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If the information is STOLEN any news media outlet airing it SHOULD be held accountable. It is a completely different story if it is GIVEN to the media from a person who has LEGAL access to the information and LEGALLY is allowed to have it.
The media is purposely trying to muddy this up. Wikileaks is IN POSSESSION of STOLEN Classified US Federal property and they know it. End of story.
The Pentagon Papers were classified at the time,giving them to someone else would have been a crime.
Would you have been in favor of charging Ellsberg?
What about Abu Ghraib,better it have stayed classified rather than see the light of day?
I wouldn't call this intellectual property. It is CLASSIFIED GOVERNMENT PROPERTY! Big, big difference there. Intellectual property is like a song or movie.
Sour didnt claim it was "real" property, they said it was property.. this includes personal property, which is still illegal to steal..
Everything that is the subject of ownership that does not come under the denomination of real property; any right or interest that an individual has in movable things.
Personal property can be divided into two major categories: (1) corporeal personal property, including such items as animals, merchandise, and jewelry; and (2) incorporeal personal property, comprised of such rights as stocks, bonds, Patents, and copyrights.
The Pentagon Papers were classified at the time,giving them to someone else would have been a crime.
Would you have been in favor of charging Ellsberg?
What about Abu Ghraib,better it have stayed classified rather than see the light of day?
The subject isnt if its better or worse, its if its illegal.
For example, if we were to go out and start killing drug dealers and child pedophiles, some would argue society becomes better. That doesnt mean its not illegal.
The Pentagon Papers were classified at the time,giving them to someone else would have been a crime.
Would you have been in favor of charging Ellsberg?
What about Abu Ghraib,better it have stayed classified rather than see the light of day?
I'm not saying that this stuff shouldn't be available to the public, but NOT if it is stolen. Where does the rule of law fit into this? What if I stole some of your documents and aired them. Would you call the police and report me for stealing your docs? This is what I mean. If they set a precedence that it is OK to steal documents and put them on the web, then what is going to stop me from doing it to you or anyone else and get away with it? Where does it stop? It's illegal to have an illegal copy of an MP3 but not classified docs? That makes as much sense as BO becoming POTUS.
The subject isnt if its better or worse, its if its illegal.
For example, if we were to go out and start killing drug dealers and child pedophiles, some would argue society becomes better. That doesnt mean its not illegal.
It is illegal for the individual releasing the classified material,it is not illegal to the person reading it or broadcasting it.
What if the fedgov. started illegally acquiring secret on private individuals in order to coerce them into doing what it wanted,should such information be made known to the people of the USA?
Because embarassing the USA by showing it in a poor light is not in the nation's interest,or so would go the wisdom of the fedgov.
To keep wearing the white hat,the USA can't be seen to do bad things.
So best we make everything that makes the USA look bad illegal.
I think you need to go brush up on LAW 101. You can not have stolen property in your possession. Nobody is making that a new law, that has been the law for as long as I can remember.
Put aside the actual information contained in the docs, HOW wikileaks came into possession of them is illegal.
I'm not saying that this stuff shouldn't be available to the public, but NOT if it is stolen. Where does the rule of law fit into this? What if I stole some of your documents and aired them. Would you call the police and report me for stealing your docs? This is what I mean. If they set a precedence that it is OK to steal documents and put them on the web, then what is going to stop me from doing it to you or anyone else and get away with it? Where does it stop? It's illegal to have an illegal copy of an MP3 but not classified docs? That makes as much sense as BO becoming POTUS.
Wikileaks stole nothing,it was given the documents.The individual who did so is being prosecuted.
Unless you think the media should be prosecuted for broadcasting anything it is not given permission to by the fedgov. you are on a slippery slope.
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