But while the Cryptome was quickly back up, the freezing of the PayPal account took over a week to be restored. According , the freezing of the account had been because "PayPal's Acceptable Use Policy clearly states that we don't allow PayPal to be used for items that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity." However, in an increasingly tetchy email conversation with "Stephanie" from PayPal, Cryptome's John Young pointed out that nothing that Cryptome does is illegal, otherwise it would have been shut down by the authorities.
The spat has not gone down well with PayPal users, several of whom have posted their dissatisfaction with the service on the Cryptome website. One user, A5 wrote, " I will be closing my PayPal account, as well. My reasons for taking such action is simply that I wish to express my objections to the gross lack of openness, fair play, and responsibility demonstrated by the mishandling of the situation that cropped up with Cryptome". It remains to be seen whether many more of PayPal's users follow suit.