Why Shutting Down Wikileaks Will Backfire

[laststeamtrain]

Why Shutting Down Wikileaks Will Backfire

A federal judge in California has ordered the whistleblower website Wikileaks to go dark. But the site wasn't taken out by the Feds— who have good reason to be upset with it for posting sensitive information about Gitmo and rendition flights—but rather a Swiss Bank that filed suit after the site posted documents suggesting that it was up to some financial hanky-panky in the Caymans. The bank may have won round one, but Wikileaks and its friends are already winning round two. The site is being mirrored in several places (see list here) and the bank's docs are readily available as a download. I suspect that this instance of judicial overreach will be overturned and the main Wikileaks site will be back. And in the meantime, some Swiss bankers are about to get a lesson on how hard it is to stuff digital genies back into their bottles...http://www.motherjones.com/mojoblog/archives/2008/02/7253_theres_a_little.html

[Hekate]

1. Kick

:kick:

[eShirl]

2. they just kicked a hornet's nest

[hootinholler]

3. Bwahahahaha!

Nobody could have predicted that wikileaks might be mirrored. There's only about 50 mirrors listed, worldwide.

-Hoot

[barbtries]

4. i never heard of wikileaks or visited their site

until a judge shut them down after a hearing in which they were not even represented. go wikileaks

[warren pease]

5. Lots more on this subject at this GD thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x2884363">US court attacks web freedom; enjoins Wikileaks.org out of existence


wp

[laststeamtrain]

9. Excellent. Thanks. n/t.

[Ichingcarpenter]

10. Please add your info and nominations to that one

it has a great deal of data on it.

[liberal N proud]

6. Isn't that like closing the barn door after the horses got out?

[hwmnbn]

7. The worst thing to tell people is....

you can't see this.

I would've never known about this bank's hanky panky were it not for this story.

[The Stranger]

8. Sounds like a violation of the First Amendment by the Judge -- and prior restraint at that.

That should be flipped on appeal.

[bonito]

11. Kick n/t

[malaise]

12. K & R and another link

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/7250916.stm

<snip>
The site was founded in 2006 by dissidents, journalists, mathematicians and technologists from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa.

It so far claims to have published more than 1.2 million documents.

It provoked controversy when it first appeared on the net with many commentators questioning the motives of the people behind the site.

It recently made available a confidential briefing document relating to the collapse of the UK's Northern Rock bank.

Lawyers working on behalf of the bank attempted to have the documents removed from the site. They can still be accessed.