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I’m not convinced by your implied equivalence of, on the one hand, phone hacking celebrities and murder victims to generate tabloid clickbait, and on the other,

by agd 6y ago

I’m not convinced by your implied equivalence of, on the one hand, phone hacking celebrities and murder victims to generate tabloid clickbait, and on the other, helping protect an intelligence source whose leaked material shows human rights abuses and the death of innocent civilians.

pydry 6y ago
If he hacked a celebrity's account and used it to uncover a killing spree by said celebrity it might be equivalent. And, no doubt the celebrity's supporters would argue that he'd crossed the line from journalism to hacking as well. If Assange were a Russian holed up in Belarus being extradited to Russia for uncovering Russian war crimes by cracking password hashes I really wonder how many people here would still be arguing that he "crossed the line". My guess is precisely zero, and any Russians who did so would be mocked and accused of being shills.
- JAlexoid 6y ago
  Some people are still into the idea of "national unity" and "collective insult" things.
anothernewdude 6y ago
You're certainly right that there are other charges related to Assange's crimes.
Closi 6y ago
Unfortunately the law usually legislates against acts rather than outcomes. Additionally in the eyes of the law, hacking a celebrity does not bring a higher punishment than hacking a nation state, despite its good intentions and the public interest of the released information. And he isn't accused of "helping to protect an intelligence source", because that's not a crime. One claim raised by the prosecution is that Assange was sent hashes and ran them against a rainbow table in an attempt to provide assistance to manning in order to grant further access to confidential government systems. If this claim is true or not, we don't know because it hasn't gone to court yet, but the accusation is more than "just protecting a source". And personally I think there should be an exception to releasing documents that show government wrongdoing which means it isn't illegal - however this is not codified in law.

by agd 6y ago

pydry 6y ago

If he hacked a celebrity's account and used it to uncover a killing spree by said celebrity it might be equivalent. And, no doubt the celebrity's supporters would argue that he'd crossed the line from journalism to hacking as well. If Assange were a Russian holed up in Belarus being extradited to Russia for uncovering Russian war crimes by cracking password hashes I really wonder how many people here would still be arguing that he "crossed the line". My guess is precisely zero, and any Russians who did so would be mocked and accused of being shills.

JAlexoid 6y ago
Some people are still into the idea of "national unity" and "collective insult" things.

anothernewdude 6y ago

You're certainly right that there are other charges related to Assange's crimes.

Closi 6y ago

Unfortunately the law usually legislates against acts rather than outcomes. Additionally in the eyes of the law, hacking a celebrity does not bring a higher punishment than hacking a nation state, despite its good intentions and the public interest of the released information. And he isn't accused of "helping to protect an intelligence source", because that's not a crime. One claim raised by the prosecution is that Assange was sent hashes and ran them against a rainbow table in an attempt to provide assistance to manning in order to grant further access to confidential government systems. If this claim is true or not, we don't know because it hasn't gone to court yet, but the accusation is more than "just protecting a source". And personally I think there should be an exception to releasing documents that show government wrongdoing which means it isn't illegal - however this is not codified in law.