Comments on: Why Wouldn't Google Mirror Wikileaks?

By: Rogerio Marques

Rogerio Marques — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 01:23:43 +0000

Caching the pages is already enough for all practical purposes but how would BigG react if Wikileaks created a few billable App Engine instances?

By: Perry

Perry — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 20:32:48 +0000

I agree that the Assange story could be "the most important and defining story of the Internet age".

It's important b/c it gets right at the heart of the tension between privacy and transparency.

The upside of privacy is protection, the downside manipulation. The upside of transparency is openness, the downside exposure.

The problem is that we as human beings are early in on having the maturity to exercise both appropriately and judiciously. The internet has blown this whole area wide open.

In the meantime, the lesson of the Assange story to governments and corporations will be more duplicity not less. But can you blame them?

Would be the subject for a good book ; )

By: SeekGeek

SeekGeek — Sun, 12 Dec 2010 11:14:08 +0000

The Big G would have an extremely hard time taking a stance against Wikileaks. Especially in view of this direct quote cited on gawker: "Eric Schmidt suggests you alter your scandalous behavior before you complain about his company invading your privacy."

I agree with you John, this is Google's big moment to reclaim their "Do No Evil" mojo, but I suspect it will be "Do what's best for the shareholders". Business as usual.

By: Lalit

Lalit — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 09:40:39 +0000

It is not clear to me if Wikileaks has got all the information legally. I will stay away from it. http://goo.gl/6jxXU

By: app developer

app developer — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 12:32:38 +0000

I’m not a lawyer but I don’t think Amazon had a legal leg to stand on. although a European cloud host would probably be OK. On the other hand Google has maintained the legal stance that it’s not responsible for what it shows in it’s results therefore they must show the mirror sites; if they don’t they’ll set a precedent for themselves.

By: salty

salty — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 14:33:11 +0000

I think individually if we can do something to not support those companies who have caved, we should. for me it was to cancel my paypal account. I just did. I left them this message: Dear Paypal – You should be ashamed for not supporting the principles of free speech that our country was founded upon. I will not give you another dime of my money, and am closing my account. . You were in a position to, and as Americans had the responsibility, to defend the constitution and our flag and the support the principles we all are supposed to stand for, and instead of standing up for those principles you have buckled under fear and cowardice. You have squelched the voices of countless thousands by not allowing people to “speak” with their own money to support freedom of speech. Your actions in regards to WikiLeaks has proven that you have become an instrument of the ever growing menace that our founding fathers warned us against…. a tyrannical government! SHAME ON YOU!

By: TektonikShift

TektonikShift — Thu, 09 Dec 2010 03:21:51 +0000

Reference to Stieg Larsson is right on.

The leads are a rich source of material for further investigative reporting.

The real scandal is the cowardice of the mainstream media to follow up on the material.

By: Karl

Karl — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 19:44:38 +0000

as Eric says – google is already playing host to this content under the guise of caching. I doubt they asked permission to host the content.

By: Eric Baillargeon

Eric Baillargeon — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:54:22 +0000

This morning in Google index 1,150 cables was there and now it have 2,160. Click on my name to see the screen shot.

By: Saad Kamal

Saad Kamal — Wed, 08 Dec 2010 18:17:57 +0000

Would google want to ruin their relationship with the obama administration? don’t think so!