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While I agree that it's distasteful revealing people's email, and I've had no interest in looking in what was revealed, it's not clear to me what rights are bei

While I agree that it's distasteful revealing people's email, and I've had no interest in looking in what was revealed, it's not clear to me what rights are being violated here. These were corporate accounts, and, anyone who is an employee of a corporation, knows that every email they write/send on a corporate mail server, absolutely can come into public purview, quite often during legal discovery. The old saying, "Do not put anything in email if you don't want it to appear on the front page of the New York Times" is absolutely correct. (True story - while I was working for desktop support at Netscape, one of my fellow technicians ended up having one of his emails end up in the New York Times - and he had sent it to our internal lawyers. Turns out even that can't protect you). Sony probably has strong grounds to come after whoever breached their security, and send them to prison for many, many years - but I don't know if their are specific individual "rights" being breached by wikileaks here.

gtirloni 12y ago
anyone who is an employee of a corporation, knows that every email they write/send on a corporate mail server, absolutely can come into public purview Is this coming from the HN crowd that registers domains with contact information anonymity enabled, loves to incorporate in Delaware and complains about privacy and NSA spy programs? Could you please turn your emails public so we can review them in case you might be doing something wrong? No? Thought so. It's for the courts to decide if Sony is doing something wrong. Wikileaks is a nice idea and I've supported them for a while, but they can't help but shoot themselves in the foot with dubious behavior like this.
- ghshephard 12y ago
  One key difference, of course, is that the NSA is spying on everyone, and has all the powers of a government agency, and its many billions of dollars. What both of them are doing is distasteful. To some degree, though, I compare this behavior to that guy who walks up to people with a video camera, a couple feet away, and just points it at them. They become very uncomfortable, and upset, and yell at him. What he's doing with this "performance art" - as annoying as it is, is making people realize that they are already under constant surveillance. Anybody who previously didn't understand why privacy is so important to individuals, making them claim, "Oh, I have nothing to hide." - certainly is probably aware now how important it is to them after the Sony Dump. And, while not defending WikiLeaks (much), can we at least agree that there is a difference between dumping people's personal emails/photos (which is 100% unjustifiable) and exposing corporate machinations of Sony?
- pjc50 12y ago
  Corporate != private. Companies are subject to a large number of restrictions in a tradeoff for limited liability. People acting on behalf of the company are substantially shielded from personal liability for their actions - but the business must be subject to scrutiny. Private individuals don't have to file audited accounts, for one thing, just a tax return.
  - gtirloni 12y ago
    Perhaps part of the reason that people are so OK with mass publication of private emails not specifically tied to anything is because they have lost faith in the laws and the institutions tasked with maintaining them. That I can relate to, but I don't think it justifies what WikiLeaks is doing.
- fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
  >Could you please turn your emails public so we can review them in case you might be doing something wrong? No? Thought so. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem making my work emails public.
  - rhino369 12y ago
    You should write them with that in mind, not because someone might steal them, but because they mind end up in part of a lawsuit. "Electronic discovery" is a huge process where lawyers will read all the email in a company that hit certain search terms. It's a fucking boring job, but more than a guys are messaging their mistresses from their work account.
res0nat0r 12y ago
What exactly are in these emails that are in the greater public interest? It isn't them lobbying for their own interests, as everyone here would be doing the same scraping money together for their small startups. The whole reason these docs were leaked in the first place was because someone didn't like the premise of a movie. Not because Sony was allowing chemical spills to poison people in a small town and are covering it up. There is no "greater interest" here other than people wanting to stick it to Sony because they won't let you download their movies for $1 the day they hit the theater.

gtirloni 12y ago

anyone who is an employee of a corporation, knows that every email they write/send on a corporate mail server, absolutely can come into public purview Is this coming from the HN crowd that registers domains with contact information anonymity enabled, loves to incorporate in Delaware and complains about privacy and NSA spy programs? Could you please turn your emails public so we can review them in case you might be doing something wrong? No? Thought so. It's for the courts to decide if Sony is doing something wrong. Wikileaks is a nice idea and I've supported them for a while, but they can't help but shoot themselves in the foot with dubious behavior like this.

ghshephard 12y ago
One key difference, of course, is that the NSA is spying on everyone, and has all the powers of a government agency, and its many billions of dollars. What both of them are doing is distasteful. To some degree, though, I compare this behavior to that guy who walks up to people with a video camera, a couple feet away, and just points it at them. They become very uncomfortable, and upset, and yell at him. What he's doing with this "performance art" - as annoying as it is, is making people realize that they are already under constant surveillance. Anybody who previously didn't understand why privacy is so important to individuals, making them claim, "Oh, I have nothing to hide." - certainly is probably aware now how important it is to them after the Sony Dump. And, while not defending WikiLeaks (much), can we at least agree that there is a difference between dumping people's personal emails/photos (which is 100% unjustifiable) and exposing corporate machinations of Sony?
pjc50 12y ago
Corporate != private. Companies are subject to a large number of restrictions in a tradeoff for limited liability. People acting on behalf of the company are substantially shielded from personal liability for their actions - but the business must be subject to scrutiny. Private individuals don't have to file audited accounts, for one thing, just a tax return.
- gtirloni 12y ago
  Perhaps part of the reason that people are so OK with mass publication of private emails not specifically tied to anything is because they have lost faith in the laws and the institutions tasked with maintaining them. That I can relate to, but I don't think it justifies what WikiLeaks is doing.
fnordfnordfnord 12y ago
>Could you please turn your emails public so we can review them in case you might be doing something wrong? No? Thought so. Personally, I wouldn't have a problem making my work emails public.
- rhino369 12y ago
  You should write them with that in mind, not because someone might steal them, but because they mind end up in part of a lawsuit. "Electronic discovery" is a huge process where lawyers will read all the email in a company that hit certain search terms. It's a fucking boring job, but more than a guys are messaging their mistresses from their work account.

res0nat0r 12y ago

What exactly are in these emails that are in the greater public interest? It isn't them lobbying for their own interests, as everyone here would be doing the same scraping money together for their small startups. The whole reason these docs were leaked in the first place was because someone didn't like the premise of a movie. Not because Sony was allowing chemical spills to poison people in a small town and are covering it up. There is no "greater interest" here other than people wanting to stick it to Sony because they won't let you download their movies for $1 the day they hit the theater.