Microsoft puts kibosh on tell-all site, then relents

A website that has made its mark revealing IT secrets has felt the heavy hand of Microsoft. Cryptome.org, a site that posts documents people want to keep secret, ran into trouble when it published a confidential Microsoft document that revealed how much information the company keeps on its users.

Microsoft succeeded in shutting the site down last Wednesday, filing a legal action and putting pressure on its ISP, Network Solutions. Microsoft claimed Cryptome violated its copyright by publishing a confidential document meant only for law enforcement. The document laid out its guidelines for responding to law enforcement subpoenas for information.

But on Thursday, after negative publicity in Wired.com and elsewhere, Microsoft suddenly withdrew its complaint, and the site was back online.

In a statement, Microsoft said it did not ask that the site be taken down, but only that its copyrighted content be removed. "We are requesting to have the site restored and are no longer seeking the document's removal," the company said.

Wired.com reported that the document contained no trade secrets, but tells Microsoft users some things they didn't know. It said, for example, that Xbox Live records every IP address a user ever uses to login and stores them for perpetuity. Microsoft also said it retains the last 10 login records for Windows Live ID. As for instant messages, it tells police that it keeps no record of what anyone says over Microsoft Messenger although it will turn over who is on the buddy lists.

 For more on this controversy:
- see this Wired.com article

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