Police said they believed the stolen material was distributed through Helsingius' computer in Helsinki to thousands of users on the global computer network. An anonymity server acts as an electronic filter, stripping the return address from data and relaying it to a destination in seconds. Some 7,000 messages pass daily through Helsingius' service, which has been in operation for more than two years. It is one of several around the world run independently by people committed to privacy on the network. Helsingius said Tuesday.
Finnish law allows police to confiscate material they believe has been stolen.
Distribution of stolen material, including corporate secrets, is a punishable offense in Finland. Helsingius said police at first wanted to take the whole computer, effectively shutting down the service. Pulkkinen said police determined Helsingius was doing nothing illegal under Finnish law and ended their investigation. But before ending the probe, police relayed Helsingius' information back to California police via Interpol. They also turned over the information to the Helsinki representative of the Church of Scientology, Pulkkinen said.