Actually, it says the RIRs on which the order was served. Was this order served directly on RIPE? If so, how? There are treaties about this kind of stuff, it's not as straightforward as you might think.
The Dutch Police served it on RIPE. Whether that's proper service is a more nuanced question, but once RIPE had actual knowledge of it, it couldn't just ignore it. There was, after all, an order of the Dutch police ordering RIPE to comply with the US court order. Whether a reasonable person (including a reasonable organization for this purpose) would just comply with the police order is a different question, but most reasonable persons don't just ignore local law enforcement orders.
Well, yes, they had to follow an order of the local police. I don't see why anyone finds that surprising. As someone else noted, RIPE has not said they were served with a US court order, so I see no reason to assume that they were.
Yes, I know some of the people involved. Is it your opinion that there is something unusual or improper about governments cooperating in a criminal investigation?
Of course not, but that isn't the issue, is it? Can the Dutch government, through the police, order a non-governmental organization to comply with an order of a US court?
Beats me. That's an issue of local Dutch law and perhaps interpretations whatever treaties are in effect, not a mystical issue of whether RIPE is subject to US law. Regards, John Levine, johnl@iecc.com, Primary Perpetrator of "The Internet for Dummies", Please consider the environment before reading this e-mail. http://jl.ly