In the US, up until this point, publishing government secrets has not been a crime. It is a right protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The onl

In the US, up until this point, publishing government secrets has not been a crime. It is a right protected by the First Amendment to the Constitution. The only people that the government has historically been able to prosecute are government employees who leak documents, but publishers have been inviolate. That's why the prosecution of Assange is such a big deal: the US government is trying to establish a precedent that it can go after publishers, not just leakers.