This latest development is a very drastic measure and one that we are pretty confident will backfire on the courts in question. The establishment of a website in support of a political, social or economic cause should still be protected under the 1st amendment right to free speech. So far there are three Subpoena’s posted on the Scridb site started by someone called CabinCr3w (including one for occupy Boston), but we are sure that more will follow as the local and state governments attempt to track down what they obviously feel are dangerous criminals (never mind the real ones out there).

These Subpoenas are the latest in the move to criminalize the online activist movement (Anonymous and now the Occupy Movement). We have already watched as the FUD campaign has pushed ahead with articles that are now trying to portray Sabu (Hector Xavier Monsegur) as a “Gun Carrying Drug Dealer”.

So why the subpoenas all of a sudden? Well there are a couple of reasons that jump to mind. The first is that the people in charge a guessing that many of the individuals that support (or are involved with) the occupy movement are also involved or support Anonymous. This is not that big of a leap of logic, but it is a dangerous situation where the state and local governments are close to abusing (or disregarding) certain rights. This is not that far away from asking for the logs files and IP addresses of visitors to ANY site on the internet that might have an opposing view about the existing government.

The problem with this tactic is that they are very likely to be trampling on innocent people’s rights and freedoms all under the guise of trying to catch those dangerous criminals called Anonymous… not to mention that it really is not going to work the way they want. However, they are drunk with the way that Monsegur was caught (though a domain registry) and are hoping for more success of the same type. We have a feeling that the Electronic Frontier Foundation will be stepping in soon considering their stance on this type of legal abuse.

In the meantime, you can expect to see more court action and also more stories in the press playing up the limited success of the FBI’s actions with Sabu. My personal favorite headline is the one that claims Anonymous is “reeling” from the capture of Sabu and the final breakup of LulzSec. If nothing else this shows the ignorance of the situation that most media and the government agencies have of Anonymous, the Occupy Movement and, well to be honest pretty much anything else that relates to the way the Internet has changed activism and social communication between people, nations, cultures and ideologies.

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