EasyDNS wrote:
If this becomes law, it's a short stretch from SOPA to NODA (No Online Dissent Anywhere) and if you think I'm a nutcase for saying so, I'd like to remind everybody what happened just over a year ago, when US politicians were tripping over themselves to shut down wikileaks (a royal fiasco in which this company was embroiled) and to this day, they have not been charged with a crime anywhere.

I totally agree with this sentiment and I still think that the Wikileaks fiasco a year ago was both totally inappropriate and a sign of what is to come with SOPA, its worth pointing out that Wikileaks is actually guilty.

In another chat, dated March 8, 2010, Manning asked “Nathaniel Frank,” believed to be Assange, about help in cracking the main password on his classified SIPRnet computer so that he could log on to it anonymously. He asked “Frank” if he had experience cracking IM NT hashes (presumably it’s a mistype and he meant NTLM for the Microsoft NT LAN Manager). “Frank” replied yes, that they had “rainbow tables” for doing that. Manning then sent him what looked like a hash.

Cracking an NTLM hash for somebody who you know intends to gain unauthorized access to a computer system is not "journalism" - its a crime. Someone at Wikileaks, possibly Assange, offered to do this for Manning. Whatever happens in court, it seems clear that Wikileaks was not just a drop box for information.

Now, that doesn't mean its OK for the US Government to use all kinds of extralegal measures to go after them by hook or by crook, but there is no reason that anyone should withhold judgement about them anymore.

Wikileaks is guilty