Summary: Red Hat has a history of 'IP' shakedown for censorship's sake (covering up blunders); Wikileaks had a good example of this, but it has gone offline, so we reproduce it here

IT was recently reported that Wikileaks had been losing pages as the site was having issues. Today I navigated to this page, which turned out to be among those affected:

It's still in the Wayback Machine, but many people cannot find or search/discover it at the Internet Archive.

So here are the contents of the pages which concern Red Hat trying to threaten Wikileaks into self-censorship, using trademarks for the most part:

Category:Red Hat

Red Hat, Inc. (NYSE: RHT) is an S&P 500 company in the free and open source software sector, and a major Linux distribution vendor. Founded in 1993, Red Hat has its corporate headquarters in Raleigh, North Carolina with satellite offices worldwide.

Red Hat based on their operating system product Red Hat Enterprise Linux and management products offers support, training (e.g. certifications like Red Hat Certified Engineer RHCE), and consulting services.

Pages in category "Red Hat"

The following 2 pages are in this category, out of 2 total.

R

- RHCE exam question 1 (2008) - RHCE exam question 2 (2008)

These, in turn, link to the following two pages:

RHCE exam question 1 (2008)

Release date

May 26, 2008

Note

From: Mia Bass <mbass@redhat.com>
Reply-To: mbass@redhat.com
Privacy: yes
Privacy: yes
MIME-Version: 1.0
To: wikileaks@sunshinepress.org, usa@wikileaks.org
Subject: URGENT--Removal of WikiLeaks Posting
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=windows-1252; format=flowed
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit
Privacy: yes
Message-Id: <20080530124655.33C03394B47@mail.wikileaks.org>
Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 13:46:55 +0100 (BST)





Dear Sir or Madam:





Red Hat, Inc. (Red Hat) recently became aware that a WikiLeaks
subscriber has posted materials to your site purporting to be Red Hat
Certified Engineer (RHCE) exam questions.  Those documents are found at
the following links:
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/RHCE_exam_question_1_%282008%29,
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/RHCE_exam_question_2_%282008%29.





It is our understanding that WikiLeaks.org is a website aimed toward
revealing information regarding the unethical behavior of various
foreign governments and corporations.  We do not believe that posting
exam content, authentic or otherwise, furthers the overall goal of your
website.  Red Hat neither confirms nor denies the authenticity of these
documents.  If authentic, their presence on your web site may assist
people who wish to cheat on our exam; if not, then the documents mislead
Red Hat exam candidates and is a clear misuse of our brand and
trademarks.  Consequently, it is imperative that both postings are
immediately removed from the WikiLeaks website.





We trust you will understand Red Hat's interests in protecting its
valuable trademark rights and business interests.  Please contact me no
later than 5:00p.m. on Monday, June 2, 2008 to confirm that the postings
have been removed, or if we need to take additional steps to remove the
documents.





Sincerely,
--
Mia Bass
Legal Affairs
Red Hat, Inc.
1801 Varsity Drive
Raleigh, N.C. 27606
Direct Tel: +1 919-754-4734
Email: mbass@redhat.com

Wikileaks responds:

From: editor@sunshinepress.org
To: Mia Bass <mbass@redhat.com>
Cc: wikileaks@sunshinepress.org, usa@wikileaks.org
Subject: Re: URGENT--Removal of WikiLeaks Posting
Privacy: yes
References: <20080530124655.33C03394B47@mail.wikileaks.org>
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Disposition: inline
In-Reply-To: <20080530124655.33C03394B47@mail.wikileaks.org>
Message-Id: <20080530134035.C0D28394BD7@mail.wikileaks.org>
Date: Fri, 30 May 2008 14:40:35 +0100 (BST)





Dear Mia. Thank you for your letter. We have reviewed the material
at an editorial level.





Our view is as follows:





The documents reveal that, at least in the UK, the Red Hat certificate
is worthless as an unknown number of students are cheating on the
exam.  We have revealed which questions they have access to, placing
all students on a level playing field and in the process destroying
a black market in exam questions.





If Red Hat is to be treated seriously as a provider of test
credentials, then it is obligated to change its exam questions,
review its security processes and the treatment of its staff.  That
Red Hat now seeks to censor the messenger and play ludicrous "we
refuse to confirm or deny" games with the public instead of
"apologising and improving" is cause for concern.





Jay Lim

Download

File | Torrent | Magnet

Further information

Context

United Kingdom

Company

Red Hat

Primary language

English

File size in bytes

40666

File type information

PDF document, version 1.3

Cryptographic identity

SHA256 bf59611711f0ef737e34acea3ddcbcfffc317115d38c4f26abe2997a4ea46072

RHCE exam question 2 (2008)

Release date

May 26, 2008

Download

File | Torrent | Magnet

Further information

Context

United Kingdom

Company

Red Hat

Primary language

English

File size in bytes

52986

File type information

PDF document, version 1.3

Cryptographic identity

SHA256 67ad127820dcde13f45ec634fcb96ef39f9c17ddcf3e4f141efe87f81059e2fc

In case Wikileaks never restores that page, we've at least got a copy. ⬆