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I'll try to give the simplest possible explanation that tries to be value-neutral and avoids getting bogged down in an ethics debate: copyright. Movies are inte

• dave_sullivan 11y ago
  What about use as evidence in a court? If police illegally search and seize, you can conceivably get the case thrown out. If a whistleblower dumps the same information to the internet, that's a different story? The answer is yes, but it does create a new path for prosecution doesn't it? (Can't get a warrant? Hack anonymously, dump to internet, and presto. Good luck proving the source of the leak.) More worryingly, how hard is it to create fake data? People are leery of accusations by prosecutors, far less so of "data". Video and audio evidence can even be faked now. For instance, a bunch of your emails get dumped (all of which are indeed your real e-mails). But then there's one (fake) message to a random email address nobody knows the identity of, "Yes, I'd like to buy 100 kilos of coke and I need help laundering the money after I sell it." Who is the burden of proof on? You to prove that you didn't write it? Or them to prove that you did?
  • tehmaco 11y ago
    I'd think that even if they can't use the leaked data in a prosecution, it'll give them some very good ideas on who needs to be thoroughly audited, and will provide some useful information for financial patterns that might indicate illegal activity in future.