Wikileaks is a controversial website started by Julian Assange. Its mission is to release otherwise classified documents to the public. Currently Julian Assange is running from multiple governments because he is wanted for conspiracy and other similar crimes of treason. His site raises difficult questions about the legality and moral justification of the release of this type of information to the general public.
Much of the world is divided on this issue: is Julian Assange a hero or a villain? It is hard for the informed individual to take a stance on this; because, publishing the documents isn't strictly illegal, but the process taking to procure them is. I believe that he is a hero, of sorts. He isn't breaking any laws in the United States, he is just working around them. But the people who submit these documents to him are villains. My argument is based in the legality of it all. Those who steal are criminals, but those who end up with a stolen good are also criminals. Information is different. The copyright laws that protect certain items are very foggy in their nature. For example: Person A illegally copies a DVD and defiles the copyright protection on it. He/she then gives it to Person B. Person B isn't guilty of a crime, but Person A is. This is because owning a copied DVD isn't a crime but distributing it is. Now say Person A sells the pirated DVD to Person B. In this example both persons are guilty of buying and selling illegal goods.
Because the information was given to Julian Assange, and not paid for, he isn't at fault for holding stolen/classified information. When he releases it, he also doesn't charge for the right to view the files. This, however, doesn't protect him, it protects the reader. For releasing them he is guilty, unless he can claim that he didn't know they were stolen. He makes this claim very well by using anonymous sources to get the information. If he doesn't know where it came from, then he can't possibly know if it was stolen or not. Therefore he isn't guilty of any crime, at least in the United States, but the people who got the information for him are. He claims to not be a hacker, and this, in fact, is true.
I believe Julian Assange is a hero, but he needs to be careful not to overstep the boundary into crime. The world needs to feel as though someone is watching the public's collective back, even if the information he releases isn't as relevant as some believe it is. This is why the world needs Wikileaks. However, Julian Assange will end up in prison in America if he actually steals a document himself or pays for the rights to it. He will also end up in jail if the property he publishes is reported stolen and he refuses to turn it in/take it off of the world wide web. I sincerely hope he continues to evade the authorities and be the common man's savior from the tyranny of more powerful figures.
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ReplyDeleteInteresting analysis, Chris. I like the focus on legality-- well argued-- but I wonder if issues of morality can transcend legality. For example, Martin Luther King's acts of disobedience during the civil rights movement were illegal, but very much morally sound (and few would argue that he wasn't a hero).
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