For the first time in the litigation over documents posted on the Wikileaks Web site, lawyers have appeared representing the owner of the Wikileaks.org Internet domain. He is John Shipton, “a citizen of Australia currently residing in Kenya,” according to a document filed Thursday in federal court in San Francisco.
In the document, Mr. Shipton’s lawyers endorsed arguments made in briefs filed by various groups — including the Electronic Frontier Foundation, the American Civil Liberties Union and the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press — contending that an order from Federal District Judge Jeffrey S. White hindering access to the Wikileaks Web site should be withdrawn and the lawsuit should be thrown out.