WikiChill: Might Ain't Right

I can't decide which set of DDoS attacks are more mis-guided or counter-productive. Whoever is trying to 'take down' WikiLeaks may as well be jousting at clouds; and those attacking the global payments and cloud computing infrastructure may as well be... well, jousting at clouds. In fact, it's just cloud versus cloud, and both are only succeeding in making innocent crowds angry.

Somewhere in the middle of the WikiLeaks phenomenon is a discussion worth having. But that discussion can't occur while spooks and hackers - the masters of mystery and anonymity - remain the key protagonists, and self-important politicians embark on an arms race of overreaction.

Officials: let the leak thing play out. If WikiLeaks didn't exist, you would have invented it. Focus on changing your protocols to avoid what you really can't cope with. Adopt a decent email policy.

Hackers: focus your energies on inventing something distributed yet productive that will advance the cause of humanity. WikiLeaks does not need your help.


Image from PhysicsBuzz/Wired.

WikiLeaks: A Hard Case. Expect Bad Law

Given the enthusiasm with which numerous governments have attempted to thwart WikiLeaks, and their lack of a ready legal basis for doing so, we should keep an eye out for some exceptionally bad legislation.

We cannot expect the politicians to do nothing about this. There is just too much irony involved.

I mean, how galling must it be to claim the Internet is 'lawless' and then find that global commercial service providers seem to have no trouble enforcing their own cross-border terms of service?

And how can one now lay claim to being "diplomatic" when everyone's seen how much care diplomats take when writing to each other?

Never mind that "WikiLeaks" is just a brand name, and the material it publishes has already been leaked by... government officials.

But wait! There's hope yet. I reckon there's a line of official thought that might run something like this:

"We can't possibly have a law that specifically prevents official leaks. How would opposition parties ever get elected? It would be the end of democracy!

Well what about a law approving leaks in certain circumstances, like when they promote democracy? And let's not just make it a national phenomenon. Let's do it by international treaty. We could set up a single, not-for-profit organisation, not controlled by any national government, that would have as its charter the publication of leaked government information that it judges to be in the public interest. All officials could then simply disclose their leaks to it, and impartial editors from around the world could approve disclosure.

We could call it, "WikiLeaks"!"

Image from ThoughtTheater.