topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Tuesday March 19, 2024, 5:46 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business  (Read 13072 times)

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business

In July, WikiLeaks filed a complaint to the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission, saying Visa and MasterCard had breached antitrust provisions set out by the EU Treaty.

Antitrust provisions for a not for profit?  Somehow that seems contradictory...

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #1 on: October 24, 2011, 11:35 AM »
This part was interesting:

The blocking of donations by Bank of America Corp, Visa Inc, MasterCard Inc, eBay Inc unit PayPal and Western Union Co had cost Wikileaks 95 percent of its revenue.

...Guess we know who's really in-charge now, huh?

zridling

  • Friend of the Site
  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 3,299
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #2 on: October 24, 2011, 12:11 PM »
...Guess we know who's really in-charge now, huh?

So true. In case you missed this article everywhere online last week:
http://boingboing.ne...ds-total-wealth.html

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #3 on: October 24, 2011, 12:11 PM »
Not surprising.

In some respects Wikileaks can take comfort in knowing their impact was obviously being felt in high places. Otherwise, their problems with the various online payment providers would never be happening.

One of the joys of living under the so-called rule of law: any time a government lacks the constitutional or moral authority to forbid a specific act or behavior, they usually find it's a simple matter to get business to do it for them by proxy. And all it usually takes is an extremely oblique hint to a business or industry group to make it happen.

Unfortunately, Wikileaks has made it all to easy to get such favors by not showing enough discretion or responsibility with what they have published.

They could easily have had the same impact using a much more limited or staged release of documents in their possession on more than one occasion. But they instead chose to show some 'attitude' and rashness. And that will cost them dearly in the long run. Possibly even to the point of it being their undoing.

Successfully locking horns with any government is a protracted exercise that requires strategic and and out-of-the-box thinking. The name of the game is to expose and educate the public to the point of where whatever government you've gone up against collapses under the weight of it's own contradictions, injustices, and lies. Because in the end every government can only rule with the ultimate consent of its people. Even if it has to manufacture such consent through the use of fear and intimidation.

Once that consent gets withdrawn however, (sometimes by enough public outrage that fear can no longer hold the populace in check) any government, from the most enlightened, to the most brutally repressive, will fall. Look in any history book.

Wikileaks got a little to big for its own hat, and assumed it had far more public support than it had. As a result, it acted rashly, defying the 'powers that be' to do anything about them...

I think they're now seeing the response to their challenge.

Pity. Wikileaks had the potential to do something worthwhile. Too bad impatience and ego tripped them up. Which, ironically, is the same thing that happens to so many governments.

Perhaps their successor won't make the same mistake.




nosh

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 1,441
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #4 on: October 24, 2011, 11:41 PM »
Putting Wikileaks out of play could create a dangerous vacuum. It wouldn't serve anyone's interest if some faceless new "organization" that doesn't even make a pretense of going by the book, becomes the de facto go-to place for anyone wishing to air some dirty laundry.

You may shut down Wikileaks but you can't stop the leaks.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #5 on: October 24, 2011, 11:57 PM »
You may shut down Wikileaks but you can't stop the leaks.

Don't be too sure.

As long as the leaks continue to fall on largely deaf ears - and the penalties inflicted on those who choose to go public continue to increase - a point will be reached where 'leaking' is no longer an effective tool. At which point it will follow, into oblivion, so many other forms of non-violent protest.

It's a shame, really.  :(


nosh

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 1,441
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #6 on: October 25, 2011, 12:12 AM »
Fair enough.

Social media has been around for what? 10 years? The internet (in its mass-reach avatar) for a little longer. I'm guessing all these unrelated concerns: organizations violating personal privacy, rampant online piracy, wikileaks and similar organizations exposing state secrets, botnets for sale, organized CC theft, etc - are pushing us all in one direction -> serious internet regulation. I wonder what things will be like in another 50-60 years...

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #7 on: October 25, 2011, 12:18 AM »
...Guess we know who's really in-charge now, huh?

So true. In case you missed this article everywhere online last week:
http://boingboing.ne...ds-total-wealth.html

Jeez... That's crazy. Scary. And pretty much validates most conspiracy theories...
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

Renegade

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 13,288
  • Tell me something you don't know...
    • View Profile
    • Renegade Minds
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #8 on: October 25, 2011, 12:20 AM »
...are pushing us all in one direction -> serious internet regulation. I wonder what things will be like in another 50-60 years...

I think this is the part where I say, thank god I'll be dead by then. Still, I'm curious... I suppose I'll try to stick around that long anyways, just to see... y'know... just for the sake of interest. :)
Slow Down Music - Where I commit thought crimes...

Freedom is the right to be wrong, not the right to do wrong. - John Diefenbaker

nosh

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 1,441
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #9 on: October 25, 2011, 12:25 AM »
Yeah, and you really don't wanna miss out on Tru-3D p0rn!  :P

Stoic Joker

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 6,646
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #10 on: October 25, 2011, 06:45 AM »
+1 for the last two comments.

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #11 on: October 25, 2011, 07:34 AM »
+1 for the last two comments.

You only said both to cover up your interest in Tru-3D pr0n  ;D

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #12 on: October 25, 2011, 08:46 AM »
+1 for the last two comments.

You only said both to cover up your interest in Tru-3D pr0n  ;D

If it's any improvement over the pitiful offerings that are currently available on the web,  I say: bring it on. Even garbage shouldn't be exempt from reengineering. 

Q: Why do they call it "adult" subject matter when 99.9999999% is so utterly and unrepentantly juvenile? That's always puzzled me.
 ;D

nosh

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 1,441
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #13 on: October 25, 2011, 08:59 AM »
@40, please post links to the 0.0000001%. I'm really curious about that stuff now! ;D

IainB

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 7,540
  • @Slartibartfarst
    • View Profile
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #14 on: October 25, 2011, 09:53 AM »
You may shut down Wikileaks but you can't stop the leaks.
Don't be too sure.

As long as the leaks continue to fall on largely deaf ears - and the penalties inflicted on those who choose to go public continue to increase - a point will be reached where 'leaking' is no longer an effective tool. At which point it will follow, into oblivion, so many other forms of non-violent protest.

It's a shame, really.  :(

Fair enough.

Social media has been around for what? 10 years? The internet (in its mass-reach avatar) for a little longer. I'm guessing all these unrelated concerns: organizations violating personal privacy, rampant online piracy, wikileaks and similar organizations exposing state secrets, botnets for sale, organized CC theft, etc - are pushing us all in one direction -> serious internet regulation. I wonder what things will be like in another 50-60 years...

+ 1 for both of these.

We have the RIAA example, and now the UK Government is reportedly floating the idea of enforcing "trust-based computing" to the Intenet, so that access control would be governed by a unique ID chip on your computer.

What could go wrong?

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #15 on: October 25, 2011, 10:40 AM »
@40, please post links to the 0.0000001%. I'm really curious about that stuff now! ;D

Ah! I take it you're one of those "advanced collectors" or "discriminating connoisseurs" you see mentioned on the plain paper book covers so often found in the newsagent's back room...

Can't be of much help with that I'm afraid. That minute fraction represents the bit of erotic frission that's specific to each individual libido...

As they say: What's sauce for the goose is another man's turn on.

(But you know the sort of things THEY say.)    ;D

nosh

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 1,441
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #16 on: October 25, 2011, 10:48 AM »
But you know the sort of things THEY say.

Only too well. :P Cheers!

superboyac

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 6,347
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #17 on: October 25, 2011, 05:53 PM »
@40, please post links to the 0.0000001%. I'm really curious about that stuff now! ;D

Ah! I take it you're one of those "advanced collectors" or "discriminating connoisseurs" you see mentioned on the plain paper book covers so often found in the newsagent's back room...

Can't be of much help with that I'm afraid. That minute fraction represents the bit of erotic frission that's specific to each individual libido...

As they say: What's sauce for the goose is another man's turn on.

(But you know the sort of things THEY say.)    ;D
;D ;D
You are my favorite person!

f0dder

  • Charter Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 9,153
  • [Well, THAT escalated quickly!]
    • View Profile
    • f0dder's place
    • Read more about this member.
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #18 on: October 25, 2011, 08:25 PM »
They could easily have had the same impact using a much more limited or staged release of documents in their possession on more than one occasion. But they instead chose to show some 'attitude' and rashness. And that will cost them dearly in the long run. Possibly even to the point of it being their undoing.
Spot on the sugar.

Before releasing anything in public, they should have data-mined and cross-referenced things heavily, and worked together with global media to run some in-depth unveiling of corruption.

The only things I can remember seeing in Danish media wrt. wikileaks have been...
1) the Assange rape accusations - which didn't really have anything to do with WL as such.
2) bitching over leaks because of "zomg they're endangering the troops".

But any use of leaked material in stories about corruption? Haven't seen it.
- carpe noctem

wraith808

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • **
  • default avatar
  • Posts: 11,186
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #19 on: October 25, 2011, 08:34 PM »
Before releasing anything in public, they should have data-mined and cross-referenced things heavily, and worked together with global media to run some in-depth unveiling of corruption.

That was if the release was *really* about unveiling something.  As it stands, it looks more like it was 'counting coup' than anything of substance.  And considering the fate of the person allegedly responsible for leaking much of the information, that seems a shame.

40hz

  • Supporting Member
  • Joined in 2007
  • **
  • Posts: 11,857
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: Wikileaks says financial 'blockade' could put it out of business
« Reply #20 on: October 25, 2011, 09:19 PM »
Before releasing anything in public, they should have data-mined and cross-referenced things heavily, and worked together with global media to run some in-depth unveiling of corruption.

Spot on the sugar in turn. :Thmbsup:

As it stands, it looks more like it was 'counting coup' than anything of substance.

Maybe not originally. But once celebrity status was attained, that does seem to be what happened.

And considering the fate of the person allegedly responsible for leaking much of the information, that seems a shame.

Yes. Serving out a sentence where you'll spend 23 out of every 24 hours for the next 30 years in a standard 8' X 10' cell in some godforsaken military prison is a pretty ghastly fate. Especially when you're a kid who will likely live long enough to serve all 30 years of it.

The word shame hardly begins to cover it.

« Last Edit: October 25, 2011, 09:40 PM by 40hz »