickLinks Update.)